The Ultimate Guide to Google Ads Competitor Bidding

Bidding on competitor keywords in Google Ads is a powerful, albeit complex, strategy for capturing market share and increasing brand visibility. While it can be expensive and requires careful management, a well-executed competitor campaign can place your brand in front of high-intent buyers precisely when they are evaluating their options. The primary goal is not always immediate conversion but rather to build brand recognition and grow your retargeting audiences. This guide provides a comprehensive overview of the key questions, strategies, and best practices for developing a successful competitor bidding strategy.

Should we bid on our competitors' brand names in Google Ads?

Yes, bidding on competitor brand names is a valid and common strategy. The primary objective should be to increase brand awareness and capture clicks for future retargeting efforts, rather than expecting direct sales. This tactic allows you to present your solution to users who are already in the market and actively considering your competition. However, it's crucial to recognize that these campaigns can be expensive and may have a high cost-per-acquisition (CPA). They are often most effective as a defensive measure when competitors are already bidding on your brand terms or as an aggressive strategy to gain market share.

What are the pros and cons of running competitor campaigns?

Understanding the trade-offs of competitor campaigns is essential for setting realistic expectations and budgets.

Pros:

Increased Brand Awareness: It places your brand in front of a relevant, high-intent audience that may not be aware of you. Getting clicks allows you to build a retargeting list to keep your brand visible.
Capture Market Share: You can intercept users at a critical point in their buying journey and persuade them to consider your solution instead.
Highly Relevant Audience: Users searching for your competitors are already qualified and looking for a solution in your category, making the traffic highly relevant.

Cons:

High Cost: Competitor campaigns are often expensive, with a high Cost Per Click (CPC) and Cost Per Acquisition (CPA), as they inherently have a lower Quality Score. One of our own competitor campaigns was paused for this very reason.
Low Click-Through Rate (CTR): Users searching for a specific brand are often loyal and may ignore your ad, leading to a lower CTR.
Risk of a Bidding War: Your actions can prompt competitors to retaliate by bidding on your brand name, driving up costs for everyone. This is a current reality, as competitors are already bidding on our brand terms.
Potential for Legal Issues: Using a competitor's trademarked name improperly in your ad copy can lead to ad disapprovals or legal complaints.

How much more expensive is it to bid on competitor keywords compared to generic terms?

Bidding on competitor keywords is significantly more expensive than bidding on generic, non-branded terms. The primary reason is a lower Quality Score. Google's Quality Score is based on ad relevance, expected click-through rate, and landing page experience. When you bid on a competitor's name, your ad and landing page are naturally less relevant to the search query than the competitor's own assets. This low relevance results in a poor Quality Score, which Google compensates for by charging you a higher Cost Per Click (CPC) to achieve the same ad position. Expect to pay a premium for this traffic.

What kind of results can we realistically expect from a competitor campaign?

The primary goal of a competitor campaign should not be direct conversions or a high return on ad spend (ROAS). Instead, success is measured differently. Realistic expectations include:

Increased Brand Recognition: Your brand will be seen by users actively evaluating solutions in your market.
Clicks for Retargeting: The main objective is often to get a click, which allows you to add the user to a remarketing list and nurture them over time with more targeted messaging.
Higher Impression Share: A key metric is simply showing up when and where your competitors do.

Direct conversions will be fewer and the CPA will be higher compared to brand or generic campaigns. Success is more about the long-term value of the audience you build rather than immediate sales.

Do we need dedicated landing pages to run a successful competitor campaign?

Yes, dedicated landing pages are critical for the success of a competitor campaign. Sending traffic from a competitor keyword to a generic homepage or product page is inefficient and leads to a poor user experience. A successful competitor campaign was paused in the past due to high costs, with the primary recommendation for improvement being the creation of a dedicated "head-to-head comparison" landing page. This ensures message match from the ad to the page and directly addresses the user's search intent, which is to compare solutions.

What type of content should be on a competitor comparison landing page?

A competitor comparison landing page should be designed to build trust and clearly articulate your value proposition. Key elements include:

Acknowledge the User's Search: Start with a headline that confirms you are a valid alternative to the competitor they searched for (e.g., "Looking for a [Competitor] Alternative?").
Head-to-Head Comparison Table: Create a fair, factual, and easy-to-read table that compares key features, focusing on areas where your product excels.
Highlight Your Unique Selling Propositions (USPs): Clearly explain what makes your solution different and better.
Social Proof: Include customer testimonials (especially from users who switched from the competitor), case studies, and trust badges from review sites like G2 or Gartner.
Clear Call-to-Action (CTA): Guide the user to the next step, whether it's booking a demo, starting a trial, or speaking with a sales representative.

Is it legal to use our competitor's name in our ad copy?

This is a nuanced area governed by Google's trademark policy. Generally, you can bid on a competitor's trademarked brand name as a keyword. However, you are typically not allowed to use their trademarked name in your ad copy (headlines and descriptions), as this can imply endorsement or cause user confusion. There are exceptions for resellers and informational sites. A common and safer approach is to allude to the competitor without using their name directly, such as in the ad copy, "Paying too much for your current solution?" or focusing on being a "Better Alternative."

How do we prevent our own ads from showing up when people search for our brand plus a competitor?

