Defending your brand terms in paid search
Defending your brand in paid search is less about reacting and more about making your own name expensive and unrewarding for anyone else to target: holding the top slot efficiently, keeping your own campaigns from competing with each other, and knowing the moment a new advertiser appears.
These guides cover whether to bid on your own brand at all, how to structure a defence, and how to monitor your terms continuously.
Guides in this category
4 guidesShould you bid on your own brand name?
Bidding on your own brand is usually worth it when competitors crowd your branded searches — and often wasteful when you already own an uncontested top spot. How to decide.
A brand-defense strategy for Google Ads
A repeatable playbook for defending your brand terms in paid search: own the top slot, protect Quality Score, separate brand from generic, and monitor for intruders.
Negative keywords and brand protection: what they can and can’t do
Negative keywords stop your own ads from competing with each other — they can’t stop a competitor bidding on your brand. How to use them well, and what they don’t solve.
How to monitor your brand terms in paid search
Auction Insights, manual checks, and automated monitoring — how to know who’s appearing on your brand terms across every market and device, without checking by hand.