Competitive Keyword Bidding Explained: Defending Your Brand

Bidding on a competitor’s brand can be a powerful strategy. But what if you’re the ones being targeted?

A competitor can capitalize on the effort you’ve invested in driving traffic to your website, aiming for quick wins by bidding on your branded keywords. Not ideal.

That’s why it’s so important to be on the pulse of competitors bidding on branded terms that your company’s image and reputation are built on.

But first, it’s important to understand exactly what competitor brand bidding is and how it’s done. You may even be considering this as a potential strategy, so we’ve got the full picture right here.

Let’s jump right in.

What is competitor bidding?

Competitor bidding is when businesses strategically bid on certain keywords (usually branded, but not always) that belong to another brand. This strategy aims to divert potential customers from one brand to another, positioning the competitor’s ad above the targeted brand and capturing its traffic.

This means that when someone intentionally searches for your brand, they may see your competitors’ ad before yours and click there instead.

Sneaky right? That’s why so many businesses think it’s illegal. We’re here to tell you that it’s absolutely not. The only caveat is although anyone can bid on a competitor’s brand name, that brand name can’t be written in the ad itself.

So, really, as long as they don’t pretend to be you, there’s nothing stopping your competitors from targeting the keywords most important to your brand. And vice versa!

Most brands try to fly under the radar and divert the user to their site on the sly. Some companies, however, want to grab attention by getting more creative with their competitive ads. It’s often quite funny to see – when it’s not happening to you, of course.

Take this iconic example of Apple and Samsung’s long standing rivalry playing out in a branded bidding war (an oldie but a goodie):

How do I know if a competitor is bidding on my brand?

Discovering if a competitor is bidding on your branded terms can be challenging. Nobody has time to manually slug through the SERPs searching for new competitive moves.

To properly keep track of competitive bidding, you need a search ad monitoring tool to do it for you.

Here at Similarweb, our Brand Protection tool allows you to track the keywords that are most important to your business. These could be both branded terms and non-branded terms that speak to your core offerings and values.

You can view all the websites that are bidding on your key terms in real time. These are likely to be your established competitors (no surprises there), but also new competitors or copy-cat sites. You’ll be able to see details of their actual ads so you can check out how their ad creatives compare to yours.

We all know the competition doesn’t sleep, so we also give you an optional email alert system that notifies you when bids are made on your branded keywords, so you can identify threats as soon as they emerge. 

Take it a step further with our in-depth reports that let you discover how long their ads have been active, how much of a threat they are and useful ad performance metrics like their position in the SERPs.

How can I stop competitors from running ads on my branded keywords?

Awareness is only half the battle. So, what can you actually do about it?

If a competitor is bidding on your brand keywords in Google ads, there’s nothing you can do to stop them from actually bidding, but you can turn things back in your favor by reacting quickly and decisively.

1) Launch a counter-offence

• Target the keyword more aggressively: If you want to reclaim the top spot for your branded term, simply being more assertive in your keyword strategy for the particular keyword can help regain your traffic share.

• Allocate more budget: No one is suggesting getting caught in a bidding war, but for keywords that are important enough, consider investing more to increase your chances to reclaim your ad’s position.

• Refine your ad copy: Ad copy can make a world of difference. Look at your competitors ad creatives to see if their visuals, messaging or CTAs are more appealing and enticing to the target audience than yours. Take back the edge by incorporating their best ad strategies as you refine your own. Satisfying.

2) Make it less profitable for them to bid in the future

This is a defensive strategy for those willing to play the long game: make it your ultimate goal to discourage competitors from bidding on your branded keywords in the first place.

The best way to achieve this is by consistently delivering high-quality ads that resonate effectively with your audience, which will slowly reduce the return on investment for your competitors.

This, in conjunction with optimizing your landing page experience and focusing on the user’s search intent, can have a huge impact on your quality score/ad relevance scores on PPC platforms.

Higher quality scores reduce your cost-per-click (CPC), lowering your overall paid search spend while keeping your ads in the top spots. A true win, win! Check out our guide to lowering your CPC for the lowdown on this strategy.

BONUS TIP

One of the best ways to use Similarweb is to discover the branded keywords that competitors aren’t bidding on and that you are already ranking at #1 for. You can then switch off paid ads for those keywords and let your organic listing reap the traffic – all while saving a pretty penny

Can I use competitor brand keywords in Google ads?

Using competitor brands in Google ads is a technique many brands have tried and tested. However, if you’re considering bidding on a competitors’ brand name in paid ads, exercise caution and ensure you’re doing it wisely.

Similarweb can help you out here, too:

Competitor keyword research:Deep dive into your competitors’ paid keyword portfolio to see which branded keywords are driving the most traffic. You can analyze their PPC spend to see the potential ROI of the keywords by looking at the search volume and CPC. Then, simply cherry-pick the most lucrative ones to target

Analyze competitor landing pages and ad copy: with our Paid Website Analysis suite, you’ll have the tools to zone right into competitors’ full ad strategy, including their ad creatives.

Discover how they’re positioning themselves, how they’re highlighting features in their copy and what unique angles they’re taking. You’ll have the information you need to design ads and landing pages that outperform them.

Bringing competitive bidding to a close…

Competitive bidding can be a bit of a minefield. You’ve got bold brands aggressively going after their competitors’ most valued key terms and those that remain on guard, ready to fend off any threats.

With Similarweb, we’ve shown that you can do both, with confidence. Staying informed is the key to safeguarding your brand and making the smartest ad spend decisions. But with the right tools, you don’t have to just react, you can proactively increase your traffic share with a smart competitive bidding strategy of your own.

FAQs

What is competitive bidding?

Competitive bidding is a paid search strategy where businesses bid on specific keywords, including those that are branded terms of their competitors, in an effort to capture a share of their audience or divert traffic.

How can I tell if competitors are bidding on my branded keywords?

Utilize tools like Similarweb’s Brand Protection, which will alert you when competitors are bidding on your brand name and branded keywords. Manual checks on search results can also reveal competitor ads, but this is more time consuming than using specialized tools.

How can I protect against competitors bidding on my brand?

• Consistently monitor your branded keywords using platforms like Similarweb
• Refine and optimize your ad campaigns to maintain top positions
• Increase ad spend on critical branded terms to deter competitors
• Improve your landing page and ad quality scores for better ad placements at lower costs

Should you use brand and competitor keywords in your Google Ads campaign?

Yes, bidding on competitors’ brand keywords can be a very effective strategy that helps capture more traffic share and tap into their audience. However, it’s important to approach competitor keyword bidding ethically and strategically.

What’s a good competitive bidding strategy?

A robust competitive bidding strategy involves:

• Continuously monitoring and analyzing competitor keyword activity
• Prioritizing high-value, high-conversion keywords
• Optimizing ad copy and landing pages based on insights
• Adjusting bids dynamically based on campaign performance and competitor activity
• Periodically assessing ROI to ensure keyword bids remain profitable