Opened up what was labeled a non-branded campaign in an account once, and the ta
By Elizabeth Greene · September 25, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
Opened up what was labeled a non-branded campaign in an account once, and the targets inside it were branded keywords and branded ASINs.
So the "non-branded" number in the report was defense sitting under a growth label.
I set targets last.
A target is only meaningful once you know what the campaign's actual job is.
The campaign name won't tell you that, and people trust it anyway.
So I go looking at the target level.
Keywords and the products being targeted.
Is this actually your brand name, or a variation of it, or your own ASIN?
Then it's branded, whatever campaign it's sitting in.
And then the targets can be different, because the jobs are different:
→ Branded keywords get a lower target.
Why would I overpay to convert someone who already searched my name?
Exact match ranking gets a higher one, because I need to tolerate that ACoS while velocity builds.
→ Auto gets a low one. I'm not funding discovery at a ranking-campaign price.
→ Sponsored Display, heck no. Those can work, but I'm not losing money on retargeting when DSP exists.
Put one number across all of that and the algorithm does exactly what you told it to.
It cuts the ranking keyword you needed to protect.
It feeds the branded terms, because branded looks like the winner on performance alone.
Honestly, picking 25% before anyone opened the search term report is a strange thing to do.
What's your target sitting at right now, and which campaign did you set it from?