Discover the New Google Ads Feature That Boosts Branded Traffic by 89% and Saves Your Budget by 72%!

In the realm of digital advertising, effectively managing your brand list is crucial for directing traffic and maximizing the performance of your campaigns. Google Ads provides robust brand settings for both Search and Performance Max campaigns, allowing you to tailor your advertising strategies to your specific needs. In this blog, we’ll explore how to manage your brand list, the benefits of brand settings, and best practices for implementation.

Understanding Brand Settings for Search and Performance Max

Brand settings in Google Ads are designed to help you manage branded traffic effectively. These settings can be applied to both Search and Performance Max campaigns:

• Search Campaigns: Brand restrictions limit traffic to search queries related to specified brands.

• Performance Max Campaigns: Brand exclusions prevent your ads from serving for brand queries you want to avoid on Search and Shopping inventory.

While these features provide significant control over your campaigns, it’s essential to apply them judiciously. Over-restriction can constrain your conversion opportunities, so it’s advisable to implement brand settings only on campaigns that truly need them.

Brands vs. Keywords

Before diving into brand settings, it’s important to understand the distinction between brands and keywords:

• Brands: Organizations, trademarked goods, and services with distinct branding, logos, or websites.
• Keywords: Words or phrases potential customers use to find your products and services.

One significant advantage of using brand lists over keywords is the elimination of the need to enter multiple variants, misspellings, or translations of a brand. This streamlines your campaign setup and ensures comprehensive coverage across different languages and regions.

How Brand Settings Work

Brand settings help ensure your ads appear with brands you’re associated with and prevent them from serving on brands you wish to avoid. Here’s a breakdown of how to manage these settings:

Managing a Brand List

Brand lists can be created at the account level and applied to individual campaigns. This centralized management simplifies the process of updating and maintaining brand settings across multiple campaigns.

Managing Brands Within Your Brand List

If a brand isn’t already in the Google Ads brand library, you can request its addition. This ensures that all relevant brands are included in your list, providing comprehensive coverage for your campaigns.

Applying Brand Restrictions to Search Campaigns

For Search campaigns, brand restrictions can be applied to limit traffic to search queries containing specific brands. This helps focus your ads on the most relevant audience, improving the efficiency of your ad spend.

Applying Brand Exclusions to Performance Max Campaigns

Performance Max campaigns allow you to exclude specific brands from your ads on Search and Shopping inventory. This added control helps you avoid associating your ads with unwanted brands, maintaining the integrity of your brand image.

Best Practices for Implementing Brand Settings

Assess Necessity: Only apply brand settings to campaigns that truly require them to avoid unnecessary limitations.
Comprehensive Lists: Ensure your brand list includes all relevant variants and associated brands.
Monitor Performance: Regularly review campaign performance to gauge the impact of brand settings and adjust as needed.
Broad Match Utilization: Leverage the broad match setting to maximize the reach and efficiency of brand restrictions.

By effectively managing your brand list and understanding the nuances of brand settings, you can optimize your Google Ads campaigns to align with your branding strategy and advertising goals.

FAQs About Brand Settings

Will Brands Be Recognized in Multiple Languages?
Yes, brand lists work with the newest version of broad match, recognizing brands in multiple languages without needing different spellings or variants.
How is a “Brand” Defined?
A brand is defined as a product or service with at least one of the following:
Logo
Trademark
Domain name
Product name dominating the packaging or website
Business name for small and medium-sized businesses.
What is a Brand Variant?
A brand variant is an alternative term used by users to refer to the same brand. For instance, YouTube Premium, previously known as YouTube Red, is a variant.
Will One Variant Capture All Variants?
Typically, the simplest variant will capture all related variants, provided they share common words. However, for distinct names like “Google” and “YouTube,” each variant needs to be included separately.
Does the Brand URL Impact How Branded Traffic is Filtered?
No, URLs are used to distinguish similarly named brands but don’t affect how branded traffic is filtered. Geographic-specific URLs don’t require separate brand submissions.
Is There Any Additional Cost to Use Brand Settings?
There’s no additional cost to apply brand lists to campaigns. However, brand settings limit campaign reach, potentially impacting performance.
Why Might Campaign Performance Change After Applying Brand Settings?
Decrease: Brand settings limit traffic, possibly excluding previously included traffic that doesn’t match your brand list.
Increase: Switching from exact or phrase match to broad match can expand reach and improve performance.
Do Campaigns with Dynamic Search Ads and Keywords Support Brand Restrictions?
Yes, campaigns must opt into the broad match setting to apply brand restrictions, which will then apply to all traffic in the campaign.