---
title: "Should I be bidding on my own branded keywords in Google Ads?"
description: "Why a Google Ads brand campaign bids on your own name, how Target impression share holds its place, and how to tell when a rival takes your top spot."
canonical: https://goldbeater.ai/guides/bidding-on-branded-keywords
last-updated: 2026-10-03
---

Guide

# Should I be bidding on my own branded keywords in Google Ads?

Why a Google Ads brand campaign bids on your own name, how Target impression share holds its place, and how to tell when a rival takes your top spot.

In short

- Google's keyword tips say to include your brand and product names, and its trademark policy doesn't restrict a trademark used as a keyword, so a competitor can bid on your name whether or not you do.
- Google's own 2012 study of paused search ads found that where the advertiser's page was the first unpaid result, half the ad's clicks on average were visits the unpaid result didn't replace.
- For a brand campaign Google's example is Target impression share: an automated strategy that bids to show your ad on a share of its searches, anywhere on the page, among the top ads or as the very first, up to a maximum CPC limit you set.
- To see whether it holds the first place, read Search abs. top IS week by week beside Search lost IS (budget) and Avg. CPC. A fall the budget doesn't explain is your own bid or another advertiser's, and Auction insights shows whose.
- Goldbeater reads every brand campaign's weeks every day, and raises one that showed first on fewer of its searches than in any of its eight weeks before, or paid a quarter more a click, by more than chance explains, and says where its budget is behind it.

Goldbeater checks this every 24 hours

- A brand campaign losing the top spot or paying more a click
- A keyword bid too low to reach the first page
- A keyword bid too low to show among the top ads
- [and 1 more](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/bidding-on-branded-keywords#goldbeater)

Each week Goldbeater's AI agent follows up on the findings. A free first look shows how many problems these and 159 other checks find on one of your accounts, and what they cost. No card.

[Get a free first look](https://goldbeater.ai/app?start=look) [or start the 7-day trial](https://goldbeater.ai/app?start=trial)

1. [01 Bidding on your own brand terms: what Google says](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/bidding-on-branded-keywords#own-name)
2. [02 What a branded search campaign is for](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/bidding-on-branded-keywords#brand-campaign)
3. [03 Target impression share: how it bids and what its settings mean](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/bidding-on-branded-keywords#target-impression-share)
4. [04 Absolute top impression share, top of page rate, and how they differ](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/bidding-on-branded-keywords#top-metrics)
5. [05 How to tell a brand campaign is slipping, week by week](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/bidding-on-branded-keywords#by-hand)
6. [06 What to do when the first place slips](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/bidding-on-branded-keywords#what-to-do)
7. [07 A manual bid under the first page or top of page estimate](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/bidding-on-branded-keywords#bid-estimates)
8. [08 What it looks like when Goldbeater finds it](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/bidding-on-branded-keywords#in-goldbeater)
9. [09 Questions](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/bidding-on-branded-keywords#questions)

Contents

1. [01 Bidding on your own brand terms: what Google says](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/bidding-on-branded-keywords#own-name)
2. [02 What a branded search campaign is for](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/bidding-on-branded-keywords#brand-campaign)
3. [03 Target impression share: how it bids and what its settings mean](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/bidding-on-branded-keywords#target-impression-share)
4. [04 Absolute top impression share, top of page rate, and how they differ](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/bidding-on-branded-keywords#top-metrics)
5. [05 How to tell a brand campaign is slipping, week by week](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/bidding-on-branded-keywords#by-hand)
6. [06 What to do when the first place slips](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/bidding-on-branded-keywords#what-to-do)
7. [07 A manual bid under the first page or top of page estimate](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/bidding-on-branded-keywords#bid-estimates)
8. [08 What it looks like when Goldbeater finds it](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/bidding-on-branded-keywords#in-goldbeater)
9. [09 Questions](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/bidding-on-branded-keywords#questions)

The manual way comes first, in Google Ads itself. Then the same problem as Goldbeater finds it, every day, without anyone asking.

