Brand vs non-brand: why mixing them hides what your Google Ads really cost
Searches for your business name convert far better than anything else. Mixed into your other campaigns, they make new-customer advertising look cheaper than it is.
Some of the people clicking your Google Ads already know who you are. They've used you before, seen your van, or been referred by a neighbour, and they search your business name to find your number. Those are brand searches. Everyone else, searching "AC repair near me" or "emergency plumber", is non-brand: people choosing between you and your competitors.
The two behave completely differently, and keeping them apart is one of the simplest ways to see what your advertising really costs.
Brand searches look amazing
Brand searches convert at very high rates and cost little per click, because the person has already decided. A brand campaign with a cost per lead a fraction of everything else is normal.
That's useful to know, but it's not evidence that your advertising is winning new customers. Many of those people would have found you anyway.
Mixed in, they hide the real cost
If brand searches run inside your general campaigns, they pull the average cost per lead down. A campaign that looks like it gets leads at $60 might really be getting brand leads at $15 and new-customer leads at $120. You can't make good decisions about the $120 part if you can't see it.
The same mixing makes ordinary keywords look like failures by comparison. If the account's "normal" conversion rate includes brand traffic, every generic keyword seems to underperform.
How to separate them
- Create a brand campaign containing only keywords with your business name.
- Add your business name as a negative keyword (phrase match) in your other Search campaigns, so brand searches go to the brand campaign instead.
- Make sure the brand campaign has enough budget. If it runs out, those searches will simply go unanswered, and a competitor bidding on your name gets them.
One caution: don't add the negative to a campaign where a keyword deliberately contains your name.
Protect the brand campaign
Brand clicks often look weak in the numbers because people call your number directly from the search results or come back later. Resist the urge to cut them:
- Don't pause brand keywords for "no conversions".
- Don't switch off hours, devices or places in the brand campaign to save money.
- Do still block junk (people looking for jobs at your company, for instance).
If you stop showing for your own name, competitors who bid on it will happily take those customers.
Judge each side on its own
Once they're separate, give each its own expectations. Brand should be cheap and steady. Non-brand is where the real decisions are: which services, places and hours bring new customers at a cost that makes money.
PPC Master recognises brand campaigns by name and by the keywords they bid on, keeps brand traffic out of the baselines it uses to judge everything else, never suggests cutting a brand campaign, and suggests sending stray brand searches to the brand campaign when one is ready to take them. The free audit shows how your account is split.