Sponsoring your brand or trademark as a keyword in paid search might seem like a great strategy to beat out your competition. Over the years, we have seen this strategy work for some clients, but for others, we have witnessed it hurt the bottom line. Flipping this technique on its head by sponsoring branded keywords belonging to your competition may seem like a great way to take over some of their market share in your industry, but this can create its own problems and even trigger a keyword bidding war where the only winner is Google.

In this week’s Digital Marketing Monday, Devin and Hans discuss how to determine when it is appropriate to sponsor branded keywords and how to avoid situations where you would waste your ad spend or instigate competitors to go on the offense.