PPC Strategy: To Bid or Not to Bid on Brand Keywords?

 In our Google ads (PPC), I noticed that we've been bidding on our own brand keywords, such as "Southern Cross Security" and "Southern Cross Security Group," which has cost us $235.98 for 97 clicks. As we already rank first organically for those keywords, I recommended to our agency that we don't need to bid on them. However, after analyzing the benefits and disadvantages of using brand name bidding in our PPC strategy, I asked our agency if we should add competitor brand name keywords to the negative list in our Google ads campaigns and whether we should bid on our SCG branded keywords or create a separate Ad Group in our brand campaign.

We have 127 clicks, 490 impressions, and a cost of $349 for our SCG brand name keywords, including "Southern Cross Group Security" and "SCGroup." Our agency replied that although it's possible to add competitor and SCG branded keywords to the negative keyword lists, it may be beneficial to keep them active. They suggested creating a separate campaign to control spending on brand terms or allowing our ads to show for brand and competitor searches.

Converstaion:

Agency reply: Conversions are happening with competitor searches (in these cases, they are calls of at least 30 seconds duration).
My reply: When we checked with our call center team, there were no calls and conversions related to competitor searches. The thing is when someone searches for a brand online, they have likely already decided to buy from that company/store. Therefore, not many people will click on our ads, leading to a low click-through rate (CTR). Note that a low CTR can actually decrease our quality score.

The agency provided several reasons to keep our brand terms active, including cost efficiency and overall account health, educating the algorithm on our target market, controlling the narrative of our listing, and increasing the likelihood of our brand being shown in top placements. 

I agreed to run a brand name campaign for the following reason: Our brand name is not unique, and it is not available in our domain (business URL), which means there is more competition on Google search in Australia and globally. It is more likely for our brand to be shown in top placements over others (e.g., Southern Cross Group, Southern Cross Insurance, Southern Cross Protection, Southern Cross Industrial Group, Southern Cross Austereo, and more).

In the end, our agency created a separate Ad Group for our brand campaign and created negative keyword lists for my competitor's brand keywords that are expensive and have a low conversion rate. This approach worked well, as our quality score for our own brand was high, allowing us to pay less than our competitors to maintain our position.