Advertising Against Competitors

At a glance

Bidding on a competitor's brand name as a keyword is allowed by Google's policy in most countries. Using their trademark in your ad text is what gets ads restricted, once the owner complains. Competitor clicks are expensive and convert worse than your core keywords. Run them in their own campaign with their own budget so they can't eat the money for high-intent searches. The approach that works is an honest "alternative to X" or "X vs. us" landing page that answers the comparison the searcher is already making. Trademark law differs by country. In India and Brazil, courts have treated competitor-brand keyword buying as a possible infringement or unfair competition, so get legal sign-off first. Defend your own brand first. A cheap brand campaign often matters more than attacking anyone else's.

Not legal advice This lesson explains Google's policy and the general legal picture so you can ask good questions. Before you run competitor campaigns, especially in a new country, have your legal team or local counsel approve the keywords, ad text and comparison claims.

Should you run competitor campaigns at all?

People who search a competitor's name are mostly looking for that competitor: to log in, find pricing or get support. A small share are evaluating options, and those are the people you want. Expect lower click-through rates, lower Quality Scores (your ad is less relevant to their brand than their own ad is) and higher CPCs than on your category keywords.

Starter budget: skip this for now On $5,000/month or less, competitor campaigns usually burn money that your core category keywords would convert better. Get your main campaign producing steady conversions first. The one exception: if a competitor is bidding on your brand, a small brand campaign (below) is worth doing straight away.

Intermediate budget: one small, separate campaign Start a competitor campaign around week three, once your core campaign is stable. Give it its own budget, capped at roughly 10 to 15% of total spend, and target the two or three competitors your sales team actually loses deals to. Judge it on SQLs or activated trials, not form fills, because competitor traffic produces more tyre-kickers.

Advanced budget: structure by competitor Split competitors into their own campaigns or ad groups so each has a matching landing page and its own target. Use offline conversions so bidding learns which competitor searches turn into pipeline; some competitors' users switch readily and others never do. Review the competitor list quarterly with sales.

Approaches that work

1. "Alternative to X" and comparison searches

The best competitor traffic doesn't contain only the brand name. It contains the brand plus a word that says "I'm shopping": alternative, vs, competitors, pricing, replace, migrate from. These searches are cheaper than the bare brand name and convert much better. Start here.

"acmeflow alternative", "acmeflow alternatives" (phrase match) [acmeflow vs], "acmeflow competitors" "migrate from acmeflow", "acmeflow pricing" (pricing often signals evaluation)

Bidding on the bare brand name ([acmeflow]) is a second step. It brings volume, but most of it is the competitor's existing customers. Add negatives such as login, support, download, status, careers, docs to the competitor campaign straight away.

2. A comparison landing page per competitor

Send competitor clicks to a page built for that comparison, not your home page. Someone who searched "AcmeFlow alternative" wants to know three things: what's different, whether switching is painful, and whether it costs less. A good page answers those in the first screen.

Headline that names the situation without naming the trademark in a way that implies affiliation: "Looking for an AcmeFlow alternative? Here's how we compare." A short, fair comparison table on the three to five points that actually decide deals. Include where they're stronger; it makes the rest believable. Migration: how long it takes, what you import, whether you help. Proof from customers who switched. A trial sign-up with a note on importing their data. A demo request framed as "see it with your own workflow", and an offer of a migration call.

Date the comparison ("Compared October 2026") and recheck it each quarter. Competitor pricing and features change, and stale claims are both misleading and a legal risk.

3. Defend your own brand

If competitors bid on your name, they show above your organic result. A brand campaign usually costs very little per click (your ad is highly relevant, so Quality Score is high) and keeps that space. Run it as its own campaign with exact and phrase match on your brand, so its cheap conversions don't flatter your non-brand numbers. Check the Auction insights report to see who is bidding on your name.

4. Ad copy that compares without naming

You usually don't need the competitor's name in the ad. The searcher already typed it. Talk about the switch instead: "Switching tools? Import your workflows in a day", "Half the admin of legacy approval tools", "Transparent pricing, no per-approver fees". These avoid trademark complaints entirely and still read as a direct answer to the search.

