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Brand Bidding: o golpe invisível que drena suas vendas
BranddiIP Team ·
The practice of Brand Bidding is becoming more frequent in competitive sectors and, silently, draining media investment from many brands
A study of Competition and Crowd-Out for Brand Keywords in Sponsored Search (Simonov et al., 2018) shows that in some cases with 4 active competitors, up to 42% of traffic originally from the focal brand can be intercepted by competing ads. bidding is a unfair competition practice in which a company uses the name of a competing brand as a keyword in paid advertisements, such as Google Ads, to attract the public that was looking for that brand.
The expression “Brand Bidding” comes from English: Brand means “brand” and Bidding means “to bid”. In other words, it is literally “bidding on brands” within paid media platforms.
Most companies don't monitor their own sponsored results, so they don't notice when competitors appear above them in searches. Thus, traffic that should be legitimate is silently stolen.
How does Brand Bidding drain your media budget?
When a competitor uses your brand name as a keyword in ads, it interferes with your costs, your efficiency and even your audience's perception. Below, we explain how this happens in practice.
1. Increase in CPC and “repurchase” of clicks that would already be yours
The most immediate impact of Brand Bidding is the artificial increase in Cost per Click (CPC). If a competitor starts competing for the same brand term as you, the Google auction understands that there is more competition and increases the value necessary to appear in the top positions.
2. Loss of qualified traffic and drop in ROI
Users who search for your brand are, in general, the closest to conversion, they already know you or trust your product. When the competitor appears first and diverts this click, you lose the most valuable traffic with the lowest acquisition cost. Misuse of a brand, legal and reputational damageUnlike legitimate media strategies, Brand Bidding is characterized by the misuse of a registered trademark.
In addition to the financial loss, the practice can cause undue image association, confusing the public and eroding the trust built by the brand. In some cases, the problem can evolve into legal disputes.
Signs that your brand is suffering from Brand Bidding
This tactic usually goes unnoticed, but there are signs that indicate when Brand Bidding is happening:
- Competitor appears in searches for your brand name and occupies the space that should be yours;
- Distributors or affiliates advertise using your name and redirect the click to another website;
- Sudden drop in the CTR of brand campaigns indicates that part of the public is being diverted;
- Unjustified increase in the CPC of branded terms shows that there is competition in the auctions;
- Suspicious sponsored results using your company's name confuse the consumer and weaken your presence.
How to monitor and protect your brand against Brand Bidding?
There are simple practices to detect and contain this type of unfair competition before it causes greater damage:
- Perform searches for your brand name on Google to identify suspicious ads;
- Set up domain and keyword alerts to be notified when your name is used in third-party ads or URLs;
- Do paid media audits to review who is competing for your brand terms and how much this is affecting your costs;
- Use specialized tools in online brand protection that automatically identify inappropriate bids and name variations;
- Have an internal protocol for brand defense in cases of misuse, requesting removal of ads and reporting to the platform.
Monitoring is the first step to stop traffic diversion and protect every legitimate click! The faster the problem is detected, the less impact it will have on the brand's budget and reputation.
Do you want to learn how to protect yourself across all digital channels? Check out Branddi's guide: “Brand Impersonation: step by step to shield your brand.”