## Bidding on your own brand terms: what Google says

A branded keyword is one that holds your brand’s name. For a furniture shop called Cedar & Pine, that is \[cedar and pine], or “cedar and pine sofas”. Bidding on them means paying for a click from someone who searched for you by name, which is why people ask whether to.

Google’s own advice is to include them. Its tips for building a keyword list say to start with the terms customers use for what you sell, then expand the list with your brand and product names. That page gives no reason. Three other things Google says bear on the choice:

- Anyone may bid on your name. Google’s trademark policy says it won’t restrict a trademark used as a keyword. So a competitor’s ad can show on a search for you whether or not yours does. What the policy can restrict is your trademark in the text of their ad, once you complain: the [trademarks guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-trademarks) covers that.
- The unpaid result picks up some of the clicks, not all. In 2012 Google’s researchers reported on 390 studies in which search ads were paused. Where the advertiser’s own page was the first unpaid result, 50% of the ad’s clicks on average were incremental: visits the unpaid result didn’t replace once the ad was gone. Google adds that results for individual advertisers vary and that the study counted clicks, not conversions, and it recommends running an experiment of your own.
- You can measure your own. Link Search Console to Google Ads, and the paid and organic report sets your text ads’ clicks beside the clicks on your unpaid listings, search by search. It’s a predefined report in Campaigns › Insights and reports › Report editor. Filter it to searches containing your brand name, and compare Ads and Organic Clicks before and after a change to the brand campaign’s bids. Google says the report shows how changing your keyword bids raises or lowers the combined clicks.

That is the case for a brand campaign: Google advises the keywords, anyone else may buy them, and where your page is already the first unpaid result, Google’s own study puts about half the ad’s clicks as ones that result wouldn’t have brought. The rest of this guide is how such a campaign holds its place on the page, and how to tell when it’s losing it.

## What a branded search campaign is for

A brand campaign, or branded search campaign, is a Search campaign that holds only your branded keywords. They get a campaign of their own because the settings that decide how a keyword bids belong to its campaign. A bid strategy is chosen for a campaign, or shared by several as a portfolio, and Google reports the searches lost to budget for campaigns only. Kept apart, brand keywords can bid for a place on the page while the rest of the account bids for conversions, and their weeks can be read without the rest mixed in.

Google offers one more control, brand inclusions: a Search campaign with a brand list applied serves only on searches associated with the brands on the list. Google recommends brand settings only for campaigns that really need them, because they limit what a campaign can reach. If you also run Performance Max, the [brand in Performance Max guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/brand-in-performance-max) covers which campaign a search for your name lands in.

## Target impression share: how it bids and what its settings mean

Target impression share is the bid strategy Google’s own help page pairs with a brand campaign. It says the strategy can be useful for campaigns with brand terms, and gives the example: to show your ad every time someone searches for your brand, set the target to 100%, and the system tries to show it on 100% of the auctions in that campaign.

Google calls it an automated bidding strategy, the one it lists for visibility, on the Search Network only. It isn’t Smart Bidding. Google keeps that name for the strategies that optimize for conversions or conversion value, and its Smart Bidding page names Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximize conversions and Maximize conversion value. Target impression share bids for a place on the page, not for what a click brings.

It has three settings:

- Where the ad should show. Anywhere among the search results; Top, among the ads beside the top unpaid results, which are generally above them, though Google says they may show below on some searches; or Absolute top, the first of the top ads.
- The share to reach. A percentage of the times the ad could have shown there. Google’s example is 65% at the absolute top: it sets your bids to help show your ad there on 65% of the total possible times.
- A maximum CPC bid limit. A cap on the bids the strategy sets. Google says it’s important not to set it too low: a low limit can restrict the bids and keep you from reaching your target.

Two more things from the same page. The share counts Google Search only, not search partners. And the strategy doesn’t use the bid adjustments a campaign already has, apart from a device adjustment of -100%, which still keeps the ad off that device.

Because it bids for the place and not the result, the limit is the figure to think about. Set it at what a click on your own name is worth to you, and expect the share to fall short of the target wherever the place costs more than that. The [Target CPA and Target ROAS guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-target-cpa) covers reading a strategy’s status for a limit that holds it back.