Do

Start with "alternative", "vs" and "pricing" searches before the bare brand name. Run competitors in a separate campaign with its own budget cap. Send each competitor's traffic to a matching, dated, fair comparison page. Make only claims you can prove today, and keep the evidence. Add negatives for login, support, download, careers, status, docs. Run a brand campaign to protect your own name. Get legal sign-off for each new country.

Don't

Put a competitor's trademark in headlines or descriptions unless legal has approved it and Google allows it. Imply you are the competitor, a partner, or an "official" anything. Use the competitor's logo, screenshots or look on your landing page. Disparage ("AcmeFlow is broken") or make unprovable claims ("10x faster"). Use keyword insertion ({KeyWord:...}) in competitor ad groups; it pastes their brand into your ad. Judge the campaign on cost per form fill. Competitor leads need a quality check. Bid on competitor brands in countries where courts have treated it as infringement without legal approval.

Google's trademark policy in practice

As of October 2026

Google applies one trademark policy globally, and it only acts after a trademark owner complains. Complaints are accepted for the countries and industries where the owner has shown trademark rights. The policy has two parts that people often mix up.

Keywords: Google's policy explicitly says it won't restrict trademarks used as keywords. You can bid on a competitor's brand name, and Google won't stop you even if they complain. That doesn't make it legal everywhere; it only means Google's policy doesn't block it. Ad text: The trademark has to appear in the ad itself (a mention only on your landing page doesn't count). After a complaint, Google restricts ads from a direct competitor that use the term, and ads that use it in a confusing or misleading way. The restriction then applies on an ongoing basis to ads whose final URL is on the same domain, so one complaint covers your future ads too. Exceptions for ad text: Resellers, sellers of compatible parts or components, and informational sites (for example reviews) may be allowed to use a restricted term in ad text if their landing page meets Google's criteria. A competing software vendor generally doesn't qualify.

Trademark law is national, and a court can find infringement even when Google's policy allows something. That's why the regional rules below matter.

Google Ads trademarks policy (opens Google's help site; needs internet).

Regional rules

Your region setting picks which section is shown first. If you advertise into several regions, switch the setting to read each one.

US and Canada In the US, buying a competitor's trademark as a keyword is generally treated as lawful on its own. Courts applying the Lanham Act look at whether the ad as a whole is likely to confuse people about who is offering the product. Clear ads with your own brand name rarely raise that issue. Problems come from ad text or pages that suggest affiliation, or from false claims. Comparative advertising is allowed and common, but claims must be truthful and substantiated. The FTC treats unsupported performance or pricing claims as deceptive, and competitors can sue under the Lanham Act for false advertising. Keep the data behind every comparison point. Canadian law is broadly similar on keyword bidding; the Competition Act also prohibits misleading representations, and Quebec's Charter of the French Language affects ad and landing page language for Quebec audiences.

EU and UK The leading case is the CJEU's Google France decision (2010): buying a competitor's trademark as a keyword isn't infringement in itself, but it is if the ad doesn't make it easy for an ordinary user to tell that the product comes from someone else. Interflora v Marks & Spencer applied this in the UK, and the risk point is the same: ambiguity about who is advertising. Name your brand clearly in the ad and avoid wording that implies a connection. Comparisons are governed by the Comparative Advertising Directive (2006/114/EC) in the EU: they must compare like with like, be objective and verifiable, and must not denigrate or take unfair advantage of the competitor's reputation. In the UK, the CAP Code (enforced by the ASA) applies similar rules, and the ASA does rule on comparison pages and ads. Keep the evidence for every claim, dated. Trademark complaints to Google about ad text in the EU and UK are common, so plan your ads without competitor names in the text.

