When a competitor is bidding on your brand
When a competitor, affiliate, or reseller starts bidding on your brand name in Google Ads, your own customers can end up clicking someone else on a search they meant for you. It usually isn’t illegal — but it can quietly siphon off traffic and push up what you pay to appear on your own name.
These guides help you confirm what’s actually happening, tell a genuine competitor apart from one of your own affiliates, and decide how hard it’s worth pushing back.
Guides in this category
5 guidesA competitor is bidding on your brand name. Here’s what to do.
A competitor on your branded searches is usually legal — but you are not powerless. How to confirm it, what Google’s rules actually allow, and the four levers that push them back.
How to stop competitors bidding on your brand name
You can’t switch a competitor off, but you can make bidding on your brand painful and unprofitable for them. The defensive playbook, step by step.
A competitor is using your brand name in their ad copy
Using your trademark in ad text is the one brand-bidding move Google will actually act on. How to document it and file a trademark complaint that sticks.
Affiliates and partners bidding on your brand terms
Your own affiliates bidding on your brand can cost you money you’d have earned for free. How to spot it, what your program terms should say, and how to enforce them.
Why your branded search CPC is climbing
A rising cost-per-click on your own brand name usually means someone else is in the auction. How to diagnose the cause and bring it back down.