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Topic · Performance marketing
Cheapest, highest-intent clicks in the entire account.
Definition
Branded search defense is the practice of bidding on your own brand-name queries in Google Ads to capture branded clicks competitors might otherwise win. Branded keywords have the lowest CPCs and highest conversion rates of any campaign type. Skipping branded defense cedes brand-intent traffic to competitors who bid on your name.
Services that operate this topic
Industries that care about this
Vertical
B2B SaaS
B2B SaaS in 2026 buys through ChatGPT and Perplexity before it ever sees Google. If your brand isn't cited in AI answers, demos don't book.
Vertical
Fintech
Fintech in 2026 lives or dies on regulator-aware content and AI-citation share for regulated queries. DIFC, ADGM, MAS, SAMA — each has rules that shape what content you can publish.
Vertical
DTC e-commerce
DTC in 2026 wins on creative volume, not creative quality. AI pipelines that produce 40-80 vertical-video variants per week beat brands that produce 8.
FAQ
Yes, almost always. Competitors bid on your brand. Without paid defense, they take roughly 12-20% of branded clicks in our cohort.
0.30-1.50 USD for B2B SaaS, 0.10-0.80 USD for DTC. Compares to 5-30 USD for non-branded category keywords.
Yes for the brand name itself. Phrase match for brand-plus-modifier (e.g., 'brand pricing', 'brand alternatives') captures intent-shifted variants.
Google does not block bidding on competitor brand names in trademark terms. Trademark complaints can remove ad copy but not bidding itself.
Selectively. Works when the competitor has a poor product fit and your alternative is genuinely better. Burns money when competitor users are not in your ICP.
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