Google Adwords offers advertisers the opportunity to place ads directly against their competitor’s business name or even their specific products, but is the value of a sale worth the cost? Let’s explore the pros and cons of advertising against competitors on Google Adwords.
Pros of Advertising Against Competitors
- – Mistaken click could lead to new sale
- – Product and company branding
- – Increased traffic
- – Opportunity to offer competitive pricing
- – Take sales away from a competitor
When a search engine user searches for your competitor’s product or website, they would see your company’s ad in their search results. The mistaken click could lead to a new sale for your business. If they don’t click on the ad, it is at least a way to get your name in front of those potential customers.
If the customer is aware of your competing products, advertising on your competitor’s business name would allow for your business to offer competitive pricing and potentially take away some sales from their current loyal customers.
Cons of Advertising Against Competitors
- – Clicks are more expensive
- – May cause a competitor to do the same thing to you
- – May appear deceptive to search engine users
- – Only works for your competitor’s branded products or company name
The bad news is that this method is available to everyone, so if you start the competing war, your competitor might do the same thing to you. Also, because you are advertising for something that is not a direct keyword related to your company, Google will charge your campaign more per click to advertise for that keyword.
Finally, this method may be received in a negative way from people that realize what your company is doing to acquire traffic. The reason it may not be very effective is that to truly achieve results you must advertise against your competitor’s product name or business name. That method may be recognized as a backhanded way of acquiring new sales.
At Transformation Marketing, our goal is to provide straightforward, honest answers to complicated questions. When it comes down to it, we don’t see that advertising against your competitor’s business name is worth the price it could cost your company in money and in your reputation. PPC advertising is a great way to get qualified leads without resorting to tricky methods.