Originally posted on reddit (r/googleads).
Question
What’s the best way to proceed from an old company name to a new one in Google Ads without losing too much of your brand awareness and so far bidding success with your old domain on keywords and campaigns?
Is it possible to not lose good CPC? Create a new GA account and keep both online simultaneously or make a hard cut? Keep using the old GA-account or a new one?
I’m glad to hear some of your opinions on that. 🙂
Answer
Okay stop one minute: make sure you REALLY need to rename your brand. Are you really sure this is the right thing to do?
Two essential things you need to think of before:
- What do you stand to lose (brand awareness in your case, at the very least)?
- What do you stand to gain?
If you really think the potential gains outweigh the potential losses, that’s okay.
Keep your current GA account, you can still use it, unless your whole business changes name/admin/structure (it’d essentially be a new company).
Keep your old domain in case things go wrong (but also keep it as long as you can to prevent anyone from buying it).
It’s not going to have an impact on CPC except on your old and new brand names, as long as you keep the same content.
If you’re still using your old brand name and your brand name matters a lot, you can use your old brand name in your ads, no problem.
No one’s going to claim copyright on that anyway except yourself, and if it’s already copyrighted you can get whitelisted from Google since you own the brand.
Oh thanks a lot so far!
The current name is too specific and only represents one of our product topics since the brand was established. In order to be seen as trustworthy in the other topics as our competitors, we need to switch to a more broad name.
In fact, it’s just a new name with a new logo. Products and keywords will still be the same. So then, (I think?) just using the current Google Ads account and basically change the brand campaigns keywords and ad texts would technically be the best for keeping the ad performance etc?
I would also go for a renaming-ad group which includes the nee and the current/old name to let users know when they search for our brand name. What do you think?
In that case you can completely keep the old brand. You don’t need to rename entirely if your brand is strong, but you can have something like “old brand by new brand” so people can always relate.
It’s not easy to start over with a new brand and it’s usually a disaster when there’s not enough money to support the renaming awareness efforts.
Look at Twitter becoming X. This kind of company have virtually unlimited money and people won’t change their habit.
Don’t risk it if you’re not sure, but if you really think your brand name is causing prejudice to your growth, then you can consider having a larger brand (like Facebook and Meta).
In terms of ads, keep the old brand campaigns, keep the old brand keywords and add the new brand keyword instead. People will always look for the old brand.
Include old/new name in every opportunity you have to rebuild the name. Don’t expect to transition within a week.
See how your existing audience reacts to it too. Don’t just go blindly with your own ideas, but learn from what you see.
Look, if you have an established brand and you really feel like you need to rename it for greater purposes, do it, but if you don’t have to, don’t.
Branding is important – it’s not something to be taken lightly, and it shouldn’t be something you change like I change fashion (hint: not often, but still too often for a brand).
I’m trying new formats. I’m not sure which one is better… sorry for the inconsistency!