Last month, a Brisbane-based electrical services franchise came to us with a 'phenomenal' Google Ads account. Their ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) was sitting at a staggering 15x. On paper, they were killing it. In reality, they were paying a 'lazy tax' to Google that was cannibalising their organic profit.
When we dug into the data, 92% of their conversions came from their own brand name. Customers who already knew them, liked them, and were actively looking for their phone number were clicking on a paid ad instead of the organic listing directly below it.
This is the great Brand vs. Non-Brand debate, and most agencies are lying to you about it because brand bidding makes their reports look pretty while doing zero heavy lifting for your bottom line.
The Brand Bidding Myth: Is It Protection or Extortion?
The standard agency line is: "You must bid on your brand to protect your space."
Sometimes, this is true. If a competitor is aggressively bidding on your name—literally stealing your customers at the finish line—you need to defend your turf. But if no one is bidding against you, and you hold the top three organic spots for your name, paying Google $4.00 a click is just donating money to a multi-billion dollar corporation.
We often see businesses falling into the impression share trap on brand terms. They want to own 100% of the screen, but they fail to realise that those clicks would have likely been free via SEO.
The Rule of Thumb: If a competitor is squatting on your brand name, bid. If the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) is clean, turn it off and spend that money finding new customers.
Non-Brand Bidding: Where the Real Growth Lives
Non-brand bidding (targeting terms like "best plumber Brisbane" or "emergency AC repair") is where the hard work happens. This is how you grow a business. It’s also where most Australian SMEs get burnt because their conversion path is broken.
I’ve seen local service businesses spend $50 per click on high-intent non-brand keywords, only to send that traffic to a website that takes six seconds to load on a mobile phone in a Fortitude Valley blackspot. That isn't marketing; it's a tax on slow landing pages.
To win at non-brand bidding in 2026, you can't just throw money at keywords. You need to:
1. Segment by Intent: Don't treat "how to fix a tap" the same as "tap replacement service Brisbane." One is a researcher; the other is a buyer. 2. Aggressive Negative Keyword Lists: If you aren't updating your negative keywords weekly, you are bleeding cash on irrelevant searches. 3. Hyper-Local Ad Copy: If you're targeting the Western Suburbs, mention Indooroopilly or Toowong in the ad. Generic copy dies in a competitive market.
The 'Hybrid' Trap: Why Blended Results Hide the Truth
Agencies love to show you "Account Level" data. They’ll show you a 5x ROAS and tell you everything is fine. But if your brand campaigns are doing a 20x ROAS and your non-brand campaigns are doing a 0.5x ROAS, your business is actually shrinking.
Your brand campaigns are simply harvesting the demand you created elsewhere—through word of mouth, radio, or social media. Your non-brand campaigns are supposed to be creating new demand. If you don't separate these strategies with distinct budgets and KPIs, you’ll never know if your marketing is actually working.
How to Dominate the Local SERP Without Overspending
If you are a local Brisbane business, you have a secret weapon: Google Maps and Ad Assets. Instead of just bidding higher on keywords, you should use ad assets to dominate the physical space on the screen.
By using location extensions, call buttons, and structured snippets, you can make a $5 click look like a $50 enterprise ad. This increases your Click-Through Rate (CTR) and improves your Quality Score, which actually lowers the price Google charges you.
Actionable Strategy for Monday Morning
Stop the generic approach. Follow these three steps to audit your spend:
1. The Ghost Test: Turn off your brand bidding for 48 hours (if no competitors are bidding on you). Did your total lead volume drop, or did your organic traffic just spike to fill the gap? If it's the latter, kill the brand spend. 2. Separate the Budgets: Move your brand and non-brand keywords into entirely different campaigns. Set a strict ceiling on brand spend and push the savings into high-intent non-brand terms. 3. Audit the Landing Page: Before you increase your non-brand budget by a single cent, ensure your mobile load speed is under 2 seconds.
At Local Marketing Group, we don't care about 'pretty' reports. We care about incremental growth. If your current agency is hiding behind 'blended' ROAS figures, they are likely protecting their own ego rather than your profit margins.
Ready to stop the waste? Contact Local Marketing Group today for a brutal, honest audit of your Google Ads strategy.