Branded keywords
Branded keywords are searches that include your brand's name or a product's name, like "Fernhill Coffee subscription".
Branded keywords are searches that include your brand's name, or the name of one of your products. Searches like "Fernhill Coffee subscription" and "Fernhill discount code" are branded, and so is the plain name. "Best coffee subscription" is unbranded, because it names nobody.
The split matters because the two groups tell you different things. Unbranded searches show whether new people find you. Branded searches show how many people already know your name and are looking for you.
What branded searches tell you
People only search for your name once they've heard it somewhere: from a friend, an ad, a review or an AI answer. So a rise in branded searches is often the clearest sign that your marketing elsewhere is working.
They also carry intent. Someone searching "Fernhill subscription price" is close to buying. If the results show an old price, a reseller or a competitor's ad, you lose people who were already on their way.
Branded keywords and AI answers
AI search has its own version: the branded prompt, a question to an AI platform that names you. Like a branded search, it shows what someone hears once they have your name. Are your prices right? Does the answer describe what you sell? Does it suggest a competitor?
For example, Kestrel Roasters notices branded searches for "Kestrel decaf" climbing. When it asks the AI platforms whether Kestrel's decaf is any good, two of them say Kestrel doesn't sell decaf, because they're reading a review from before the product launched. The interest is there. The answers are sending it away.
Keep branded searches and branded prompts apart from unbranded ones when you report. Mixed together, they make you look more visible than you are.
In AnswerOrbit
Connect Google Ads under Connections in Settings, and we put the keywords you bid on, branded ones included, next to your visibility on each topic. Keep branded prompts in their own topic or tag so you can filter them out of your numbers. What their answers say about you is checked against your facts in Claims.