Too Much Search, Too Little ROI
I cannot believe that it’s the year 2025 (the same year we almost, kind of sent Katy Perry to the moon) and I’m even having to write a post about how brands are spending too much in Brand Search.
Here’s the frustrating part: almost every brand overinvests in it. Why? Because the click metrics look good. CTRs are high, impressions are easy to count, dashboards light up with numbers that make marketers feel busy and productive. But here’s the truth: those clicks are rarely driving real sales. Most of the people clicking already know you. They were going to visit your site anyway. They were going to buy anyway. And yet, we keep throwing more budget at it like it’s doing something magical for us.
Meanwhile, the real, measurable ROI is minimal. Every dollar spent on Brand Search could be doing more elsewhere, where it actually influences behavior rather than just validates vanity metrics. And yet, here we are in 2025, still debating how much to bid on our own names.
It’s time to stop letting clicks feel like progress and to stop using Brand Search as a crutch. If your goal is real growth, you need to focus on the channels that reach new audiences, change minds, and influence purchase decisions. Not the ones that just pat you on the back for being already known.
I’ve seen this pattern so much through my work as a measurement consultant and a media buyer, that for almost any client I onboard, my first guess, without ever seeing their media data, is that they’re overinvested in Brand Search. And then I get sad when I’m right.
Let’s Do It Right
Never fear, thought, we don’t have to throw out the whole tactic. But we have to start being nuanced and disciplined about it. Here’s how to make that happen:
1. Start With Incremental ROI, Not Total Spend
Ask: If I didn’t run brand search ads, how many sales would I actually lose?
Most clicks are people who already know you. Tools like Google Ads’ Auction Insights, lift studies, or experiments where you pause your brand campaigns for a week can show the incremental impact. Only spend what measurably adds sales beyond what would happen organically.
2. Compare to Organic Traffic
If people are already searching for your brand, your organic results likely capture most of them. Your paid ads should fill gaps, protect against competitors bidding on your name, or support strategic campaigns, not replace organic reach.
3. Set a Cap Based on Opportunity Cost
Think of brand search as insurance, not a growth engine. Budgeting should be proportional to:
Potential loss from competitors bidding on your brand
Need for visibility in specific campaigns or markets
Cost per click versus the actual lifetime value of customers
Anything beyond that is often just wasting money for vanity metrics.
4. Run Controlled Experiments
A/B test different levels of spend:
Pause campaigns in select regions or segments.
Monitor traffic, sales, and conversions.
Scale only when you see measurable incremental sales.
5. Regularly Audit
Market dynamics change. Competitor activity, organic rankings, and brand awareness shift over time. Make sure your spend aligns with current realities—not last year’s assumptions.
Sometimes, I’m Not Mad About It
There are a few special cases, where spending more in Brand Search might be justified. Let’s acknowledge these cases:
1. Defending Against Competitors
If competitors are bidding on your brand keywords, failing to invest can let them steal clicks from people actively searching for you. Higher spend here protects your traffic and visibility, especially if:
Competitor ads appear above your organic listing
You’re running high-stakes campaigns (product launches, seasonal promotions)
2. New Product or Campaign Launches
When introducing a new product, service, or initiative, Brand Search can:
Ensure people who hear about it offline or in other channels find your official site immediately
Capture high-intent traffic that might otherwise get distracted
3. Markets or Segments with Weak Organic Presence
If you’re entering a new region, language, or niche where your brand isn’t well-known, Brand Search ads can supplement organic reach until awareness grows.
Q: Where do you go from here?
A: Straight to the reporting to find out how much you’re wasting on Brand Search. I highly recommend consulting seasoned measurement professionals who can help you design tests and properly incorporate media and non-media variables into an MMM (Media Mix Model), which will help uncover insights beyond your wildest imagination (like real insights, not just pivot table misdirection). They will help you rebalance your entire marketing portfolio toward the singular goal of driving a real business result, be that new customer acquisition, revenue growth, profit growth etc. And once you have your measurement program up and running, let me know. I’d be happy to use those results to make meaningful platform optimizations on an ongoing basis.
Reluctantly yours,
AL
