Why over-bidding on your brand could be hurting your bottom line

Marketers have long relied on paid search ads to protect their brand presence in search results.

But this strategy might cost more than it’s worth – especially when organic listings can do the job just as well.

The evolution of brand search strategy

The PPC industry’s approach to brand search investment has a notable history.

In 2011, Google published an influential incrementality study claiming that 89% of paid search ad clicks were not replaced by organic clicks when ads were paused.

This research became the foundation of Google’s advocacy for brand term investment, shaping marketing strategies for over a decade.

However, the study had significant limitations. It:

• Focused solely on auctions with multiple competitors, a scenario not reflective of many brand searches. 
• Overlooked situations where brand terms trigger ads without competitor presence, where paid clicks likely replace organic clicks, resulting in unnecessary ad spend.

Subsequent research and real-world experience have challenged these findings, particularly in non-competitive contexts. 

While Google’s research encouraged aggressive brand bidding, leading marketers now adopt a more selective approach based on actual competitive presence.

Understanding user behavior in brand search

The foundation of this new approach is understanding how users interact with search results for specific brands. 

When users search with branded terms, especially longer-tail queries for specific products or services, they typically have high intent and brand awareness. 

In these instances, organic results often perform well, especially when the query aligns closely with the user’s intent.

For example, if someone searches for “Acme Supply Company latex gloves,” they are likely familiar with the product and ready to purchase.

Even if competitors offer lower prices, users generally stick with their original brand choice.

This behavior indicates that heavy brand bidding on such specific queries may be unnecessary.

The reality of brand conquesting

One of the most persistent arguments for heavy brand bidding is the fear of competitor conquesting.

“If we don’t bid on our brand terms, competitors will capture our traffic,” I’ve heard this said in countless strategy meetings.

However, years of analyzing conquesting campaign performance across industries reveal a different story.

Performance metrics from competitor conquesting campaigns consistently show underwhelming returns.

Our agency’s experience managing these campaigns highlights a clear pattern: they typically deliver poor ROAS compared to other paid search strategies.

While they may yield some results, they often fall short of other approaches. Data indicates that users searching for specific brands are highly resistant to competitor offers.

This raises an important question: if our carefully crafted conquesting campaigns struggle to deliver significant returns, why worry about competitors targeting our brand terms?

The evidence suggests that competitors likely experience similar challenges.

This insight should reshape our approach to defensive brand bidding.

Rather than maintaining high brand spend out of competitive fear, we can adopt a more measured strategy based on actual performance data.

Our experience shows that competitor conquesting efforts rarely have the devastating impact many advertisers fear.

Dig deeper: When to use branded and competitor keywords in PPC

The rise of intelligent brand bidding solutions

The market is responding to the need for more strategic brand bidding with innovative solutions.

Various technologies now allow for monitoring competitive presence in brand auctions and adjusting bids accordingly.

This reflects a broader industry recognition of the importance of more targeted brand bidding strategies.

These tools typically offer features like:

• Real-time competitive auction monitoring.
• Automated bid adjustments based on competitor presence.
• Detailed reporting on brand term cannibalization.

Using our agency’s proprietary tool, we’ve seen savings of up to 20% on brand spend without compromising total revenue. 

When analyzing performance holistically across both paid and organic channels, we often see aggregate revenue growth as we can reallocate funds to finding new buyers. 

The erosion of advertiser control

Recent platform changes highlight a broader trend of Google reducing advertiser control, particularly in keyword matching and brand traffic. This shift is evident in several areas.

Match type evolution

“Exact match” keywords are no longer truly exact.

Phrase match now behaves more like broad match, with Google expanding its interpretation of relevant variations. 

Query mining reveals that even tightly controlled campaigns often capture unexpected brand and competitor traffic due to these loosened match types.

Performance Max challenges

When Performance Max campaigns launched, many advertisers were unaware they could request brand term exclusions from Google representatives. 

Although the platform eventually added this capability, it came only after significant pressure from the advertising community. 

Ironically, the campaigns replaced Smart Shopping, which allowed keyword negations from the outset.

The impact on brand traffic

This reduction in control has resulted in:

• Advertisers unintentionally bidding on competitor brand terms through broad and phrase matching.
• Performance Max campaigns defaulting to include brand terms without clear visibility.
• Platform changes favoring increased brand term inclusion.
• Unwanted brand traffic slipping through despite efforts to prevent it.

These changes reflect a systematic shift toward reduced advertiser control and increased platform automation.

While automation can have benefits, it often inflates the appearance of competition and business results.

Advertisers seeing competitor ads for their brand terms may feel compelled to increase brand spending, though much of this “competition” is unintentional, driven by loose match types rather than deliberate strategies.

Dig deeper: Branded keywords: How Google Ads drives up CPCs

When brand bidding makes strategic sense

Despite the case for reducing brand spend, there are several scenarios where brand bidding remains strategically valuable:

Reputation management

When facing reputation challenges, controlling the SERP narrative through paid search can be crucial.

Paid ads allow brands to present messages prominently and direct users to appropriate landing pages.

Time-sensitive promotions

Flash sales, limited-time offers, and special promotions often benefit from the immediate visibility paid search provides.

While organic search is powerful, it might not be agile enough for rapidly changing promotional content.

Dig deeper: 3 tips for using promotions and discounts in paid search

Product launches

Brand bidding can benefit new product launches, especially when you want to direct users to specific landing pages that might not yet rank organically for brand terms.

Competitive pressure

In highly competitive markets, especially during peak seasons or when competitors are actively conquesting, strategic brand bidding can help maintain SERP dominance.

Getting real about holistic search

The core truth is that brand bidding can’t be evaluated in isolation. You must consider the full picture – paid, organic, and everything in between.

Too often, clients pour money into brand ads while their organic listings could have captured those clicks for free.

Performance Max campaigns further complicate this by obscuring brand performance data in their metrics.

Dig deeper: How to maximize PPC and SEO data with co-optimization audits

Moving forward smarter

The key takeaway is to question default settings.

Test everything.

When our team runs geographic split tests, we often find that regions without brand ads perform just as well, with clicks shifting to organic instead.

Before renewing your brand campaign budget, consider:

• How strong is your organic presence?
• Are competitors genuinely trying to conquest your terms, or is it just Google’s broad matching at play?
• Could those brand dollars be better spent targeting new customers?

The goal isn’t to eliminate brand bidding but to adopt a smarter, more nuanced approach. 

Your CFO will appreciate the savings from avoiding unnecessary spend.