How To Beat Your Competitors On Google Ads

You're checking your Google Ads account and something doesn't look right.

When you search for your own company name, your competitor's ad shows up right above your organic listing.

What the hell is going on?

Simple: Your competitors are bidding on your branded keywords and driving up your costs on purpose.

And they're probably doing it to your “money keywords” too, turning what used to be profitable campaigns into expensive headaches.

Here's what you need to know about competitors driving up ad costs and exactly how to fight back.

Why Competitors Are Targeting Your Keywords

Let's be clear about what's happening here.

This isn't some accident. 

They're specifically targeting your branded keywords because it's the cheapest way to steal your customers.

Think about it. Someone searches for your company name. They're already interested in what you do. 

Your competitor swoops in with an ad and steals them.

It's like setting up a lemonade stand right next to someone else's and putting up a sign that says "Don't buy from them, buy from us."

What This Is Costing You

Your branded keyword costs are going up.

Keywords that used to cost $0.50 per click are now $3-5. Your "cheap" branded traffic is becoming as expensive as your competitive keywords.

Your money keywords are getting more expensive.

When multiple competitors are bidding on the same profitable keywords, the auction becomes a bidding war. What used to cost $5 per click is now $12.

You're losing customers to cheaper alternatives.

When someone searches for your brand and sees your competitor's ads promising the same thing for 30% less, some of them are going to click.

Your overall campaign performance drops.

Higher costs per click mean fewer clicks for the same budget. Fewer clicks mean fewer conversions. Fewer conversions mean your campaigns look less profitable.

I know a software company that was spending $2,000/month on Google Ads with great results. Their competitor started bidding on their branded terms and their money keywords.

Six months later, they were spending $4,500/month for the same number of leads.

Same results, double the cost, all because they didn't know how to deal with competitor bidding strategy.

How to Deal With Competitors Bidding on Your

Keywords & Beat Their Google Ads

Stop letting your competitors steal your traffic and drive up your costs. Here's exactly what to do:

Dominate Your Branded Keywords

First priority: Own your brand name COMPLETLEY. If you don’t do this, you’ll NEVER show up when

your ideal buyers are searching for you

You may feel like giving up, but WHY? 

Like no one can find you now. 

Bid aggressively on your branded terms.

Yes, it's annoying to pay for clicks on your own company name. But it's better than letting your competitors steal those customers.

Set your branded keyword bids high enough to consistently show up in position 1. 

Your Quality Score should be higher for your own brand terms anyway, so you shouldn't need to bid as much as competitors.

Use ad extensions to take up more space.

Sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets - use every ad extension available. The more space your ad takes up, the less room your competitors have.

Create specific branded ad copy.

Don't use generic ads for branded searches. Create ad copies that specifically mentions your

company name and unique value proposition.

The thing about branded keywords is that you MUST come up first, and Google makes it really really easy for you to get there.

Fight Back on Money Keywords

Once you get to #1 on your branded keywords, time to expand. 

Increase bids strategically.

Look at your most profitable keywords. 

The ones with the highest customer lifetime value if you’re keen on tracking that.

Increase bids on those first.

For keywords that barely break even, consider pausing them temporarily while costs are high. 

Focus your budget on the keywords that actually drive profit.

Improve your Quality Score.

Google rewards relevant, high-quality ads with lower costs and better positions. While your competitors are just throwing money at keywords, you can optimize your way to better results.

Better ad copy, more relevant landing pages, higher click-through rates - all of these improve your Quality Score and reduce your costs.

Target competitor brand names.

If they're bidding on your brand, return the favor. Start bidding on their company names and see how they like it.

Create ads like: "Looking for [Competitor]? Here's why customers switch to us instead."

Now, More Advanced Tactics to Outsmart Them

Shift Your Ad Timing

If your competitors are driving up costs during peak hours, shift your budget to times when they're not as active.

Change Geographic targeting.

Your competitors might not be bidding in every location. Find markets where competition is lower and focus there.

Change Device targeting.

Maybe they're only bidding aggressively on the desktop. Focus your budget only on mobile where costs might be lower.

Add Negative keywords.

Add your competitors' brand names as negative keywords in your campaigns. This prevents your ads from showing when people search for them, avoiding wasted clicks.

Then, Start Digging About Your Competitors

Know what your competitors are doing before they do it.

Use competitive intelligence tools.

Tools like SEMrush , Ubersuggest, Ahrefs can show you exactly which keywords your competitors are bidding on and what their ads look like.

Set up Google Alerts.

Get notified whenever your competitors launch new campaigns or change their messaging.

Monitor their landing pages.

When competitors are bidding on your keywords, they're sending traffic somewhere. Check out their landing pages to see what offers they're making and see how you can improve those.

Your Action Plan To Beat Competitors Running Ads For Your Keywords

Here's what to do starting today:

This week: Audit your branded keyword performance. See which competitors are bidding on your terms and how much it's costing you.

Next week: Implement aggressive bidding on your most important branded terms. Create specific ad copy for branded searches.

This month: Analyze your money keywords. Identify which ones are still profitable at higher costs and which ones need to be paused.

Ongoing: Monitor competitor activity and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Remember: This is a marathon, not a sprint. Competitors driving up ad costs is frustrating, but it's also an opportunity to optimize your campaigns better than ever.

What Now?

When competitors are bidding on your branded keywords and driving up your money keyword costs, you have two choices:

Fight smarter 

or get kicked out of the market.

The businesses that survive bidding wars aren't always the ones with the biggest budgets. 

They're the ones with the best strategy.

Your competitors might be able to drive up your costs temporarily, but they can't make your ads irrelevant if you know what you're doing.

Fight back strategically, and you'll not only survive the bidding war- you'll come out stronger than before.

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P.S. If your competitors are making Google Ads too expensive and you need a strategic approach to fight back, 

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