To put a campaign on it:

1. Go to Campaigns › Campaigns and select the brand campaign.
2. Select Settings in the campaign’s page menu, open Bidding, then select Change bid strategy.
3. Select Target impression share from the drop-down, and set where the ad should show, the share and the limit.
4. Select Save. Or select Save as experiment, which runs the new strategy against the campaign as it was before you change it.

## Absolute top impression share, top of page rate, and how they differ

Google reports where your ads showed in three sets of figures, with names close enough to mix up. All of them count Google Search only, since search partners don’t tell the top of a page from the rest.

- The shares. Search impr. share is the impressions you received divided by the estimated number you were eligible for. Search top IS, Search top impression share, is the impressions you received among the top ads divided by the estimated number you were eligible for among top ads. Search abs. top IS, Search absolute top impression share, is the impressions you received as the very first ad, divided by that same estimate.
- The rates. Impr. (Top) % is the percent of the impressions you did receive that showed among the top ads, and Impr. (Abs. Top) % the percent that showed as the very first ad.
- Auction insights. Top of page rate is how often your ad, or another advertiser’s, depending on the row, was shown at the top of the page above the unpaid results. Absolute top of the page rate is how often it was the very first ad there. Auction insights is the one set of the three that shows other advertisers beside you, and the [Auction insights guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-auction-insights) reads the whole report.

The difference is what each divides by. A share sets your places against the searches you could have had, so it falls when you miss a search altogether. A rate sets them against the impressions you got, and can’t see the searches you missed.

One week, two answers

Example

Say Google estimates a campaign was eligible for 1,000 impressions among the top ads in a week. It received 900 impressions, 450 of them as the very first ad. Its Search abs. top IS is 450 ÷ 1,000, or 45%. Its Impr. (Abs. Top) % is 450 ÷ 900, or 50%. The rate reads higher because it leaves out the searches the ad missed.

Google says which to use for what. The rates are for understanding a change in clickthrough rate, and it doesn’t recommend them as a target for bids, because they may decrease as bids increase: a higher bid can enter you in more competitive auctions, in a worse place. The shares are the ones it says you can bid on, and Target impression share bids to them.

Four more columns split what the top shares missed by cause. Google names them Search lost top impression share and Search lost absolute top impression share, each once for budget and once for rank: how often your ad wasn’t among the top ads, or wasn’t the very first, because the budget was low or its Ad Rank was poor. The [search impression share guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/search-impression-share) covers the same split for showing at all.

## How to tell a brand campaign is slipping, week by week

A brand campaign can lose its place without ever stopping: the ad still shows, a place lower, and its clicks cost a little more. One week’s figure won’t show that, so set the campaign’s weeks side by side.

1. Go to Campaigns › Campaigns and set a date range that holds at least ten whole weeks and ends with the last full one.
2. Select the columns icon above the table, then Modify columns. Add Search abs. top IS and Search lost IS (budget) beside Search impr. share, which is under Competitive metrics, and Impr., Clicks, Avg. CPC and Cost. Select Apply.
3. Select the segment icon, then Time, then Week. Google offers Day only for a date range of 16 days or less, and a day holds too few searches for a share to mean much.
4. Read down the brand campaign’s Search abs. top IS. Is the latest week under every one of the eight before it, and under three quarters of what those eight held between them?
5. Read Search lost IS (budget) for the same weeks. If it rose as the first place fell, the campaign ran short of budget, and no other advertiser need be involved.
6. Read Avg. CPC the same way: above every week before, and a quarter or more over them?

