Brand Search Ads in Nepal: Protect Your Name (2026)
Brand Search is advertising on your name and close misspellings. It is usually the cheapest CPC in a Nepal account and the fastest way to see if someone else is buying your brand. Arjan KC runs it as the brand layer of SEM, next to organic and ORM.
→ SEM as one plan · Google Ads · ORM / reviews
What the case studies imply (not a “brand ROAS”)
Search rebuilds on this site include brand and non-brand. They do not isolate a brand-only lift, and a brand-only lift is not published.
- Education −40% CPL — /case-studies/nepal-education-consultancy-ppc/
- Services −42% CPA — /case-studies/kathmandu-home-services-google-ads/
- Clinic Maps (unpaid brand/near-me surface) — /case-studies/kathmandu-healthcare-clinic/
CPC ranges: benchmarks.
Image: Arjan KC media library.
What belongs in the brand campaign
| Include | Exclude |
|---|---|
| Exact / phrase on legal name, trading name, common spellings | Generic “best X Kathmandu” (that is the non-brand campaign) |
| Romanized variants people actually type | Competitor names unless you have a legal/brief reason |
| Own landing — homepage is OK here if the homepage is the brand | Sending brand traffic into a random blog post |
| Sitename, call, WhatsApp extensions | Job-seeker queries (vacancy, salary) as positives |
The unpaid SERP is ORM + SEO. Paid brand is how you keep the first ad slot honest when directories and “near me” packs crowd the page.
Image: Arjan KC media library.
Competitor bids and job ads
If impression share on the brand term is not ~yours, look at the auction. Common Nepal squatters: aggregators, job boards, and a rival bidding the agency name. Impression-share lost to rank is a bid or Quality Score problem; lost to budget means the brand campaign is throttled — fix that before you pour money into PMax.
Always exclude brand from PMax (or keep a Search campaign Google cannot starve). Setup detail: PMax guide.
Account hygiene
Brand campaigns are useless if the client cannot see search terms — account ownership. Shared KPI with organic: branded queries, Maps calls, direct/WhatsApp after the name search — not “traffic.”
Build the brand keyword list
Start with the legal name and the trading name, then add what people actually type: the romanised Nepali spelling, the common misspelling, the name plus a product (“Gurkha Technology SEO”), the name plus a location, and the name plus “contact”, “phone” or “price”. Review the search terms report after two weeks and move anything that is not about you into the non-brand campaign or the negatives list. Job-seeker queries (“vacancy”, “salary”, “internship”) get their own negative list unless hiring is the goal.
Ad copy for the brand campaign
The person searching already knows you. Do not sell; confirm. Headlines carry the name, the location and the thing they most often ask for. Descriptions carry hours, the phone number, the WhatsApp line and one current offer. Sitelinks go to contact, pricing, services and the case studies page. Keep the landing page the homepage only if the homepage answers those questions above the fold; otherwise build a short brand landing page with the same information.
Do not credit brand for everything
Brand campaigns look efficient because the person was already coming. Report branded and non-brand conversions separately, track Maps calls and direct WhatsApp messages that follow a name search, and treat a rise in brand volume as the result of other channels working, not as the brand campaign’s own win. The Search rebuilds behind the education and home services cases report blended numbers for exactly this reason.
When a competitor bids on your name
Google allows bidding on competitor names; it restricts using a trademark in the ad text. Steps: screenshot the auction with date and query, check the Auction Insights report to confirm who it is, raise the brand bid and fix Quality Score so you hold the top slot, and file a trademark complaint only if the rival’s ad text uses your registered mark. A calm comparison page on your own site often does more than a complaint. Brand CPC in Nepal usually sits below the lowest industry band in the benchmark report; if yours is climbing toward the non-brand bands, somebody is in your auction.
Brand search and ORM share a result page
The paid ad is one line on a results page that also shows your Google Business Profile, your reviews, directory listings and news. A strong brand ad above a two-star profile does not help. Run the two together: online reputation management for the unpaid half, brand Search for the paid half, one landing page and one offer across both.
Next: SEM · negative keywords · hire.
