A competitor is bidding on my brand name
- Thread starter jimbobber
- Start date
I wish we could, we don't have the funds to that
- Dec 26, 2013
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Unless you have trademarked your brand name there is nothing you can do.
Even then you can only try to stop them using paid results. If they are ranking organically there is nothing you can do in any event.
Even then you can only try to stop them using paid results. If they are ranking organically there is nothing you can do in any event.
Even then you can only try to stop them using paid results. If they are ranking organically there is nothing you can do in any event.[/QUOTE]
Yes my brand name is a registered trademark.
I reported this to Google, and they said that unless they use my brand name in ads they will not do anything about it.
Yes my brand name is a registered trademark.
I reported this to Google, and they said that unless they use my brand name in ads they will not do anything about it.
sonyhp
Regular Member
- Jul 14, 2011
- 262
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I think even if you have a registered trademark, you can't do anything except outbidding them.
- Dec 26, 2013
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If you own a trademark, you can prevent others using it without your permission. For example you can report it to google.
https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/6118
kids1412
Regular Member
- Jul 19, 2013
- 391
- 120
yup, it's allowed by google as long as they do not include your brand name in their ad copies.
- Dec 26, 2013
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Well @kids1412 if they are not using your brand name but simply bidding on it to ensure they appear top of the search results, there is nothing you can do except outbid them.
But it demonstrates they regard you as a direct rival, can you not do it back to them?
If so focus your copy on the aspects of your product that are better than theirs.
But it demonstrates they regard you as a direct rival, can you not do it back to them?
If so focus your copy on the aspects of your product that are better than theirs.
D
Deleted member 1161191
Guest
That's so 2014.
- Aug 28, 2014
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D
Deleted member 1161191
Guest
No better ideas. It's BH not illegal. Many offers restrict brand bidding - BH affiliates still do that and advertisers can't do anything. (my friend also does competitor brand bidding - nothing happens)
You outbid 'em or live with it.
- Apr 25, 2011
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Its pretty standard practice, I see a lot of brands doing this in different niches. The competition should be making you strive for excellence - you have to be the best you can be, then people will continue to use your services. If they think brand X might be offering something better, they'll try them out.
Thanks for your advice
I suppose it's somthing that I have to live with as we are a small business and I can not out bid them.
D
Deleted member 1161191
Guest
Try it once, make your page/lp as good and relevant as possible - quality score will go high - CPC will go low - try it out. it might worth to advertise on adwords.
- Jul 26, 2016
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Don't worry, Google knows how to handle invalid clicks.
P.s OP, if you can't outbid them you should focus your forces somewhere else then. Try and rank for other keywords. Note that, the majority of the people don't click on ads, and especially if they're searching for your brand.
Also, do you notice if you had declines in your sales when they started to show for your brand name?
ak2ae
Regular Member
- Jul 20, 2008
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If they are bidding on your brand it is likely they are have a quality score between 1-2. As it is your brand you should naturally have a keyword quality score of 8+. With this in mind they will have to bid considerably more to outbid you in adwords. Sometimes up to 10x your bid. Brand bidding is pretty common practice and is carried out by many large brands in all industries. Google therefore offers some protecting through the Quality Score rating.
AdvertisingGuy
Junior Member
- May 8, 2019
- 149
- 170
This is the correct answer.
To expand on this point, let's say I do a search in Google for "Cabellas." I might get three paid search links -- Cabellas, Bass Pro Shops and Dick's Sporting Goods (which in case you didn't know, are all sporting / hunting stores in the USA). But since I'm searching for Cabellas and not the other two stores, I'm much more likely to click on the Cabellas link. Google assigns a quality score for links that give the searcher the information they're looking for and the links they're most likely to click. If people search for "Cabellas" and they're most often clicking on your link, you'll get a higher quality score. This makes it cheaper for you to bid on relevant keywords and more expensive for others to bid on keywords which are not as relevant.
The good news for @jimbobber is that competitors doing this is proof that the brand is valuable and because of quality score, they're the ones spending big dollars to take it down.
The right play IMO would be to do really good keyword research to find some exact match keywords that overlap with the brand. This will help you beat your competitors, spend wisely and make money all at the same time. Getting into a bidding war with their keywords is expensive / wasteful.
Geezyy
Newbie
- Dec 24, 2018
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Since it's your brand name your quality score is going to be higher than them and you should be able to beat them with smaller bids.