What Is Brand Bidding? A Complete Guide for Marketers

Brand bidding is one of the most common — and most misunderstood — tactics in paid search. If you've ever searched for a well-known company on Google and noticed a competitor's ad at the top of the results, you've seen brand bidding in action.

This guide covers everything marketers need to know: how it works technically, whether it's legal, why companies do it, and what you can do to protect your brand.

What is brand bidding?

Brand bidding is the practice of targeting a competitor's brand name as a keyword in a Google Ads campaign. The goal is simple: when someone searches for a specific brand, the bidder's ad appears alongside — or above — that brand's organic listing.

Here's a concrete example. Imagine someone searches "Nike running shoes" on Google. Adidas could bid on that exact keyword so their ad appears at the top of the results. The searcher was looking for Nike, but the first thing they see is an Adidas ad promoting their latest running shoe. If the ad is compelling enough, some percentage of those searchers will click — and Adidas has just acquired a customer who was originally heading to a competitor.

This isn't a niche or aggressive tactic. Brand bidding is widespread across virtually every competitive industry. SaaS companies bid on each other's names routinely. Insurance comparison sites bid on individual insurer brands. Law firms bid on rival firms. If there's search volume on a brand name, someone is almost certainly bidding on it.

How brand bidding works technically

Understanding the mechanics helps you grasp both the opportunities and the limitations of brand bidding.

Keyword targeting

At its core, brand bidding is just keyword targeting. An advertiser adds a competitor's brand name — or variations of it — as a keyword in their Google Ads campaign. They might target:

Exact match: [nike running shoes]
Phrase match: "nike running shoes"
Broad match: nike running shoes

Exact and phrase match give the advertiser more control over when their ad appears. Broad match can trigger ads for a wider range of related searches but risks showing ads on irrelevant queries.

Most sophisticated brand bidders use exact match or phrase match to keep their targeting precise and their costs controlled.

Ad copy rules

Here's where it gets nuanced. While Google allows anyone to bid on any keyword — including trademarked terms — the rules around ad copy are different.

Google restricts the use of trademarked terms in ad text. If Nike has registered their trademark with Google, Adidas generally cannot write "Better than Nike" in their headline. They can bid on the keyword "Nike," but their ad copy needs to promote their own brand and products without referencing Nike's trademark.

There are exceptions. Resellers, informational sites, and authorised advertisers may be permitted to use trademarked terms in certain contexts. But for direct competitors, the general rule is: bid on whatever keywords you like, but keep the competitor's name out of your ad copy.

Quality Score dynamics

Brand bidding creates an inherent Quality Score disadvantage for the bidder. Google's Quality Score algorithm heavily weights relevance — and an Adidas ad is inherently less relevant to a "Nike" search than a Nike ad or Nike's organic listing.

This means brand bidders typically pay a higher cost per click than the brand owner would for the same keyword. A brand owner might pay £0.30 for a click on their own name; a competitor bidding on that same term might pay £1.50 or more.

The Quality Score gap also affects ad position. Even if a competitor bids aggressively, they may not always appear above the brand owner's ad (if the brand is running one) because Google factors in relevance alongside bid amount.

This natural disadvantage is part of what makes brand bidding a calculated gamble — the economics only work if the conversion rate on stolen traffic justifies the premium cost per click.

Is brand bidding legal?

Yes. Brand bidding is legal in the UK, the EU, and the United States.

The most significant UK case on this topic is Interflora v Marks & Spencer, which went through multiple rounds of litigation and was ultimately settled. The case centred on M&S bidding on the keyword "Interflora" to promote their own flower delivery service.

The European Court of Justice established a key principle: bidding on a competitor's trademark as a keyword is not, in itself, trademark infringement. The line is crossed when the ad creates confusion about the identity of the advertiser — for example, if a reasonable person might believe the ad was placed by the trademark owner.

In practice, this means:

Bidding on a competitor's brand name as a keyword: Legal.
Using a competitor's brand name in your ad copy: Potentially problematic, especially if it creates confusion about who is advertising.
Implying you are the brand owner or are affiliated with them: Crosses the line into potential infringement.

Google's own trademark policy aligns with this legal framework. They allow keyword bidding but restrict ad copy usage of trademarked terms when the trademark owner files a complaint.

The bottom line for marketers: brand bidding as a keyword strategy is entirely legal. Where you need to be careful is in your ad copy, where any suggestion that you are or represent the competitor's brand could create both legal exposure and a Google policy violation.

Why companies bid on competitor brands

Brand bidding persists because it works — in specific circumstances and for specific objectives.

Stealing high-intent traffic

Someone searching for a competitor by name has high purchase intent. They know what they want and they're close to a transaction. Intercepting that search is far more valuable than reaching someone at the top of the funnel who's still researching broadly. The conversion rates on competitor brand traffic, while lower than your own brand traffic, are often significantly higher than generic non-brand keywords.

Lower customer acquisition cost

Paradoxically, even though the cost per click on competitor brand terms is higher than your own brand terms, it can be lower than broad non-brand keywords in competitive industries. In sectors like insurance, legal services, or enterprise software, non-brand CPCs can exceed £10-15. A competitor brand click at £2-3 that converts at a reasonable rate can represent a cheaper acquisition channel.

Competitive positioning

Brand bidding sends a signal. When a challenger brand consistently appears alongside an established incumbent, it creates an association in the searcher's mind. Even if they don't click, the repeated presence positions the challenger as a legitimate alternative. This is particularly common in SaaS, where emerging players bid on established incumbents' names as part of a broader competitive strategy.