India Be more conservative here. In Google LLC v DRS Logistics (10 August 2023), the Delhi High Court's Division Bench held that using a trademark as a keyword counts as "use" of the mark in advertising, by both the advertiser and Google. Keyword use is not infringement by itself; it becomes infringing where there is a real likelihood of confusion. The court also held that Google can't rely on intermediary safe harbour for its ads programme and must act on infringing ads, so complaints in India carry weight. Indian courts have also restricted the use of competitor marks in ad text. Practical rule:

Don't run campaigns on bare competitor brand names in India without legal sign-off. Never use competitor marks in ad text. Prefer generic comparison searches ("approval software alternatives", "best invoice approval tools") that don't need a trademark at all.

Rest of APAC Rules vary a lot by country, so get advice per market. In Australia, keyword bidding on a competitor's mark is generally not infringement on its own, but the Australian Consumer Law prohibits misleading or deceptive conduct, and ads or pages that suggest affiliation or make unprovable comparisons can breach it. Japan and Singapore courts have also generally looked at confusion in the ad rather than the keyword itself. Practical rule: competitor brand plus "alternative" keywords, no competitor marks in ad text, and fair, sourced comparisons. Check with local counsel before running bare competitor brand terms in a new market, especially in South Korea and other markets with active unfair-competition enforcement.

Latin America Brazil is the market to be careful with. Brazil's Superior Court of Justice (STJ) held in August 2022 (REsp 1.937.989, Fourth Panel) that buying a competitor's trademark as a sponsored-search keyword is unfair competition, because the ad diverts customers searching for the brand, and later decisions by the Third Panel (for example REsp 2.032.932, 2023) took the same line, with damages awarded. Treat bidding on competitor brands in Brazil as off-limits unless your legal team has approved a specific approach. Elsewhere in the region, the law is less settled. Use generic comparison keywords ("alternativas a software de aprobación", "mejor software de facturas"), keep competitor names out of ad text, and get local advice before bidding on competitor brands in Mexico, Argentina, Colombia or Chile.

Middle East and Africa There is little case law on keyword advertising in most of the region, which means uncertainty rather than permission. Trademark and unfair-competition laws in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and elsewhere can apply to ads that trade on a competitor's reputation or imply affiliation, and comparative advertising is more restricted in some Gulf states than in the US or EU. Practical rule:

Get local counsel before bidding on competitor brands. Never use competitor marks in ad text. Keep comparisons factual and sourced. Make sure ad and landing page language fits local advertising rules.

Go deeper What happens if a competitor complains about you

A complaint about ad text usually shows up as disapproved or limited ads with a "Trademarks in ad text" reason. Remove the term from the affected ads. If you think you qualify for an exception or have permission, you can request a review, but for a competing software vendor that rarely succeeds. A legal letter is different. Forward it to your legal team before changing anything, keep a copy of the ads and landing page as they were, and don't argue with the sender yourself. Most letters are resolved by removing the brand from ad text or adjusting a comparison claim. If a competitor uses your trademark in their ad text, you can file a complaint through Google's trademark complaint form and authorise your own resellers or partners to keep using it.

Building a comparison page with your LLM

The hard part of a comparison page isn't the writing, it's being fair and specific. Collect the facts first: your sales team's win/loss notes, the competitor's public pricing and feature pages (saved as PDFs or copied text with the date), and two or three quotes from customers who switched. Then let the LLM draft.

Then build it in Astro the same way as any landing page (see Landing pages). Keep each competitor page out of your main navigation and add noindex only if you don't want it ranking organically; many teams do want these to rank.

Use your LLM Use the LLM as a second reviewer too. Paste your finished ad text and page and ask: "Which of these claims could a competitor or regulator challenge, and why? Which wording suggests affiliation?" It won't replace legal review, but it catches the obvious problems before legal sees them.

Do this now

Check Auction insights on your brand terms and launch or confirm a brand campaign. Ask sales for the two or three competitors you lose deals to most often. Get legal sign-off on competitor keywords and claims for each country you'll target. Draft one dated, fair comparison page with the LLM prompt above. Build a separate competitor campaign on "alternative/vs/pricing" terms with login/support negatives and a budget cap. Park competitor campaigns until your core campaign has a month of steady conversions.

Next: Avoiding Fraud and Wasted Spend