Brand — Exact by week

Sample data

| Week   | Impr. | Search impr. share | Search abs. top IS | Search lost IS (budget) | Clicks | Avg. CPC |
| ------ | ----- | ------------------ | ------------------ | ----------------------- | ------ | -------- |
| Jul 20 | 665   | 95%                | 84%                | 2%                      | 238    | $1.14    |
| Jul 27 | 624   | 96%                | 82%                | 2%                      | 224    | $1.17    |
| Aug 3  | 720   | 96%                | 86%                | 2%                      | 262    | $1.15    |
| Aug 10 | 658   | 94%                | 80%                | 2%                      | 234    | $1.18    |
| Aug 17 | 665   | 95%                | 85%                | 2%                      | 241    | $1.14    |
| Aug 24 | 611   | 94%                | 82%                | 2%                      | 218    | $1.16    |
| Aug 31 | 665   | 95%                | 83%                | 2%                      | 240    | $1.16    |
| Sep 7  | 624   | 96%                | 84%                | 2%                      | 226    | $1.15    |
| Sep 14 | 651   | 93%                | 56%                | 2%                      | 222    | $1.29    |
| Sep 21 | 598   | 92%                | 50%                | 2%                      | 208    | $1.31    |

Cedar & Pine’s brand campaign, its last ten whole weeks. For eight of them its ad was the first on 80% to 86% of the searches it could have led. In the two marked it was the first on 56% and 50%, while it went on showing on 92% or more of them and lost the same 2% to its budget.

A share is a percentage of something, and Google reports these without the counts under them. To ask whether a fall is chance, rebuild the counts. A week’s impressions divided by its Search impr. share is Google’s estimate of the impressions it was eligible for, and its Search abs. top IS of those is about how many it led. Google sets that share against the impressions eligible among top ads, a count it doesn’t report, so read the sums as close, not exact.

Its weeks, worked

Sample data

| Sum                      | Working                                   | Result          |
| ------------------------ | ----------------------------------------- | --------------- |
| Searches, 8 weeks before | Impr. ÷ Search impr. share, added         | 5,500           |
| Of those, first          | Search abs. top IS × searches, added      | 4,581, or 83%   |
| The 2 weeks since        | 717 ÷ 1,350                               | 53%             |
| Three quarters of 83%    | 0.75 × 83%                                | 62%             |
| Chance of so few         | =BINOMDIST(717, 1350, 0.8329, TRUE)       | under 0.1%      |
| Lost to budget           | Search lost IS (budget), before and since | 2% and 2%       |
| Cost a click             | Cost ÷ Clicks, before and since           | $1.16 and $1.30 |

Both weeks are under the lowest of the eight before and under the line of 62%. At the earlier share, 717 first places or fewer in 1,350 searches would come under 0.1% of the time, so these aren’t two quiet weeks. The budget lost it no more than before. Its clicks cost 13% more: dearer than any week before, and well short of a quarter.

The fifth row is a spreadsheet’s. In Google Sheets, BINOMDIST with its last argument TRUE gives the chance of that many successes or fewer in a number of trials, at a given rate: here, first places, searches, and the share of the weeks before. Add the weeks’ counts before you divide. An average of eight percentages lets a quiet week count as much as a busy one.

A first place lost with the budget steady is lost on Ad Rank: your own bid or quality came down, or someone else’s went up. To see who else, tick the campaign in the Campaigns table and select Auction insights. The report lists the advertisers in the same auctions as you, with six statistics for a Search campaign, and it can be segmented by time. Three of them answer the question: Impression share, each advertiser’s share of the auctions it could have shown in; Absolute top of the page rate, how often each one’s ad was the very first; and Position above rate, how often the other advertiser’s ad showed above yours when both showed. A name that appears, or climbs, in the weeks yours fell is the one that moved in.

Then rule yourself out. Campaigns › Change history lists the changes made to the account over the past two years, and filters to one campaign or one type of change. Look in the week before the fall for a bid, a target, a bid limit or a budget that came down.

## What to do when the first place slips

- The budget ran short. Raise it. A search for your name that your ad misses for want of budget is one somebody else’s ad can have. The [Limited by budget guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-limited-by-budget) covers how to read what a raise would bring.
- Your own change did it. Put the bid, the target or the limit back. Under Target impression share, look at the maximum CPC bid limit first, which Google warns can keep a campaign from its target when it’s set too low.
- Another advertiser moved in. Google names two ways to a better share of the top: improve the quality of your ads and landing page, or increase your bid. On Target impression share the bid is the strategy’s, so check it aims at the absolute top with a limit high enough to get there. On Manual CPC, raise the keywords’ own bids. If the other ad uses your trademark in its text, Google takes a complaint, and the [trademarks guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-trademarks) says how.
- You kept the place and pay more for it. The most you pay for a click is what it takes to clear the Ad Rank thresholds and beat the next advertiser’s Ad Rank, so a rival arriving under you raises your price without taking your place. Whether the place is worth the new price is the sum from the top of this guide: what the clicks bring that your unpaid result wouldn’t.

