Brand bidding is one of those paid media tactics that divides opinion. For some, it’s a no-brainer-an essential part of a robust search strategy. For others, it feels like wasted spend on traffic they’d get organically anyway. The truth, as ever, lies somewhere in between.
Context is everything. Depending on your competitive landscape, campaign objectives, and channel mix, brand bidding can be either an efficiency play or a defensive tactic-or, in many cases, both. What matters is approaching it with clarity: knowing exactly what you want from it, and setting it up to deliver against those goals.
Why Bother Bidding on Your Own Brand?
First and foremost, control. When someone searches for your brand name, they’re already partway down the funnel. You’ve done the hard work of building awareness-now it’s about owning that last step. A well-structured brand campaign allows you to shape the message, surface key offers, and steer users towards conversion.
This is especially crucial on mobile, where paid listings often take the lion’s share of above-the-fold space. Even if you’re ranking first organically, there’s no guarantee a user will scroll far enough to see it. A paid brand ad ensures you’re front and centre.
Brand campaigns also open up more granular targeting. You can tailor messaging for new users versus returning ones, support promotional activity, and even segment traffic based on behaviour or intent. It’s a level of precision that’s difficult to replicate with organic search alone.
And with tools like Google’s customer acquisition bidding now available within both Search and Performance Max, brand bidding becomes more than just a defence mechanism-it becomes a way to efficiently grow your customer base.
Will It Cannibalise Organic Traffic?
The short answer? Maybe-but not always, and not necessarily in a bad way.
While some crossover between paid and organic clicks is inevitable, studies (including Google’s own) show that brand ads tend to drive incremental clicks, particularly when competitors are bidding on your terms. Pause those ads, and many brands see a noticeable drop in overall traffic and conversions-especially if the search results page becomes a more crowded, competitive space.
The only way to know for sure is to test. We often recommend running controlled experiments: pause brand activity temporarily, monitor performance across paid and organic, and measure the impact on total visibility and conversions. This kind of data-led testing is invaluable, especially when PPC and SEO are working in tandem.
At Space & Time, our in-house SEO specialists work side by side with the paid media team to create a joined-up SEM strategy. This helps us avoid duplication, reduce unnecessary spend, and make smarter investment decisions across both channels.
How Much Budget Should Go to Brand?
Brand terms usually deliver lower CPCs than generic ones and often convert better too. That said, they shouldn’t soak up all your spend. If you’re overly reliant on brand traffic, you risk limiting your ability to attract new users further up the funnel.
The right balance depends on your objectives. For most advertisers, a sensible starting point is a modest brand campaign, scaled up or down based on actual performance. A strong PPC agency will monitor this over time, optimising based on demand, competitor activity, and return on ad spend.
Choosing the Right Bidding Strategy
The way you bid on your brand terms has a direct impact on efficiency.
Manual CPC gives you control-particularly useful if your goal is to keep costs low. Target Impression Share helps you stay visible at all times, which can be valuable for brands in highly competitive verticals. Maximise Conversions leverages Google’s automation to optimise for results, making it ideal for performance-focused accounts.
There are also options like Target ROAS or Maximise Clicks, both of which can work well with the right guardrails in place. The key is to test, learn, and refine. A good paid media partner will continuously adjust strategy to get the best results from your brand activity.
When Brand Bidding Becomes a Necessity
In competitive markets, brand bidding stops being optional. It becomes a line of defence. Rival brands often bid on each other’s names, which pushes up CPCs and can siphon off valuable traffic.
Some brands do enter into mutual non-compete agreements to avoid this, particularly in niche or regional markets-but it’s not always possible. With the rise of AI-led formats like Performance Max, brand terms are increasingly being caught up in broader bidding strategies. Keeping a close eye on your search terms report, applying exclusions, and setting negatives for competitor terms can help keep things in check and ensure a clear brand vs non-brand split between campaigns.
For advertisers running cross-channel campaigns across Search, Shopping and Display, this level of vigilance is essential.
So, Should You Bid on Your Own Brand?
There’s no universal answer-but there is a universal principle: test everything.
Brand bidding can be a smart, efficient way to protect your presence, shape your message, and drive performance-provided it’s being used intentionally. For some businesses, it’s a tactical layer in a wider acquisition strategy. For others, it’s a vital shield in a fiercely competitive SERP.
What matters most is how it fits into your wider digital ecosystem. And that’s where we can help.
Let’s Talk About Your Brand Strategy
If you’re joining us at the roundtable, we’d love to continue the conversation after the event with a free PPC health check. Whether you’re curious about your current brand bidding setup, or want an expert view on how to refine it, our team can offer practical guidance and insight tailored to your goals.
We’ve supported brands across sectors to use brand bidding effectively-boosting performance while keeping costs in check. Drop us a line, and let’s explore what’s possible.