The best practice is to use negative keywords. In your competitor-focused campaign (where you are bidding on terms like "Competitor X"), you should add your own brand name as a negative keyword. This ensures that when someone searches for "Your Brand vs. Competitor X," your dedicated brand campaign ad is triggered, not your competitor conquesting ad. This allows you to control the messaging and direct the user to the most relevant page for that comparison query, while keeping campaign performance data clean.

What are the best practices for creating a head-to-head comparison table that is both effective and fair?

An effective and fair comparison table builds trust while highlighting your strengths. Best practices include:

Focus on User Outcomes: Instead of just listing features, frame the comparison around the benefits and solutions to customer pain points.
Be Honest and Factual: Use publicly available information to represent your competitor's offering accurately. Misrepresentation can damage your credibility and lead to legal issues.
Choose Differentiating Features: Select comparison points that showcase your unique advantages and where you genuinely outperform the competition.
Use Clear Visuals: Employ checkmarks, simple "Yes/No" indicators, or brief, clear descriptions to make the table easy to scan and understand.
Include Social Proof: Add ratings or quotes from third-party review sites like G2 alongside features to add a layer of unbiased validation.

How do we measure the success of a competitor bidding strategy?

Success for competitor campaigns is not measured by the same standards as other campaigns. Instead of focusing on direct conversions and ROAS, prioritize these metrics:

Impression Share: This tells you how often your ad appears for searches on your competitor's name. It's a primary indicator of visibility.
Click-Through Rate (CTR): A higher CTR indicates that your ad copy is compelling enough to entice users to consider an alternative.
Clicks and Traffic: The main goal is often to generate a click to bring a user to your website and add them to a remarketing audience.
Audience Growth: Track the growth of your remarketing lists populated by these campaigns.
Assisted Conversions: Analyze how often these campaigns are a touchpoint in a user's journey that eventually leads to a conversion, even if it's not the final click.

Should we target keywords like '[Competitor] alternative' or '[Competitor] pricing'?

Absolutely. These are high-intent, bottom-of-the-funnel keywords that should be a cornerstone of any competitor bidding strategy. Someone searching for a "[Competitor] alternative" is actively looking to switch and is highly receptive to your message. Similarly, a search for "[Competitor] pricing" indicates a user is in the final stages of their evaluation process. While these keywords may have a higher CPC, the traffic they generate is extremely qualified and more likely to convert than a simple brand-name search.

What is the risk of competitors retaliating by bidding on our brand name?

The risk is very real and, in many cases, already a reality. The internal context shows that competitors are actively bidding on our brand and product names. Engaging in competitor bidding can escalate this into a full-blown "bidding war," where both sides aggressively bid on each other's brand terms. This drives up the CPC for everyone, making it more expensive for you to defend your own brand name and for them to defend theirs. It's a mutually destructive cycle that primarily benefits Google.

How does bidding on competitor terms affect our overall Quality Score?

Bidding on competitor terms will negatively impact your Quality Score for those specific keywords. Quality Score is determined by ad relevance, landing page experience, and expected click-through rate. When a user searches for "Competitor X," your ad and landing page (which are about your brand) are inherently less relevant than the competitor's own. This leads to a low Quality Score, which in turn means you must pay a higher CPC to maintain your ad position. To mitigate this, it is crucial to isolate competitor campaigns so their lower scores do not affect the account's overall performance metrics.

Should competitor campaigns have their own separate budget?

Yes, absolutely. Competitor campaigns should always be housed in their own separate campaign with a dedicated budget. This is for several reasons:

Budget Control: These campaigns can be expensive, and a separate budget prevents them from draining funds from better-performing generic or brand campaigns.
Performance Isolation: As they naturally have lower Quality Scores and higher CPAs, isolating them prevents their metrics from negatively skewing the performance data of your other campaigns.
Strategic Bidding: It allows you to use a different bidding strategy tailored for competitor terms, such as Target Impression Share, rather than a conversion-focused strategy.

How do we identify which competitors are worth targeting with paid ads?

A strategic approach is needed to select the right competitors to target. Key methods include:

Use Google's Auction Insights Report: This report within Google Ads shows which other domains are frequently appearing in the same auctions as you. This is your most direct source of PPC competitors.
Analyze SERPs: Manually search for your top keywords and see which competitors are consistently running ads.
Target Direct Competitors: Focus on rivals whose customers could realistically switch to your product. The internal context already identifies key players like Tenable, Arctic Wolf, and Qualys.
Consider Price-Based Angles: If a competitor is known to be expensive, you can target them with a value-based message, such as the competitor ad, "paying too much for Rapid seven?"

Start with a small, focused list of 1-3 key rivals, measure the results, and expand or adjust your strategy based on performance.

Can we show our ads when someone searches for a competitor, even if we can't use their name in the ad text?

Yes. This is the fundamental principle of competitor bidding. You are permitted by Google's policy to bid on your competitor's brand name as a keyword. This action makes your ad eligible to appear when a user searches for that term. The primary restriction is on using their trademarked name within your ad copy (the headline and description). Instead of using their name, your ad copy should focus on highlighting your value proposition, using phrases like "A Powerful Alternative to..." or focusing on the product category itself to attract the user's click.