## A manual bid under the first page or top of page estimate

Under Manual CPC you set a maximum CPC, the most you’ll pay for a click, for an ad group or for a keyword. For each keyword Google estimates three bids, each for a search that matches the keyword exactly:

- Est. first page bid: the bid you likely need for your ad to show anywhere on the first page of search results.
- Est. top of page bid: the bid you likely need for it to show among the top ads on the first page.
- Est. first pos. bid: the bid you likely need for it to show in the first position relative to other ads.

To see them, go to Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Search keywords, select the columns icon, and add the three from Attributes.

A maximum CPC under the first page estimate means the ad is less likely to show on the first page for a search that matches the keyword exactly. Under the top of page estimate, it’s less likely to show among the top ads. Google calls the estimates a guide and no guarantee. They rest on the keyword’s Quality Score and on recent competition from other advertisers, so a very high estimate may mean the ad and its page are rated poorly, and a bid that meets one can still miss the place.

Google gives no top of page or first position estimate to a campaign on automated bidding or ad scheduling. A brand campaign on Target impression share shows neither: there the strategy sets the bid, and the limit is the figure to check.

To raise bids to an estimate, tick the keywords, select Edit, then Change max. CPC bids, and choose to raise them to the first page or top of page CPC. An estimate says what a place costs, not whether it pays, so raise a bid to one only where the keyword’s clicks already earn what they cost.

## What it looks like when Goldbeater finds it

Every day Goldbeater reads the weeks of each Search campaign whose name says it’s a brand campaign: brand, branded, branding, corporate or trademark, and not non-brand. It looks for the run of weeks, ending with the last whole one, that each fell below every one of the weeks before the run, up to 8 of them and at least 4.

It raises the first place when each week of the run showed first on a smaller share of its searches than any week before, and on under three quarters of the share those weeks held between them. So few first places also have to be under 5% likely at the earlier share, by an exact binomial test, with the 5% divided between the brand campaigns tested. Where losing more of its searches to budget is most of the fall, the finding says the budget and not a rival.

It raises the price when each week’s cost a click was above every week before and a quarter or more over what those weeks paid, on 30 clicks or more. The campaign must have shown among the top ads no more often for it, paid $20 or more in all over the earlier price, and risen further than the weeks’ own spread makes likely, by Student’s t at the same 5%. Where your change history shows the campaign’s budget, bid strategy or target changed from the week before the run, the finding says so.

Finding

Sample data

Medium Medium severity Cost per click

Brand — Exact showed first on 53% of its searches in the 2 weeks since the week of Sep 14, against 83% before

Brand — Exact

What Goldbeater saw

It showed at the very top of the page on 717 of the 1,350 searches it could have shown on, a share under every one of the 8 weeks before, which ranged 80% to 86%: under 0.1% likely at its rate before.

Each window

| Figure                          | The 8 weeks before | Since Sep 14 |
| ------------------------------- | ------------------ | ------------ |
| Very top of page, beyond chance | 83%                | 53%          |
| Lost to budget                  | 2%                 | 2%           |

The 8 weeks before

Since Sep 14

Very top of page Beyond chance

83%

53%

Lost to budget

2%

2%

|        |     |     |    |     |       |      |
| ------ | --- | --- | -- | --- | ----- | ---- |
| Jul 20 | 84% | 97% | 2% | 238 | $1.14 | $271 |
| Jul 27 | 82% | 96% | 2% | 224 | $1.17 | $262 |
| Aug 3  | 86% | 98% | 2% | 262 | $1.15 | $301 |
| Aug 10 | 80% | 96% | 2% | 234 | $1.18 | $276 |
| Aug 17 | 85% | 97% | 2% | 241 | $1.14 | $275 |
| Aug 24 | 82% | 96% | 2% | 218 | $1.16 | $253 |
| Aug 31 | 83% | 97% | 2% | 240 | $1.16 | $278 |
| Sep 7  | 84% | 97% | 2% | 226 | $1.15 | $260 |
| Sep 14 | 56% | 94% | 2% | 222 | $1.29 | $286 |
| Sep 21 | 50% | 92% | 2% | 208 | $1.31 | $273 |

