Google Ads Targeting Competitors Brand Name In Google?

[Scotty52]

When I searched for ChatGPT in Google, I saw Claude AI come up as a sponsored result.

Now I'm no PPC expert, but I always thought this wasn't allowed?

Don't get me wrong, it makes sense for Claude to do this with the current ChatGPT drama, but still, Google allows this?

 

[Preying Mantis]

I bet @roydan would know. Bro is a genius at PPC.

 

[Mr_Underhill]

Targeting competitors is a pretty common strategy. It's allowed as long as you're not pretending to be the competitor, and of course don't use their name in your ad copy, etc. Also, competitor names typically have a higher cpc.

 

[roydan]

It's not only allowed and widely used, Google is pretty much forcing you to do it when you use broad match type, unless you manually exclude all of your competitors.

The cool thing is, as @Mr_Underhill said, it usually has a higher CPC because the quality score is somewhere between 1-2/10. That being said, if the triggering keyword is directly relevant (for example, MOZ can advertise on the keyword 'SEO Tools', which will make a lot of sense, but that work (if set to broad) will trigger your ads even when someone searches for SEMRush) the quality score is being pushed up by other relevant searches, lowering the CPC for competitors brands.

Pretty cool

 

[t2van]

When I searched for ChatGPT in Google, I saw Claude AI come up as a sponsored result.

Now I'm no PPC expert, but I always thought this wasn't allowed?

Don't get me wrong, it makes sense for Claude to do this with the current ChatGPT drama, but still, Google allows this?

Yeah it's common place.

You can also adapt the exact same strategy for organic providing you don't make false claims or use the competitors logo etc just copy the same kind of page layout as they use for PPC with a pro / cons table. Pricing differences and pain points with that competitor that you solve and so on.

You can go after things like:

- competitor alternative
- competitor product problems
- competitor contact
- competitor complaints
- competitor reviews

With the right amount of effort you can land up on page 1 sit between 3 and 5 in the SERPs and get a bit of exposure.

No one does that really, as I think most are scared or just go down the PPC but it works and does work well (from my own experience)

 

[roydan]

or just go down the PPC

You mean 'rise up' to PPC, right?

 

[FrankImawn]

You mean 'rise up' to PPC, right?

He means go down on the PPC.