Your best-performing keyword might be the one you refuse to bid on.

Most advertisers treat their brand term as sacred ground. Defend it, own it, never let it go. But on a lot of accounts, you might have seen that brand click was going to convert anyway. You’re paying to win a customer who already typed your name.

The real leverage sits one layer down, in the queries where the buyer hasn’t decided yet. That’s where a click actually changes an outcome. That’s where the money should fight hardest.

Here’s the trap: brand terms look brilliant in the dashboard. Cheap CPC, high conversion rate, glorious ROAS. So they get more budget, and the metrics get even prettier, and everyone congratulates themselves for optimizing.

You didn’t optimize. You just took credit for demand you already earned.

Incrementality is the uncomfortable question every performance marketer should be asking: if I turned this campaign off tomorrow, how many of these conversions would still happen?

On brand, the honest answer is often “most of them.”

I’m not saying abandon brand defence. Competitors bidding on your name is real. I’m saying stop mistaking a mirror for a growth lever.

Would your brand campaign survive an incrementality test?

Have question, ask them out. I am listening.