Your customer entered your brand on Google: does it reach you?

Brand research on Google is still a critical point in the buying journey, because there the customer is looking exactly for you, ready to validate your existence and decide whether to continue or give up.

Today, consumers can use social networks to search for products and services, but Google still reigns when it comes to discoveries. With about 91% of the search market, it remains a decisive part of most buying journeys.

However, even with a good SEO job, competitors may be stealing your traffic from Google. Do you want to understand how to ensure that your customer reaches you and doesn't end up in the hands of third parties? Check out the complete guide we prepared!

What happens when your customer searches for you on Google?

Google search is today the first stage of the consumer journey, the so-called Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT), when the client validates that the company is real, that it has authority and that it is active in the market. If at that moment the brand does not appear in the first positions, the consumer tends to look for another option.

Second perusal From Backlinko, the first-place result usually receives about 27.6% of all organic clicks, and the click-through rate (“CTR”) drops sharply as you go down the results.

The practical effect is: if your brand doesn't appear among the first results, it almost automatically loses the chance of being discovered by customers.

How do competitors capture their audience with paid ads in brand research?

Some brands capture an audience by buying keywords related to the name of more famous companies on Google for the purpose of display sponsored links at the top of the search results page.

The practice, known as Brand Bidding, works like this: after typing your brand in the Google search bar, the user is faced with advertisements from other companies before the organic results.

Many consumers don't differentiate what an advertisement is from what is an organic result. If the competitor is highlighted at the top of the page, there are high chances that the user will click on the link without even realizing that they are not accessing the brand they were looking for.

A buying terms from competitors It happens because Google Ads operates in the format of a keyword auction. By acquiring the right to show ads whenever your brand name is searched, the competitor is able to appear in privileged positions.

What is the impact of unfair competition on Google?

The effect of unfair competition on Google can be large and affect both your brand visibility and consumer trust:

When your brand falls from the top, the consumer interprets that you are less trustworthy

The customer searching by the name of your company is already at an advanced stage in the journey. If, at that moment, he sees a competitor occupying the prominent space, the immediate interpretation is that his brand does not have the same strength or digital presence.

Perceptual deviation undermines built credibility and it can compromise reputation in the long term, because in the online environment what doesn't appear simply doesn't exist.

The traffic you built with effort ends up fueling the competitor's growth

Branding campaigns, presence on social networks, word of mouth, and all investment in marketing generate interest in your brand. But when the user searches for you and clicks on another advertisement, the competitor reaps the rewards.

It's as if the investment made to attract customers was used to boost another company's customer base, transferring value and weakening your digital strategy.

The acquisition cost increases because you have to dispute your own name

Without a defense strategy, your brand is forced to invest in advertisements to protect its own territory. That means paying to appear in searches that, in theory, should naturally be yours by now.

The result is an artificial increase in CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost), reducing the profit margin and making the game more expensive for you, while the competitor gains customers at a lower cost.

The loss of organic space creates a sense of digital invisibility

Even if you're well positioned organically, paid ads always appear first. This hierarchy of the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) creates the impression that you don't have a relevant digital presence.

The average consumer is unlikely to scroll down to the results below, much less to the second page. This means that, without protective ads, your brand can appear non-existent for those who are ready to act.

Customer diversion weakens your authority and opens loopholes for future attacks

When a competitor repeatedly conquers customers who were looking for you, they not only increase their own customer base, but also weaken yours. This process reduces your digital authority, making it more difficult to maintain market trust and leaving you vulnerable to new aggressive strategies.

The impact is not only immediate on sales, but also on the long-term perception: each customer lost in this scenario also represents a loss of competitive strength.

How to avoid brand bidding?

Although it seems like an unfair situation, there are effective ways to prevent competitors from capturing your audience by buying your brand name on Google:

Invest in defense campaigns with ads that use your own brand name

The most direct way to prevent competitors from appropriating your space is to create brand protection campaigns within Google Ads, configuring exact keywords and phrase matching with the name of your company and its variations.

This type of campaign usually has low CPC (Cost Per Click) because the relevance is high and the Quality Score tends to be higher than the competitors, after all, you are the true owner of the brand.

Monitor competitors' ads to identify misuse of your name

Often, the dispute is only noticed when traffic or conversion metrics start to fall. Therefore, monitor search results and check for competitors' ads showing up for searches related to your brand.

Competition analysis tools and alerts configured in Google Ads help to: quickly detect when this happens.

Use Google policies to challenge ads that misuse your brand in text

Technically, Google allows companies to buy competitors' terms as keywords, but it doesn't allow use of trademarks within the ad text.

If you identify that someone is explicitly using your name in the title, description, or visible URL, you can file a dispute via Trademark Complaint Form from Google Ads.

Did you see the importance of appearing to the customer in a brand search on Google? O active monitoring It's what ensures that your best clicks reach you, not the rival that's ready to intercept your audience.

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