Field guides Paid search · No. 01

Brand campaigns in Google Ads

A build sheet for defending your own name, from an empty account to a live campaign.

By Jesse Mostipak · Last checked November 2026

Time
About 45 minutes
Level
Beginner
Steps
7
Cost to follow
Free. Always.

The short answer

A brand campaign is a search campaign that bids only on your own name. It stops competitors and resellers from intercepting people who already know you, costs very little per click, and is usually the easiest return you’ll get from paid search.

Before you start

  • A Google Ads account with admin access
  • Conversion tracking that already works, through the Google tag or imported from GA4
  • A list of how people actually type your name: misspellings, abbreviations, your name plus your product
  • The names of your other campaigns, so you can keep brand searches out of them in step 6

  1. Step 1 of 7

    Create a Search campaign

    Start a new campaign, pick the conversion goal you actually care about, and choose Search. Keep this campaign for brand terms only, so its numbers stay clean and easy to read.

    Settings

    Campaign type
    Search
    Goal
    Your primary conversion (purchase, booking, signup)
    Networks
    Uncheck the Display Network. Consider unchecking Search Partners too.
    Name
    Brand | Search | Exact

    Pro tip

    Name campaigns so they sort and filter well. Future you, staring at a report at 11pm, will be grateful.

  2. Step 2 of 7

    Set locations and languages

    Target the places your customers actually are. For brand campaigns you usually want to show to anyone searching your name in those places, so keep the audience broad and the geography honest.

    Settings

    Locations
    Where your customers live or travel from
    Location option
    Presence: people in or regularly in your locations
    Languages
    The languages your customers search in

  3. Step 3 of 7

    Choose your bidding

    Brand searches are cheap and convert well, so the job is to show up first, every time. Target impression share does exactly that.

    Settings

    Strategy
    Target impression share
    Where
    Absolute top of results page
    Target
    90–95%
    Max CPC limit
    Always set one

    Watch out

    Without a max CPC limit, a competitor bidding on your name can quietly turn your cheapest clicks into your most expensive ones.

  4. Step 4 of 7

    Build the keyword list

    Use the list from “Before you start.” Group keywords by theme so each ad can match what the person typed.

    Settings

    Match types
    Exact and phrase
    Include
    Your name, common misspellings, name plus product
    Ad groups
    One per theme, like “brand,” “brand + pricing”

    Pro tip

    Check the search terms report weekly for the first month. You’ll find misspellings you never would have guessed.

  5. Step 5 of 7

    Write ads only you can write

    You know things a reseller doesn’t: what’s new, what’s true right now, what makes you worth booking direct. Put that in the ad.

    Settings

    Headline 1
    Your brand name, pinned
    Other headlines
    What’s current: a reopening, a launch, a direct-booking perk
    Assets
    Sitelinks and callouts to your most-visited pages

    Pro tip

    If you own a registered trademark, you can file a complaint with Google to restrict others from using it in their ad text. It won’t stop them bidding on your name, but it stops them borrowing it.

  6. Step 6 of 7

    Keep your brand out of everything else

    If your other campaigns can also match brand searches, they’ll compete with your brand campaign and take credit for sales that were already yours.

    Settings

    Search campaigns
    Add your brand terms as negative keywords
    Performance Max
    Add brand exclusions
    Why
    Clean reporting, and you stop paying twice for the same searcher

  7. Step 7 of 7

    Measure it honestly

    Brand campaigns always look amazing, because these people were already looking for you. The honest question is how many of them you’d have lost to someone else’s ad. Check who else shows up on your name before you call it a win.

    Settings

    Report
    Auction insights: who else is bidding on your name
    Tracking
    Cross-domain tracking if checkout lives on another site
    Review
    Monthly: impression share, CPC, conversions

    Watch out

    If your checkout or booking engine is on a different domain, sales get credited to “direct” unless cross-domain tracking is set up. That’s how good campaigns get cut.

Where I used this

Case studyA $2K brand-defense campaign that returned 54X54XRead it →

Terms in this guide

Last checked November 2026. Google Ads changes its interface often, so if a menu has moved, tell me and I’ll update this.