Competitors rank above you for your own brand name
If competitors bid on your brand name, you lose clicks to them. Run your own branded ads to defend your top position.
When to use
Competitors are bidding on your brand name or you want to dominate your branded search results.
Hypothesis template
If we run branded search ads for [our brand name], we'll capture [target]% of branded searches and prevent competitors from stealing clicks.
Method
The problem: Someone searches for your product by name and sees a competitor's ad above your organic result.
How to do it:
- Search your brand name in Google - do competitors appear?
- Run Google Ads for your brand name (usually very cheap: $0.10-0.50 per click)
- Your ad appears above everything, including competitor ads
- Include sitelinks to key pages: Pricing, Features, Login
- Budget: $50-100/month is usually enough for brand defense
- Track: branded click-through rate, competitor ad frequency
Key insight: Branded ads are the cheapest ads you'll ever run because you have the highest quality score. $50/month to protect your brand is insurance, not marketing.
Success metrics
- •Branded search click-through rate
- •Cost per branded click
- •Competitor ad displacement
- •Branded search conversion rate
Prerequisites
- A Google Ads account
- $50-100/month budget
- Your brand name has some search volume
Common pitfalls
- •Spending too much (branded ads should be very cheap)
- •Not including sitelinks
- •Bidding on competitor names aggressively (focus on defense)
- •Not monitoring competitor brand bidding
Source: Common SaaS pattern. Branded search ads cost $0.10-0.50 per click and protect against competitor poaching.
Suggested ICE scores
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