Why it matters

A campaign whose name says Brand, week by week against its own recent weeks: shown at the very top of fewer of its searches than in any of the eight weeks before, or paying more a click than in any of them by more than their spread explains, without showing higher for it. Where the searches it lost went to its budget, the finding says so; otherwise, on a search for your own brand, both usually mean another advertiser bidding on it, and the finding names any change to its budget or bidding from the change history.

What to do

On a search for your own brand, the first place goes to another advertiser bidding on it, or slips when the campaign's own bid or target comes down. Read its Auction insights in Google Ads for who moved in, and its Change history for a bid or target lowered. Where a competitor's ads use your trademark, Google takes a trademark complaint.

What would change

The steps under What to do are the fix. Goldbeater drafts no change for this one.

This is “A brand campaign losing the top spot or paying more a click” on a sample account. Goldbeater runs it on yours every 24 hours, and your AI analyst answers what you ask about any finding.

[Get a free first look](https://goldbeater.ai/app?start=look)

Sample data. Cedar & Pine Interiors is an invented account, and its figures are made up.

That is the campaign worked above. The finding’s 53% and 83% are the sums’ third and second rows, and its 717 of 1,350 searches are the counts behind them. Its clicks cost 13% more, under the 25% the price is raised at, so there is one finding and not two. It drafts no change: who else bids on your name isn’t a setting in your account, so the finding says where to look.

Three more checks read the bids behind a place on the page, keyword by keyword:

- A keyword converting well, losing searches to ad rank. An enabled keyword with five or more conversions in 30 days, converting at least as well as its campaign and not under its campaign’s target, in a campaign at least as efficient as the median of your others, that lost 20% or more of its searches to ad rank. Under Manual CPC, Goldbeater drafts its maximum CPC 20% higher, and you can set it anywhere up to double. Otherwise it drafts nothing and names the lever: the part of Quality Score Google rates below average, the campaign’s target, its budget where 20% or more of its searches are lost to budget, or a campaign of its own. In a brand campaign three times as efficient as that median, the raise is offered, not recommended, and the finding says to check the clicks are new business first.
- A keyword bid too low to reach the first page. A Manual CPC keyword whose maximum CPC is under Google’s first page estimate, in a campaign at least as efficient as the median of your others that already pays the estimate or more for a click on average. Goldbeater drafts the bid at the estimate, where that is no more than double today’s bid. A bid of the currency’s smallest amount is left alone, as parked on purpose.
- A keyword bid too low to show among the top ads. A Manual CPC keyword bidding at or over the first page estimate and under the top of page one, in a campaign with five or more conversions in 30 days that passes the same two tests. The keyword itself must not be losing money: it converted at no worse than that median (or than its own campaign, where you have no other), or it hasn’t converted and has spent less than a conversion costs its campaign. Goldbeater drafts the bid at the estimate, recommended where the keyword has converted and offered where it hasn’t. A keyword the first of these checks already drafts a higher bid for is left to it.

Goldbeater also raises an account whose paid and organic report holds no row in 30 days while a brand Search campaign that can serve spent in those days. The report fills only once a Search Console property is linked, and a site shows for its own name, so a linked account would have rows. It is one finding for the account, low, naming the brand campaigns and what they spent, and it is advice: the link is made in Google Ads, and it is what lets you see your ad and your organic result side by side on your own name.

A whole campaign losing searches to rank is the [search impression share guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/search-impression-share)’s, and every line Goldbeater checks is in the [audit checklist](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist).

## Questions

- Should I bid on my own brand name in Google Ads?

