2nd October '17
It’s Clear; Don’t Design Your AdWords Bidding Around Competitors
When using Google AdWords to promote your business, it’s important to keep an eye out for new ways to refine your campaign. Whether it’s devising compelling ad copy or targeting new, topical keywords, ensuring your ads are relevant to the user’s query is essential.
Why you shouldn’t bid on your competitor’s brand name in Google AdWords
Costs money
Don’t forget, every time someone clicks one of your ads, you pay Google. Ask yourself, is that click on your competitor’s brand name really worth the cost? Would it not be better to pay for a legitimate click that’s likely to convert into a lead or sale?
Won’t necessarily be relevant to the query
If a person is specifically searching for your competitor and your ad appears instead, any clicks it generates won’t really be relevant to that person’s query. For instance, if someone searching for Asda clicks on an ad that’s for Morrisons, that’s not really going to meet their original query, as ultimately, they wanted to reach Asda’s website. Chances are they’ll realise the ad wasn’t what they were looking for and click back to the search results, leaving you out of pocket. Which brings us onto…
Bounce rate increase
When people regularly click back to the search results, your bounce rate will increase. This indicates to Google that people are not as engaged with your content, subsequently meaning they are less likely to display your ads in a prominent position for future queries. And not only that…
Click-through rate decrease
As we’ve already mentioned, people looking for a specific brand have their mind set on dealing with that particular company. Your ads are therefore not as relevant to their search, meaning they’re less likely to click through to your website. Ultimately, this will decrease your click-through rate. Whilst this may not sound so bad, it can in fact decrease your Quality Score, in turn, making it more expensive for your ads to display in the long run.
Could cause a war
If your competitors were to catch on to what you’re doing, they could use the same tactic against your brand, drawing traffic away from your own website and potentially poaching your leads or sales.
Increase bids on your own brand name
If the above were to happen and your competitor started bidding on your brand name, this would drive up the cost. Multiple companies bidding on the same keywords increases the cost and, if it’s your name in question, it could ultimately mean you end up paying more for a conversion on your own brand.
Negative reputation effects
Finally, in all honesty, it can look a little desperate. Your ultimate goal is to generate legitimate website visits under your own steam. Bidding on your competitor’s brand name makes it seem like you’re having to piggy-back off their online presence.
Our advice?
Focus instead on building a strong campaign around your own brand, your USPs and, instead, highlight what makes you different from your competitor; what can you offer that they won’t?
If you focus your effort into writing compelling ad copy, targeting highly relevant keywords and pointing people to the most appropriate page on your website, your ads will meet a person’s needs anyway, making them much more likely to convert into a lead or sale.
