As the world of digital marketing continues to evolve, one question remains consistently relevant for PPC (Pay-Per-Click) marketers: Should we be bidding on our brand keywords in Google Ads? In 2025, the digital advertising landscape is more competitive than ever, with new platforms, changing user behaviors, and advanced advertising tools such as Performance Max (PMax) campaigns. It’s essential to understand how brand bidding fits into your overall Google Ads strategy.
In this comprehensive guide, we will explore the key considerations for brand bidding, dive into the pros and cons of bidding on your brand terms, and examine how Google’s algorithms and advertising innovations have influenced this practice. By the end of this post, you will have a clear understanding of whether brand bidding is right for your business, and how to implement it strategically in 2025.
What Is Brand Bidding in Google Ads?
Brand bidding is the practice of bidding on keywords directly associated with your business, product, or service. The most common keywords include your brand name, but this can also extend to variations that include:
- Brand Name + Product (e.g., “Nike Running Shoes”)
- Brand Name + Location (e.g., “Starbucks near me”)
- Brand Name + Service (e.g., “Apple customer support”)
- Brand Name + Queries (e.g., “Nike customer service number”)
In some cases, the brand name might not be used directly, but product-specific terms can still be considered brand keywords. For example, “iPhone” or “MacBook” are brand terms associated with Apple, though they don’t explicitly mention the company name.
For many businesses, bidding on their brand keywords seems like a straightforward way to maintain visibility, but there are multiple factors to consider before jumping into this strategy.
The Controversy Behind Brand Bidding
Brand bidding has long been a subject of debate. On the one hand, many marketers question why they should pay for clicks on keywords that they believe they can earn organically, especially for branded terms. After all, if your website ranks #1 for your company name or product, why pay for an ad that could be perceived as redundant?
The answer is nuanced, as the digital advertising ecosystem has changed significantly over the past two decades. When Google Ads was launched in 2000, paid search was still in its infancy. Today, the search results page (SERP) is much more crowded, and simply ranking organically doesn’t guarantee a dominant presence. With increasing competition from competitors, resellers, and other third-party advertisers, bidding on your brand keywords has become an essential tactic to maintain visibility.
This dilemma is further complicated by the introduction of new advertising technologies, such as Performance Max (PMax) campaigns, which serve ads across multiple Google networks and may include branded queries without your direct involvement. Understanding the role of brand bidding in today’s environment requires an understanding of your business goals, competitors, and the current SERP landscape.
The Benefits of Brand Bidding in Google Ads
1. Increased Brand Visibility and Authority
Brand bidding enhances your visibility on the SERP, especially when paired with strong organic rankings. Consider this scenario: your company ranks #1 for your branded term, your Knowledge Panel is displayed, and you have organic sitelinks showing other important sections of your site. When combined with a paid ad, you dominate the SERP real estate and increase the likelihood that users will click through to your site.
Moreover, serving a branded ad allows you to have more control over the narrative. You can craft compelling messages that match your brand’s tone and showcase new products, promotions, or special offers, making your listing more attractive than simply relying on organic search results alone.
2. Protecting Your Brand from Competitors
Brand protection is one of the most common reasons businesses choose to engage in brand bidding. If competitors are bidding on your brand terms, they can potentially steal valuable traffic that would otherwise go to your website. Even though Google restricts competitors from using your brand name in their ad copy, they are still allowed to bid on keywords related to your brand.
For example, in highly competitive industries such as fashion or consumer electronics, where numerous retailers may compete for the same keywords, bidding on your brand terms ensures that you remain in control of the search results. Not only does this allow you to capture traffic that could have gone to a competitor, but it also protects your intellectual property and online reputation.
3. Customizable Messaging for Your Brand
Unlike organic listings, where Google may rewrite your title tags and meta descriptions, paid ads give you complete control over the messaging. This is invaluable in scenarios where your organic listings may not be perfectly aligned with your objectives. With brand bidding, you can create tailored ad copy, promotions, or even announcements that directly meet your audience’s search intent.
