Competitor-based bidding has always been a controversial topic in pay-per-click advertising. IBM could bid for “Amazon Web Services,” for example, but it can’t use the trademarked term in its ad copy. You can say “compared to IBM,” but you can’t say “an alternative to AWS.”
Google allows it Competitor keyword biddingtwo factors are hindering advertisers’ efforts. First, competitive keywords typically have a lower Google Ads Quality Score.
Google assigns a quality score to every keyword. QS measures the relevance of keywords to search queries, ad copy, and landing pages. Keywords that aren’t used in your ad copy are less relevant. Lower QS means higher cost per click. Therefore, your competitors’ keyword bids usually don’t make economic sense.
The second reason is ethics. Is it ethical to bid on your competitors’ keywords? Why not just bid on your own products and brands?
In my experience, it is ethical and applicable within common sense. Competitor keyword bidding gives searchers a choice. Win the best ad.
Competitor inquiries
Competitor advertising Due to Google’s relaxed matching, you may be able to appear on these keywords even if you don’t bid on them. For example, in a query for “Amazon Cloud” and “AWS Cloud Computing,” if IBM bids on “Cloud Computing,” or if Google’s algorithm decides that a user searching for “Amazon Cloud” clicks on IBM’s ad. If we predict that you are likely to do so, you may receive an IBM advertisement. Therefore, unless an advertiser excludes a competitor’s ad with negative keywords, a competitor’s ad may appear for related queries.
Advertisers need to create specific campaigns to control ads and landing pages for competitors’ queries. However, it is essential to have realistic expectations. Competitor-specific campaigns are more likely to have a lower quality score; higher cost per click.
framework
When planning a competitor’s campaign, the first step is to create a landing page. The goal is to persuade searchers to choose another option. Your landing page should reinforce this message and let your visitors know about the unique benefits they can’t get anywhere else.
Consider the following landing page from Five9, a call center software provider. The competitive keyword “Genesys contact center” triggers an ad that links to your page. This page first highlights Five9’s performance (not shown below) and then displays a table comparing its competitors’ features. Persuasive and persuasive.
The table on Five9’s landing page compares the features of its competitors.
Five9’s comparison landing page includes two competitors, Genesys and Nice, but you might focus on one or the other based on volume and response.
The contact form on this page has only three fields, which helps drive conversions. When requesting information from potential customers, less is more.
The quote form only has three fields, which helps drive conversions.
advertising copy
The lower your Quality Score, the fewer ads you’ll see for competitive keywords and the more they’ll cost you. Additionally, competitors’ ads are more likely to include your brand name, making them more relevant to searchers. That ad will almost certainly land in one of the top three positions, above the organic listings. Additionally, branded ads tend to deploy multiple assets and take up more search space. Therefore, ads triggered by competitive keywords may appear, but they may not necessarily stand out.
Advertisers cannot include a competitor’s name in their ad copy, but they can suggest a better alternative. If Five9 bids on “Nice AI,” the ad’s headline might read “Switch to Five9.”
Either way, consider the searcher’s mindset when writing your ad copy.
By “fixing” the heading and description, specific message Appears on all ads. Pinning is important for your competitors’ campaigns, but it can lower your quality score. However, this is acceptable because copy control is important.
It is worth noting that Microsoft Bing displays image-based multimedia ads searched by competitors’ criteria. Below is an example of a Docusign ad triggered by a search for our competitor Signeasy.
When you search for “signeasy” on Bing, you’ll see image ads from Docusign. Click to enlarge.
Ad groups and keywords
Campaign integration Allow Google to collect aggregate data for better purposes bidding strategy.
Typically, your account only needs one search campaign for all your competitors’ ad groups and keywords. One competitor per ad group is usually sufficient unless search volume dictates otherwise.
For example, if each competitor has its own landing page, IBM can use keyword-level URLs to place multiple competitors’ keywords with low search volume into one ad group.
potential buyer
This means that Google’s advertising platform is evolving, and so are the bids on our competitors’ keywords. Keywords influence which ads you see, but other signals (search history, predictive performance, user location) are also important. Your ad is already showing for a competitor’s query. These searchers are potential buyers whose optimized experience will lead to more conversions.
