"I am currently running ads on Google.  Should I bid on my own brand name as a keyword?  I don't want to pay for those clicks if I don't have to..." 

The above was a recent question I received from the community and I thought I would answer it here. 

"Bidding on your own brand name" is a strategy that comes up quite often when discussing ad positioning (and one you've probably asked if you're running Google Ads for your business). 

Should You Bid on Your Brand as a Keyword?

The short answer: Yes.

"But why," you say... "My website already shows on the first page of Google search results organically when I type in my company's name."

Benefits of Bidding for Your Own Brand in Search

It Allows [You] Explicit Control of the Content That is Shown for Your Brand

Organic (non-paid) search results are pulled based on what the Google Algorithm deduces as the most important/relevant content for the searcher.  This means that sometimes the content you [really] want to show for a given search term or keyphrase won't be displayed to the user.

When bidding for your own company name, you have the ability to (within reason and relevance) explicitly set what messaging and links will be shown to the user.

Blocking Out Your Advertising Competitors

Regardless of whether you are bidding on your brand, or not, your competitors are for sure. 

Case in point, see what happens when you search for "Kleenex" in Google:

You Are the Most Relevant Search

Because Google favors the most relevant search result, bidding on your brand name further ensures that your site's ad will show first (so long as it is not being drastically outbid) as compared to other sites because they will have (or at least they should have) far fewer pages that mention your brand than you do.

Thank you for writing in with your questions and make it a great week!