Competitors Bidding on Your Brand Name: What You Can Stop

Search your own brand and a rival’s ad sits above your result. The first reaction is often to call it a violation. Usually it is not, and knowing the difference saves a lot of wasted effort.

Can competitors bid on my brand name?

Yes. Google does not restrict trademarks used as keywords, so a competitor can bid on your brand name, and no complaint will change that. The answer to brand bidding is a commercial one, covered below.

Can competitors use my brand name in their ad text?

That is different. Under Google’s trademark policy, the owner of a trademark can complain about its use in the words of an ad, and Google can then restrict it. So a rival’s ad reading “Better than [your brand]” can often be reported, even though the same rival’s bid on your name cannot.

There are exceptions. A reseller whose page clearly sells your product can often use the name, and so can sites that give information about it. Ordinary-word use, and the mark in an advertiser’s own web address, are also left alone. This is also the answer to the question from the other side: you can bid on a competitor’s name, and a complaint can stop you putting it in your ad text.

How do I file a Google Ads trademark complaint?

Start in Google’s “Report Content on Google” flow. The screens can change, but the path is:

1. Choose a Search ad, then legal reasons, then intellectual property.
2. Choose the trademark option for use likely to cause confusion.
3. Confirm you are the owner, or authorised to act for the owner.
4. Complete Google’s trademark form.

Google accepts complaints against specific advertisers, identified by web address, in the countries and industries where you can show your rights. A restriction then applies to that advertiser’s ads, not just the one you saw. Until 24 July 2023 a brand could ask for a restriction across all advertisers. That has ended, so a rival you did not name is not covered and each new one takes a new report.

What happens after a complaint, and how long does it take?

Google publishes no timing. This part comes from experience of about a hundred reports filed for advertisers, most of them before Google’s July 2023 change, so treat it as a guide:

• A correct report nearly always succeeds. Most of those turned down were not correct to begin with.
• A takedown usually came through in one to three working days.
• An ad can be reported for as long as it is live.

Check the case first. A complaint about a keyword goes nowhere, and it costs you time you could spend on the auction itself.

How do I see who is bidding on my brand?

Open the auction insights report on your brand campaign. It names domains in those auctions and how often each one shows above you. Google leaves out insights where impression share falls below 10%, and the report shows neither ad text nor spend.

To read the ad text, search the domain in Google’s Ads Transparency Center, which shows the ads an advertiser has run.

How do I stop competitors bidding on my brand?

You cannot make Google stop them, since the bid itself is allowed. You have three realistic moves:

• Talk to partners and affiliates. If a business you work with is bidding on your name, your agreement with it is the place to settle that.
• Report the ad text where it uses your trademark.
• Hold your place in the auction, by bidding on your own name.

Should you bid on your own brand name?

Our view: usually yes, once a rival is showing there. If nobody else bids on your name, your own organic result may catch most of those clicks anyway, and you can test that by pausing for a short period in one market. If a rival is there, pausing hands them the top of the page on the searches most likely to buy from you.

The useful question is what holding that place is worth, and that needs a figure. Vickrey shows who takes the clicks on your brand searches. See it on a made-up airline in the live demo.