Someone Else Is Buying Ads on Your Own Brand Name. Here's How to Take It Back.

Type your own brand name into Google and watch what sits above your listing. Often it is a competitor's ad, bought on your name. Branded search bidding is one of the oldest plays in Google Ads, and a fresh Search Engine Land breakdown lays out exactly how rivals do it, and how to take the ground back.

The tactics are not subtle once you know them. Competitors use dynamic keyword insertion to drop your brand name straight into their ad copy, so the ad reads like it is about you. They build comparison pages, "brand X versus us," to intercept people researching you. They bid on brand modifier terms, your name plus "reviews," "pricing" or "alternative," where the intent is high and the buyer is close to a decision.

The defence is straightforward but it is not free. If you do not bid on your own brand terms, you leave the top of your own results open. If you do bid, you protect the position but pay for clicks you might have earned organically. That trade-off is the whole game, and getting it wrong in either direction costs money.

Branded search is the warmest traffic you have. These are people who already know you and are looking for you. Losing them to a competitor's ad at the final step is worse than losing a cold prospect, because you did the work to create the demand and someone else is harvesting it. For any Australian business with a name worth searching, this is money leaking at the bottom of the funnel.

It also cuts the other way. If a rival is not defending their brand terms, that is an efficient, high intent audience you can reach cheaply.

Branded search is not glamorous, but it is where hard won demand gets converted or quietly stolen. Check who is standing on your name.