  Google’s keyword tips say to include your brand and product names. Two facts weigh on it. Google doesn’t restrict a trademark used as a keyword, so a competitor can bid on your name whether or not you do. And Google’s own 2012 study found that where an advertiser’s page was the first unpaid result, half the ad’s clicks on average were visits the unpaid result didn’t replace when the ad was paused. The paid and organic report lets you measure your own.

- What is brand bidding?

  Bidding on a brand’s name as a keyword. Bidding on your own is what a brand campaign does. Bidding on a competitor’s is allowed too, since Google doesn’t restrict a trademark used as a keyword; what it can restrict is the trademark in the ad’s text. The term is also used for an affiliate bidding on the brand it promotes, which this guide doesn’t cover.

- What’s the difference between branded and non-branded keywords?

  A branded keyword holds your brand’s name, and a non-branded one doesn’t. They’re usually kept in separate campaigns because a bid strategy is chosen for a campaign: brand keywords can then bid for the first place while the rest bid for conversions, and each campaign’s figures stay its own.

- Is Target impression share Smart Bidding?

  No. Google calls it an automated bidding strategy. Smart Bidding is its name for the strategies that optimize for conversions or conversion value: Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximize conversions and Maximize conversion value.

- What target impression share should a brand campaign have?

  Google’s help pages give no recommended figure. Their example for a brand is 100%, where the system tries to show your ad on every auction in the campaign. Whatever the target, the maximum CPC bid limit caps the bids, and Google warns that a limit set too low can keep the campaign from reaching it.

- What’s the difference between Search abs. top IS and Impr. (Abs. Top) %?

  Search abs. top IS divides your impressions as the very first ad by the impressions Google estimates you were eligible for among top ads, so it counts the searches you missed. Impr. (Abs. Top) % divides them by the impressions you received. Google says you can bid on the first, and doesn’t recommend the second as a bid target.

- What is top of page rate in Google Ads?

  A column of the Auction insights report: how often your ad, or another advertiser’s, was shown at the top of the page, above the unpaid results. Google’s example is 20 of 100 impressions above the organic results, a top of page rate of 20%. Absolute top of the page rate is the same for the very first ad.

How Goldbeater checks this

## These checks run every day, and whenever you ask.

Each finding shows its evidence, an estimate of what it costs a month where it costs money, and, where a setting fixes it, a change drafted for you to approve.

A check is code that runs the same way every time, so a new finding means your account changed. Each week Goldbeater's AI agent follows up on what the checks find, and your AI analyst answers any question about your account.

Checks A finding is worth

- A brand campaign losing the top spot or paying more a click Fixing it lowers the Cost per click
- A keyword bid too low to reach the first page Fixing it raises the Impressions
- A keyword bid too low to show among the top ads Fixing it raises the Impressions at the top
- Search Console not linked, so your organic results are missing beside your ads Fixing it raises the Tracking accuracy

[Get a free first look](https://goldbeater.ai/app?start=look) [Start the 7-day trial](https://goldbeater.ai/app?start=trial)

No card for the first look. [See every check](https://goldbeater.ai/checks).

Google's own pages

## Where the manual method comes from.

1. [Basic tips for building a keyword list (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2453981?hl=en)
2. [Trademarks (Advertising Policies Help) (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/6118?hl=en)
3. [Impact of Organic Ranking on Ad Click Incrementality (Google Research blog, March 27, 2012) (opens in a new tab)](https://research.google/blog/impact-of-organic-ranking-on-ad-click-incrementality/)
4. [About measuring paid and organic search results (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/3097241?hl=en)
5. [About brand settings for Search and Performance Max (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/13721847?hl=en)
6. [About Target impression share bidding (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/9121108?hl=en)
7. [About automated bidding (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2979071?hl=en)
8. [About Smart Bidding (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7065882?hl=en)
9. [Change how you bid (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6324950?hl=en)
10. [About top and absolute top metrics (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7501826?hl=en)
11. [About impression share (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2497703?hl=en)
12. [Get impression share data (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7103314?hl=en)
13. [About Ad Rank (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/1722122?hl=en)
14. [Add or remove columns in your statistics table (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7085713?hl=en)
15. [Use segments in your tables (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2454072?hl=en)
16. [Use auction insights to compare performance (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2579754?hl=en)
17. [About change history (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/19888?hl=en)
18. [BINOMDIST (Google Docs Editors Help) (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/docs/answer/3093987?hl=en)
19. [Get your ads to show on the first page (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2472742?hl=en)
20. [Top of page bid estimate: Definition (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6292661?hl=en)
21. [Edit your bids (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2470113?hl=en)
22. [About Manual CPC bidding (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2464960?hl=en)
23. [Maximum CPC bid: Definition (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6326?hl=en)

