What Is Brand Search Campaign?
Also written as brand campaign, branded search, Search Brand.
Definition
A brand search campaign is a Search campaign that only bids on your shop's own name and close spellings. For an ecommerce store, it catches the cheap clicks of people who already want you, and it stops competitors from sitting on those searches. It also keeps brand traffic out of Performance Max so you can see the true cost.
Written by Christopher Krassnig, Founder & CEO of ZenoX Media. Written by the ZenoX team from the accounts we run. Definitions are general; the numbers in examples are maths, not client results.
Brand Search Campaign, Explained
Someone typing your shop name is already looking for you. Those clicks are usually cheaper than generic product searches. If you do not run a brand campaign, two things happen. Competitors can bid on your name and take the click. Performance Max can also pick up brand searches and mix them into its ROAS, which makes Shopping look better than it is.
Build it as a Search campaign with exact and phrase match on the brand name. Do not use broad match, or you will pay for unrelated queries. Pin the brand name in headline one. Write the copy from the shop's own site, not from generic ads. Add sitelinks to real pages on the store.
The mistake is skipping brand search because those people would have come anyway. Some would. Some would have clicked a competitor's ad sitting above you. The other mistake is letting PMax keep brand terms. Add the brand name as a negative on Performance Max so each campaign keeps its own lane.
How We Use It at ZenoX
Our locked three-campaign structure always includes a brand Search campaign, next to feed-only Performance Max and Standard Shopping on the wasters. Copy is taken from the shop's own site. Every campaign lands paused. We add brand terms as PMax negatives so cheap brand clicks stay in Search, where we can see them.
Questions People Ask About Brand Search Campaign
What Is a Brand Search Campaign in Google Ads?
It is a Search campaign that only bids on your shop name and close spellings. It is not a Shopping campaign and it is not Performance Max. For a store, it defends the searches where the buyer already knows you, usually at a lower cost per click than generic product terms.
Do I Need a Brand Search Campaign If I Already Run Performance Max?
Yes, if people search your shop name. PMax can bid on those terms and hide them inside a blended ROAS. A separate brand campaign, with the brand name added as a PMax negative, keeps that traffic in its own lane. You then see what Shopping really costs without the cheap brand clicks mixed in.
Related terms
- Performance MaxPerformance Max is a Google Ads campaign type that can show your products on Shopping, Search, YouTube, Display, Discover and more from one budget.
- Negative KeywordA negative keyword is a word or phrase you tell Google never to match your ad against.
- Feed-Only Performance MaxFeed-only Performance Max is a Performance Max campaign built from your product feed, with no extra headlines or videos from you.
Go deeper
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