Quick answer: Brand bidding is the practice of running paid search ads on your own brand name, and it also describes competitors bidding on your brand name to intercept your traffic. Bidding on your own brand is usually cheap, defends your top-of-page position, and protects your most valuable commercial traffic. Allowing competitors to outbid you on your brand name often means losing customers who were specifically searching for you.
What Is Brand Bidding?
Brand bidding refers to bidding on branded keywords, typically your own business name or specific product names. It also refers to the practice of competitors bidding on your brand name to intercept users searching for you.
Should You Bid on Your Own Brand?
Yes, in most cases. Here is why:
- Protect your SERP space: If you are not bidding on your brand, a competitor might be, and their ad could appear above your organic result
- Cheap CPCs: Brand keywords have extremely high Quality Scores, your own content is maximally relevant to your own name. CPCs are typically very low.
- Capture bottom-of-funnel intent: Someone searching your name is likely close to converting
When Brand Bidding Might Not Be Necessary
If your brand occupies position 1 organically for all branded searches and no competitors are bidding on your name, the incremental value of brand PPC is lower. Worth monitoring regularly, especially in competitive sectors.
Competitors Bidding on Your Brand
You cannot stop competitors bidding on your brand name. Google’s policy allows it, though they cannot use your brand name in their ad copy. The best defence is to have your own strong brand campaign with high Quality Score making it expensive for competitors to compete.
Keeping Brand Separate
Always run brand keywords in their own separate campaign. This keeps budget, CPCs, and performance data clean and separate from your non-brand campaigns. Brand campaign management is included in our PPC service.
Why Bid on Your Own Brand?
Most businesses that ignore brand bidding eventually regret it. The economics are nearly always in your favour:
- Cost per click is very low. Quality Score on your own brand terms is almost always 9 or 10 because the ad, landing page, and search query align perfectly. CPCs of a few pence are common.
- Conversion rates are very high. Someone searching your brand name has high purchase intent. They already know who you are.
- It protects your real estate. Without a brand ad, the top of your branded SERP can be occupied by competitor ads, review aggregators, or directory sites that are bidding on you.
- You control the message. Your organic listing shows your homepage. Your brand ad can point to a specific offer, landing page, or seasonal campaign.
What About Competitors Bidding on Your Brand?
Competitors bidding on your brand name is legal in most countries, including the UK. It is annoying, but it is allowed under Google’s policies as long as the competitor does not use your trademark in their ad copy.
The two practical defences:
- Run your own brand ad. A brand ad with a high Quality Score will almost always beat a competitor’s ad on the same brand term, and at a lower cost per click.
- Trademark protection through Google. If you own a registered trademark, you can submit a complaint to Google Ads to stop competitors using your brand name in their ad copy. They can still bid on the keyword, but they cannot mention your brand in the ad text.
When You Should Not Bid on Your Brand
There is one scenario where brand bidding is not worth it: when your organic ranking is dominant, no competitors are bidding on your brand, and you have a small or zero PPC budget. In that case, the budget is better spent on non-brand acquisition.
That said, the moment a competitor starts bidding on you, brand defence ads should go live the same day.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is bidding on competitor brand names illegal?
In the UK and most other countries, bidding on a competitor’s brand name as a keyword is legal. What is not allowed is using their registered trademark inside your ad copy. Google’s trademark policy is the line between competitive bidding and trademark infringement.
How much does brand bidding cost in Google Ads?
Cost per click on your own brand terms is almost always very low, often a few pence. Quality Score is high because there is perfect relevance between query and landing page. The exact cost depends on whether competitors are also bidding on your brand.
Should small businesses bother with brand bidding?
Yes, in almost every case. Brand searches are your warmest traffic, brand CPCs are cheap, and conversion rates are excellent. The only exception is if no competitors bid on your brand and you have very limited budget that needs to go toward acquiring new customers.
How do I stop competitors from bidding on my brand?
You cannot stop them from bidding on the keyword itself, but if your brand is a registered trademark, you can submit a Google Ads trademark complaint to stop them using your brand name in their ad text. Combined with running your own brand defence ad, this neutralises most competitor brand bidding.
Take this further
Brand defence is a small lift with a big payoff for businesses that take Google Ads seriously. We can audit your branded search and set up the right defensive structure.
Ready to apply this to your own site? Book a free discovery call, or explore our PPC packages.