This is a question as old as the business: is there any point in buying one’s own brand in Google Ads? Or should I leave that to SEO?
It almost comes down to philosophical questions:
Why pay for traffic while I am ranking in the number one position on organic results?
Will my Adwords ads on my brand keyword have an impact on my organic traffic?
Why buy my own brand terms, and give money to Google for traffic I am the only legitimate destination for?
TLDR; Yes, you should bid on your brand keyword… but you need to follow a few basic rules to make it work for you.
Now let’s go through this step by step: why should you, how to do it efficiently, how to defend from too aggressive competitors and how to replicate.
Why should I give money to Google? I am already in first position.
1. Maximize your share of voice
Bidding on branded queries helps you prevail on search engine result pages (SERPs). Like CPG brands pay to get extra shelf space at Walmart to increase their purchase intent. Owning more shares of voice on SERP will help you drive more traffic and sales.
Moreover, if you combine your PPC ads, local pages, product images, and an efficient SEO campaign then you can occupy most of the SERP.
These pages are yours to own: when someone’s looking for your brand, you don’t want to leave space to competition. You need to own the space to position yourself as the leading player.
If you want to analyze your share of voice on key terms, you can use a Google Ads analyzersuch as Seiso, and it’s free to try.
2. Control your image
Yes, organic links are free, but they are generic and you don’t have full control over how Google will display them. The benefit of sponsored links is that you can choose how to present yourself and not be limited by what helps your organic ranking.