For example, if you’re running a holiday sale, you can use your branded ad to showcase limited-time discounts, a new product release, or updates on your services, all of which may not be conveyed in the organic search listing. Additionally, paid ads let you create sitelinks, which help guide users to specific landing pages, such as product categories or customer service.
4. Cost-Effective Campaigns
Brand keyword clicks generally cost less than non-branded clicks because there’s less competition. When you bid on your brand name, you typically experience a higher Quality Score due to your brand’s strong relevance and user intent. For smaller businesses with limited marketing budgets, brand bidding is an affordable way to increase site traffic without the need for highly competitive, generic keywords.
A major benefit of brand bidding is that it can be a low-cost entry point for companies that want to dip their toes into the world of paid search but don’t have the budget to compete with larger advertisers on generic terms. While large companies like Nike or Apple face high brand term costs due to high competition from affiliates and resellers, a local business may find bidding on their brand name to be very cost-effective.
The Drawbacks of Brand Bidding in Google Ads
1. Potential Impact on Organic Traffic
One of the biggest concerns with brand bidding is that it may cannibalize organic traffic. If your paid ad appears above your organic listing, some searchers might click on the ad instead of your organic result. This decreases the organic engagement that would have otherwise occurred.
This phenomenon is called “paid search cannibalization”, and it’s important to analyze through incrementality testing. In these tests, brands pause their paid brand ads to observe the effect on overall performance. Marketers need to weigh the value of the additional paid clicks against the potential lost organic traffic.
2. Budgeting Efficiency
While brand bidding is often cost-effective, it can also be viewed as inefficient for businesses with a strong organic presence. If a significant portion of the traffic generated by your brand terms would naturally come through organic search, spending money on those clicks can seem unnecessary.
Brands with large amounts of search demand may find it more economical to reallocate their budget to other areas, such as non-branded keyword acquisition or new customer outreach. Cost-benefit analysis is essential to ensure that your marketing spend is being used as efficiently as possible.
3. Internal Traffic Segmentation Issues
A frequent mistake with brand bidding is not properly segmenting traffic between new and returning customers. For example, if your brand traffic is a mix of both new customers and existing ones (such as people looking to buy or contact customer service), the ad spend may not be optimized for new customer acquisition. Running ads for existing customers or users who are simply revisiting the site may waste valuable resources.
To avoid inefficiencies, you should ensure that your brand ads target specific audiences based on their stage in the customer journey, whether they’re new visitors or repeat customers.
Advanced Considerations for Brand Bidding
1. Impact of Performance Max (PMax) Campaigns
Google’s Performance Max campaigns are fully automated and may include brand-related keywords, potentially leading to overlap with your existing brand campaigns. PMax campaigns serve ads across multiple Google networks, including search, YouTube, and Gmail, and are designed to increase conversions. If you’re running both PMax and separate brand search campaigns, it’s essential to monitor the overlap to ensure that you’re not overbidding on brand-related queries.
2. Broad Match and Negative Keywords
Using Broad Match in Google Ads allows your ads to show for searches related to the meaning of your keywords. However, this may result in competitors bidding on terms related to your brand, even if they don’t directly mention your company name. Using negative keywords is crucial to ensure your ads are served only for relevant queries.
Conclusion: Should You Bid on Your Brand Keywords in 2025?
Ultimately, the decision to bid on brand keywords should be based on a comprehensive understanding of your unique business situation. Factors such as market competition, organic search performance, customer behavior, and budget will all influence your decision.
For some brands, brand bidding is a critical part of maintaining visibility, protecting their reputation, and improving overall digital performance. For others, it may be an unnecessary expense when organic rankings are strong. Incrementality testing is a valuable tool in determining the true impact of brand ads.
In the fast-changing world of digital marketing, staying flexible and continually optimizing your strategy will ensure that you remain ahead of the competition.