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Bidding on business names (11)

08-26-2015 10:34 PM #1 carboot (Member)
Bidding on business names

Hey guys,

I'm working on a new mobile adwords campaign for a client who is in a competitive finance sector.

The usual keywords are very expensive, so I'm looking to bid on competitor business names.

Does anyone know of an efficient way to generate large lists of business names?

Thanks!

-Jonny.

08-26-2015 10:46 PM #2 cmdeal (Veteran Member)

In several countries like Australia, that can violate against Google policies if the competitor's name is trademarked, so you should definitely let your client know this before you launch these campaigns. You can get names of businesses in an industry in various directories for that industry.

08-26-2015 11:00 PM #3 carboot (Member)

My understanding is that relates to the ad text only:

"Google will not investigate or restrict the use of trademark terms in keywords, even if a trademark complaint is received."

08-26-2015 11:17 PM #4 cmdeal (Veteran Member)

That's right.

08-29-2015 05:55 PM #5 ashlar (Member)

I work for large companies, including finance.

We don't bid on competitor's keywords for mainly 2 reasons.

The first one is that there often is some sort of "gentleman's agreement" on a higher level to not do so.

The second one is that this tactic will drive up CPC's for our own brandnames, as the competitor will notice and start doing the same right away.

08-29-2015 06:46 PM #6 dynamicsoul (Member)

You can use google local/maps scraper to grab company names for keywords, if you know the geo you're targeting.

But be aware, you get shit quality score, cos your ad text and landing page obviously nothing to do with keywords.

08-29-2015 07:31 PM #7 apeek22 (Member)

This could work for some brands....Use broad modified is people tend to use the same business name type. Not sure what part of finance you are in, but here are some ideas. You could even phrase match part of this. Of course this wont get all of them, but might save some time to prove the concept

+wealth +management +LLC
+wealth +advisers +inc
"investment advisers inc"

etc

08-30-2015 07:20 PM #8 brian_r (Member)

1. Bidding on competitor names in Adwords will only cause you to have shitty QS and a high CPC. I'm sure there are verticals where this may work well, but they are limited.

2. If you are using modified broad match, what is the point of using phrase match?

08-31-2015 09:37 AM #9 apeek22 (Member)

Quote Originally Posted by brian_r View Post
1. Bidding on competitor names in Adwords will only cause you to have shitty QS and a high CPC. I'm sure there are verticals where this may work well, but they are limited.

2. If you are using modified broad match, what is the point of using phrase match?
1. Your campaigns might vary, but I have had awesome success with Ads such as "Do not Use Competitor Name", of course this is quite aggressive

2. Phrase match and modified broad are much different....to main difference is just the order of how the words appear in the search query, if that is vital then phrase would be better, if does not then broad modified should bring in more volume.

08-31-2015 09:45 AM #10 brian_r (Member)

Ah, I see. Gives you more control. Nice.

08-31-2015 10:21 AM #11 cbrughmans (Member)

You can bid on competitor names and also on your advertiser's name. Both are very effective. But I'd make sure to check with your advertiser if they allow this.
Bidding on brand names can be forbidden by the advertiser (also on competitor names due to possible legal risks associated to this).

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