Affiliate brand bidding

A particularly problematic variant is affiliate brand bidding, where affiliates bid on a brand's name to earn commission on sales they route through their affiliate links. The brand ends up paying commission on sales that would have come directly. This is widely prohibited in affiliate programme terms, but enforcement is inconsistent and detection is difficult.

The impact of brand bidding on the targeted brand

If competitors are bidding on your brand name, the effects are tangible and measurable.

Increased CPCs on your own terms

If you're running a brand campaign, competitor activity pushes up the auction price. What might have cost £0.20 per click without competition could rise to £0.80 or more. Your brand defence becomes progressively more expensive as more competitors enter the auction.

Lost impression share

Google Ads impression share data will show you what percentage of available impressions your brand ads are capturing. Competitor activity directly reduces this number. If your brand impression share drops from 95% to 70%, competitors are taking 25% of the opportunities to appear on your brand terms.

Revenue leakage

The clicks that go to competitors represent lost revenue. If a competitor captures even 5-10% of your brand search traffic, and those searches had a high conversion rate, the revenue impact compounds quickly. For a brand with 50,000 monthly brand searches converting at 5% with a £100 average order value, losing 10% of that traffic means £25,000 per month in lost sales.

Forced defensive spending

Perhaps the most insidious impact is the pressure to run brand campaigns defensively. As we've explored in our analysis of brand campaign economics, approximately 80% of brand ad clicks cannibalise organic traffic. Competitor brand bidding forces you into spending money to defend traffic you'd otherwise get for free — and most of that defensive spend is wasted on clicks you would have received anyway.

How to detect brand bidding

Knowing whether competitors are bidding on your brand is the first step to responding effectively. There are three main approaches, each with different trade-offs.

Google Ads Auction Insights

If you're already running brand campaigns, the Auction Insights report in Google Ads shows you which competitors are appearing in the same auctions. You can see their impression share, overlap rate, and position above rate.

The limitation is obvious: you need to be running brand ads to access this data. If you've paused brand campaigns (or never ran them), Auction Insights gives you nothing.

Manual searches

The simplest approach is to search your brand name on Google and see what appears. Use an incognito or private browsing window to reduce personalisation effects.

The problem with manual searches is that they're unreliable. Google Ads results vary by location, device, time of day, day of week, and numerous other factors. You might search ten times and never see a competitor ad that's appearing for 30% of brand searches. Or you might see one that's only running a brief test and isn't a meaningful threat.

Manual searching also doesn't scale. You can't check every hour, from every location, across every device. Competitors can enter and exit your brand auctions without you ever noticing.

Automated monitoring

The most reliable approach is automated SERP monitoring that checks your brand terms at regular intervals and alerts you when competitors appear. This removes the variability of manual searches and gives you consistent, location-controlled data.

SerpAlert monitors your brand terms hourly, checking from controlled locations to give you an accurate picture of what's appearing on your brand SERPs. When a competitor's ad is detected, you receive an alert within 60 minutes — giving you the information you need to decide how to respond.

Run a free brand audit to get an immediate snapshot of whether competitors are bidding on your brand terms right now.

How to respond to brand bidding

Once you know competitors are targeting your brand, you have several response options. The most effective approach combines multiple tactics.

File trademark complaints

If a competitor is using your brand name in their ad copy — not just bidding on the keyword, but actually writing your name into their headlines or descriptions — file a trademark complaint with Google. Since February 2025, this needs to be done on a per-ad, per-advertiser basis, as Google removed the proactive blanket protection system.

Be aware that a successful complaint only prevents ad copy usage. The competitor can and almost certainly will continue bidding on your keyword — they'll just rewrite their ad to promote their own brand without mentioning yours.

Optimise your organic presence

A strong organic listing is your best permanent defence. Ensure your brand SERP includes:

Your website ranking first with expanded site links
A Google Business Profile (if applicable) with reviews
Social media profiles occupying additional positions
Relevant subsidiary or product pages filling the results

The more of the SERP you own organically, the less space is available for competitors to capture attention — even when their ads are present.

Monitor and defend when needed

Rather than running a permanent brand campaign, adopt a monitor-and-react strategy. This means watching your brand SERPs continuously and only activating paid brand defence when competitor activity is detected.

This approach saves significant budget during periods when no competitors are active (which, for most brands, is the majority of the time) while still providing full protection when it's genuinely needed.

Use the brand bidding calculator to estimate how much this approach could save you compared to an always-on brand campaign.

Direct competitor outreach

In some industries, particularly B2B, it's worth reaching out to competitors directly. A conversation along the lines of "we've noticed you're bidding on our brand; we'll start bidding on yours if you continue" can sometimes lead to a mutual agreement to stop. This has no legal enforceability, but the mutually assured destruction dynamic can be effective among rational competitors.

The bottom line

Brand bidding is a permanent feature of the Google Ads landscape. It's legal, it's common, and Google has no incentive to restrict it — they profit from the increased auction competition.

Your response should be proportionate and data-driven. Know when it's happening, respond where the rules allow, and invest in defence only when the threat is real. The brands that manage this well don't waste money on permanent defensive spending — they maintain awareness of their competitive landscape and act decisively when needed.

The first step is always knowing what's happening on your brand SERPs. Everything else follows from that.