Branded and category search
One tells you whether people want you. The other tells you whether people want what you sell. Teams that merge them end up answering neither question.
Branded search measures whether people want you; category search measures whether people want what you sell. They move for different reasons and respond to different spending, so adding them together is the most common reporting error in search. Read them separately, give every branded spike a cause, and test brand bidding with a holdout.
Branded search is demand that already has your name on it. Category search is demand nobody owns yet. They move for different reasons, they respond to different spending, and the most common reporting error in search is adding them together.
What branded search tells you
That your demand creation is working, or that something happened. It responds to brand campaigns, PR, word of mouth, a product launch and occasionally a crisis, so a spike always needs a cause attached before it is celebrated.
It is also the cheapest traffic you will ever get, which creates a familiar argument about whether to bid on your own name. The honest test is a holdout: pause brand bidding for a fortnight and see how much organic absorbs. In most accounts it is most of it.
What category search tells you
The size and direction of the market you are selling into. Rising category search with flat branded search means the category is growing without you, which is the most expensive thing to discover late.
It is also where the winnable commercial terms sit. Not the head term, which is enormous and mostly research traffic, but the specific phrases underneath it: the service plus the city, the problem plus the industry, the comparison, the price question. That is the argument in SEO services, what to expect.
Reading them together
- Branded up, category flat: you are taking share. The best position to be in.
- Category up, branded flat: the market is growing and somebody else is capturing it.
- Both down: a category problem, not a marketing one. Check for a substitute.
- Branded up sharply with no campaign: find out why before reporting it. It is as likely to be a complaint going around as a win.
What each should change
Branded search informs brand investment and tells you whether the last campaign left anything behind. Category search informs content, SEO and the question of whether to create demand or capture it.
Report them as separate lines, always, with the competitive set alongside. A single organic traffic number that mixes both will rise when your brand is in the news and fall when it is not, and nobody will be able to say what to do about it. The full method is in how to measure share of search.
Questions we get asked
Should we bid on our own brand name?
Test it rather than assume. Pause brand bidding for two weeks and measure how much organic absorbs. In most accounts the majority of that traffic arrives anyway.
What does rising category search with flat branded search mean?
The market is growing and competitors are capturing the growth. It is an argument for demand creation rather than more capture spend.
Should branded and non-branded traffic be reported together?
No. They answer different questions and merging them produces a line nobody can act on.
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Every Colleviate engagement begins with an outside-in read of your brand and its competitive cluster, before we recommend a single line of spend.
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