Anyone who works in digital marketing has inevitably, at some point in their career, come across the management of advertising campaigns on the Google search network. And they have certainly also heard the following question (suggestion, in this case): “What if we advertise the names of our main competitors?”
In 2006, when I started in digital marketing, it was already controversial and generated long discussions, full of ideas like: “Let's put an ad on a billboard in front of my competitor's store”, I still have nightmares about that.
A few days ago, there was news about Magalu and Via Varejo accusing each other of unfair competition in sponsored link campaigns on Google, so I decided to bring up some points that have always been on the agenda of discussions:
Does Google allow or not to sponsor keywords with the competitor brand?
The answer is “more or less” .
Google allows you to choose and bid to appear in search results when someone searches for your competitor's brand, but it does not allow you to use that same brand in the ad text that will appear to users.
A good example below, where when searching for the “pipedrive” tool, other advertisers appear just below, but without using the brand name in the text ad.
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Comparative model of a brand's keyword search on Google
There are some specific situations that Google allows, such as in the case of resellers or large information content portals, for example.
But remember that, for Google to not allow other advertisers to use your brand in the text of their ads, you need to request the restriction from Google , there is another topic about this.
Excerpt where it talks about the non-restricted use as a keyword:
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Excerpt from Google's Registered Keywords Policy
Google Ads Policies Link
How do I prevent advertisers from using my brand in ads?
Google has a form for filing complaints about improper use of the trademark, where you can inform that you are the owner of the trademark and have control over who can or cannot use it, or that you are an advertiser authorized to use it. As an example of resellers, a common case is that of car dealerships. Imagine if Fiat blocked the use of the trademark.
Registering your brand with Google does not prevent competitors' ads from being displayed, but it does prevent your brand from being used in the texts of those ads.
In cases such as Magalu x Via Varejo, the complaint entered the legal sphere and in these russia whatsapp number cases there may be usage blocks that deviate from the standard advertiser policy, where no competitor's ads are appearing when searching for Magalu, for example.
After all, is it a good strategy to sponsor competitor branded keywords?
It depends on who you ask the question to.
I don't think it's a good idea, here are some arguments:
You are not relevant to the search . The user is already searching for another brand, perhaps to access the website and check the status of an order, for example.
“Ah, but for a marketplace it’s interesting, because the user might be looking for a product…”. True, but…
This click is expensive. Being expensive is relative, but without a doubt you will pay MUCH more than the brand itself for the click. I'm talking about 10, 20 times more. The reason is the same as before, you are not relevant and Google knows it . Magalu does not have the term Via Varejo spread throughout all its URLs and content, this results in a low quality index for the advertiser that is not the brand itself, increasing the real cost per click.
It is not ethical. Even though it is subjective, it is not very nice for this to happen in such an open manner as some advertisers have done. I remember serving clients in the past where the owner would call the owner of the competing company and ask them not to do it in a friendly conversation (not always).
Put this energy into your brand . While you are focused on war campaigns on searches that you are not very relevant to, focus on those spaces that your competitor has not yet entered or take advantage of this money in campaigns segmented by intent, for example.
It's not always intentional
But I couldn't help but think about situations we've experienced where all of this happened "unintentionally", let me explain:
Campaigns with dynamic text ads.
Google's platform is quite robust and has many advanced features that help with more agile campaign management. One of them is the possibility of creating a text ad that replaces the ad title with the keyword the user searched for, helping to have much more relevance in the results and for the user.
In these cases, if you had a campaign sponsoring a term such as: “Magalu Appliances” and you are a competitor with dynamic ads that sponsors “appliances”, your text ad would display in the title “Magalu Appliances”, which is the searched term.
Failure to do so can lead to problems. This is a failure to use the platform in accordance with best practices.
Given the robustness of the platform and hundreds of settings, some may go unnoticed. This is where a good practice comes in: including the competitor's brand as a negative keyword in dynamic campaigns, as well as negating other words that don't make sense, such as free and pdf , restricting Google from displaying them when the search contains these terms and saving some coins on non-relevant clicks (in scenarios with tens or hundreds of thousands of clicks per day, this can amount to thousands of reais).
Results by correlation
Google is smart and knows when a search for a certain word is related to a certain subject and in many results it brings up something similar to what you searched for, within the same subject and context. Let's look at an example:
When searching for a specific dental implant practice, Google displays other dental clinics in the results, as they are of the same interest, even if the clinics' campaigns do not include the name of the practice. Google always focuses on what it considers to be the best result for the user's search, in that context.
This advancement in platform resources, especially those that use Machine Learning where you upload some images, click 3 times and leave the rest to the machine, makes us question how much control of some aspects within an advertising strategy still requires human intervention. But that is another topic.
To avoid, negative name of competitors in the campaign.
But is it actually illegal?
There are already judgments that have been judged, generating jurisprudence, it was considered improper use of a brand to generate confusion in the consumer and caused damage to the owner.
So yes, it was considered an illegal practice .
How to avoid having your brand used in competitor ads
Some initiatives that help maintain a presence whenever people search for the brand do not always apply to all scenarios and contexts:
Register your trademark and submit the registration to Google to prevent use;
Invest in SEO for your brand. Google usually displays branded and related results for this specific type of search;
Create a Google Ads campaign for branded terms to ensure you rank high in searches. Remember that no one is more relevant than you when people search for your brand.
I know this last one generates another discussion, “should I sponsor my brand name on Google or not?” , but that’s for next time.