When choosing keywords for your new search campaign in Google Ads you may wonder if you should use your brand, company, or business name as a keyword for targeting.
This may be straight forward if you are running a brand awareness campaign; of course, you want your ad to show if someone searches your business’s name on Google. However, what if you could have got that click without having to pay for your brand’s keyword? What if you’re not running a brand awareness campaign but still want people to find your website when they search your brand name?
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
SEO is a great way to get your website on the first page on Google search results for searches that are relevant to your brand or business. SEO helps increase organic traffic to your website, this means you don’t pay every time someone clicks on the search result for your website.
With great SEO efforts you may never need to use your brand or business name as a keyword for Google search ads.
Brand Awareness Campaigns
If you don’t have a dedicated SEO specialist or the budget to outsource SEO services; running brand awareness campaigns on Google Ads may be a good alternative. These campaigns will drive as much traffic to your website as possible within the budget or bidding limits you set.
The only downside to this is you must pay for every click to your website through your ad; and why should you pay for a name that already belongs to you or is most relevant to your business.
Other Campaign Types
Your campaign may be highly targeted or have a very specific focus, like a single product or service that your brand or business offers. Then it may be better to not use your brand or business name as it may affect your ad relevance and quality score. Or you may already have a brand awareness campaign running, if so, you should avoid using the same keywords across different campaigns.
Exceptions
While the above may be true for most brands or businesses there are some exceptions.
If your product or service is branded to your business, for example car brands or branded clothing. If you are trying to sell a branded shirt it may be better to include your brand name in your keywords rather than using generic keywords. However, if your brand or business name is a commonly used term or name it may be difficult to get relevant traffic to your site using your brand or business name in your keywords.
To sum up whether you should use your brand or business name as a keyword depends on your campaign goal or existing efforts that drive traffic to your site. If you are using SEO tools or services, your website should appear organically in search results for search terms relating to your brand or business name. If you do not use SEO tools or services and want to run a brand awareness campaign using your brand or business name as a keyword may be a good idea. If you are trying to drive a particular product or service, your brand name may affect your ad relevance and quality score if it is not relevant to the product or service.
