How much of the budget buys the account's own name

Told apart, the two numbers answer different questions. Brand is what the business already earned. Non-brand is what the advertising is actually buying.

It is the most useful split in a Search account and the one almost nobody calculates, because it needs an answer from outside Google: which words are the brand.

It uses the brand words you confirmed or, until you do, the words of your domain name. They are matched as written, so a misspelt brand search is not counted as brand.

Checks that weigh money or clicks judge what they find on your own account's numbers, not on one figure applied to every account, so what counts as a problem on a small account is not the same on a large one. Checks on settings read how the account is set up.

When there is too little to go on, the check says so instead of guessing. A finding always comes with the rows behind it, so you can read the evidence before you decide.

1. In Google Ads, open Insights and reports, then Search terms, for the last 30 days, and download the report.
2. Mark each search that contains your brand name or a misspelling of it.
3. Add up cost and conversions for brand and non-brand separately.
4. Divide cost by conversions on each side and compare.

Report brand and non-brand separately from now on, and judge growth on non-brand.

Put brand keywords in their own campaign, so their budget and bidding can be set for what they are, and the other campaigns' numbers stop being flattered.

• Brand campaign
• Data-driven attribution
• KPI (key performance indicator)

The checks next to this one in Auction insights, each with its own page.

• No Search keyword bids on the brand
• Lost impression share that is worth buying
• Competitors you named, that nothing bids on
• Quality Score on the non-brand side
• Quality Score parts below average on the keywords that spend