On Paper, You’re Winning. In Reality, You’re Scaling the Wrong Play.
Let’s get real: PPC is one of the easiest places to lie to yourself—and the biggest culprit is blended reporting.
Most business owners see a single return-on-ad-spend (ROAS) number from their agency (if that) and breathe easy. But what if I told you that the 7.6x ROAS you’re celebrating is actually a 3x draining your marketing budget?
Here’s a simplified version of how we’ve seen that break down:
| Type | Budget | Clicks | CPC | Leads | CPL | Revenue | ROAS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brand | $500.00 | 500 | $1.00 | 50 | $10.00 | $50,000.00 | 100x |
| Non-Brand | $10,000.00 | 500 | $20.00 | 100 | $100.00 | $30,000.00 | 3x |
| Blended | $10,500.00 | 1,000 | $10.50 | 150 | $70.00 | $80,000.00 | 7.6x |
That 7.6x looks impressive—until you realize it’s being carried by $500 in brand spend and masking the fact that your scalable non-brand campaigns are struggling.
Your agency might tell you they don’t separate it because brand is <10% of spend. What they’re conveniently omitting is that it can represent over 50% of revenue because of the disproportionately high intent.
Brand vs Non-Brand PPC: Know the Difference or Pay the Price
Brand PPC: Loyalty Clicks
These are users who already know you. They’re typing in your name directly, like “Jim’s AC Company.” The clicks are cheap, the conversion rates are high, and the revenue is huge—but it’s not scalable.
Non-Brand PPC: The Growth Engine
Here’s where the money goes—and where the competition is brutal. Terms like “AC repair near me” cost $20–$50 a click. Conversion is harder. ROAS is lower. But this is how you acquire new customers and fuel growth.
The Big Lie: Blended ROAS Leads to Broken Forecasts
Let’s say you see a 7.6x blended ROAS and decide to triple your budget to $31,500.
If you don’t split brand from non-brand on Google Ads, you’ll expect $239,400 in revenue (7.6x × $31,500). But if your real non-brand ROAS is 3x, you’re actually on track for just $95,000.
That’s a $144,400 gap—and that’s how businesses over-hire, over-promise, and under-deliver. Not because the strategy was bad, but because the math was.
@freeagency.ai
Brand vs. Non-Brand: One protects your name. The other grows your business.
♬
Your Growth Depends on Segmentation
Here’s what we do for clients at Free Agency:
-
Brand and non-brand campaigns live in separate silos.
-
ROAS and CPL are tracked independently.
-
Non-brand becomes your scalable growth lever, while brand tracks loyalty, reputation, and funnel progression.
-
Forecasting is realistic—and performance is never inflated by familiarity clicks.
How Agencies Benefit from Blended Reporting
Blended paid search ROAS makes agency results look better. Period.
Branded clicks are cheap and convert well. Mix those with non-brand clicks and you inflate overall ROAS. The agency looks like a hero, even when non-brand performance is underwhelming. It’s not always dishonest—but it is misleading. And it gives you a false sense of scalability.
How to Structure Brand vs Non-Brand PPC (Technically)
Don’t just separate campaigns—separate attribution.
Assign a unique ad extension number to your branded PPC so inbound calls are independently tracked. Use ServiceTitan Marketing Pro’s DNI to dynamically insert phone numbers based on source. Then pair it with ServiceTitan’s form scraper to tie web forms directly to campaign-level data.
That’s how you track who actually converted—not just who clicked.
Stop Letting Brand Carry the Weight
Blending brand and non-brand PPC is like putting Usain Bolt and your high school gym teacher on the same relay team and calling their average time impressive.
If you’re trying to scale, you can’t rely on cheap clicks from people who already know you. You need to understand the true cost of acquiring strangers—and you can’t do that with fuzzy reporting.
Curious what your real ROAS looks like when you strip out the fluff?
Let’s Talk »
