Another day, another Google Ads review where it is quickly apparently that 'hidden' brand search is carrying the purported performance of the account.
* Client gets reports from agency that look impressive with a very low 'cost per lead'
* Investigation reveals that ~90% of the conversions in the account come from people searching client's brand name or variations thereof BUT this activity is blended into ostensibly non-branded campaigns (that are meant to reach in-market prospects who weren't specifically searching for this brand, but for a 'generic' solution in the category)
* Brand terms have very low CPC, high CTR, high conversion rate.
* Rest of the account - which is the vast majority of the spend - is performing poorly.
Like Celine Dion & Peabo Bryson sang about, it's a 'tale as old as time' at this point (and, from my perspective, there is a certain beauty in helping businesses to tame this beast)
Whether you should advertise at all on your brand terms is a different topic, and perhaps a more nuanced one.
The issue here is that many businesses are investing $$$ into Google Ads because the "headline" figures look great. However, these same businesses often do not realise AT ALL that a lot of what they are paying for (which happens to deliver out-sized performance in terms of lead generation, eComm sales etc) is reaching prospective customers who have heard about the business elsewhere ... then you are paying Google for the privilege of crediting itself for bringing you a customer.
The key - at this stage - is simply to know if this is happening. I can help you determine this very quickly.
I'm in the process of building an incredibly simple tool that will allow advertisers with even the most basic Google Ads skill set to quickly visualise the effect of their brand terms on the claimed performance of their ads.
In the interim, message me if you are concerned about this happening in your account, and I can take a look.