More guides

## Other things worth checking by hand.

- [How do I audit a Google Ads account? Work through 163 checks, area by area, conversions first.](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist)
- [How do I read the Google Ads Auction insights report? Read who shares your auctions, and which losses matter.](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-auction-insights)
- [How do I set a target CPA in Google Ads? Set a target your campaign can reach, then tighten it.](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-target-cpa)
- [What is Target ROAS in Google Ads, and what is a good target? Set it from your margin, then read the weeks.](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-target-roas)

[All 58 guides](https://goldbeater.ai/guides)

7-day trial · nothing charged for 7 days

## Try it for a week. See the money it saves. It pays for itself.

[Start the 7-day trial](https://goldbeater.ai/app?start=trial)

Or connect one account for a [free first look](https://goldbeater.ai/app?start=look), no card needed: how many problems it finds, and what they cost.

[Goldbeater home](https://goldbeater.ai/)

Goldbeater checks your Google Ads account every day and shows its work: what’s wasting money, what it’s worth, and the changes that would fix it. Nothing changes in your account until you approve it.

Changes only with your approval · Disconnect any time

Product

- [How it works](https://goldbeater.ai/#how)
- [What we find](https://goldbeater.ai/checks)
- [The dashboard](https://goldbeater.ai/#dashboard)
- [PPC monitoring](https://goldbeater.ai/ppc-monitoring)
- [Budget pacing](https://goldbeater.ai/budget-pacing)
- [Google Ads automation](https://goldbeater.ai/google-ads-automation)
- [AI analyst](https://goldbeater.ai/ai-analyst)
- [MCP server](https://goldbeater.ai/mcp)
- [Pricing](https://goldbeater.ai/pricing)
- [Sign in](https://goldbeater.ai/app)

Guides

- [Google Ads audit checklist](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist)
- [Google Ads wasted spend](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/wasted-search-terms)
- [Google Ads MCP server](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-mcp)
- [Broad match keywords](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-broad-match)
- [Google search partners](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-search-partners)
- [Common Google Ads mistakes](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-mistakes)
- [All guides](https://goldbeater.ai/guides)

Goldbeater vs

- [Opteo](https://goldbeater.ai/compare/goldbeater-vs-opteo)
- [Optmyzr](https://goldbeater.ai/compare/goldbeater-vs-optmyzr)
- [Google's recommendations](https://goldbeater.ai/compare/goldbeater-vs-google-recommendations)
- [Ryze AI and groas](https://goldbeater.ai/compare/goldbeater-vs-ryze-ai)
- [A PPC agency](https://goldbeater.ai/compare/goldbeater-vs-ppc-agency)
- [Adalysis](https://goldbeater.ai/compare/goldbeater-vs-adalysis)
- [TrueClicks](https://goldbeater.ai/compare/goldbeater-vs-trueclicks)
- [AI tools for Google Ads](https://goldbeater.ai/compare/ai-tools-for-google-ads)
- [All comparisons](https://goldbeater.ai/compare)

Company

- [About Goldbeater](https://goldbeater.ai/company)
- [Security](https://goldbeater.ai/security)
- [Press](https://goldbeater.ai/press)
- [Contact us](mailto:support@goldbeater.ai)

Legal

- [Privacy](https://goldbeater.ai/privacy)
- [Terms](https://goldbeater.ai/terms)
- [Google API disclosure](https://goldbeater.ai/privacy#google-api)

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