Bidding on competitor brand keywords sounds like a great way to steal market share. On the surface it's a no-brainer, but if you dig deeper you'll find things aren't so simple. The intention of a search query has a big impact on which result will be relevant to a searcher. Are they simply trying to log into a bank account and using voice search to pull up their bank's website on Google, or are they researching which bank to open an account with? Another potential of sponsoring your competition's brand is that they might retaliate and begin targeting your brand. In additional to all of this, Google Ads has a metric called quality score that directly affects your cost per click. If you target less relevant keywords, the costs for your campaign will likely increase as a result of a lower quality score.

In this week’s Digital Marketing Monday, Hans and Devin debate when, if ever, it is appropriate to target your competitor's brand keywords in your paid marketing campaigns. The results might surprise you and change how you plan keywords on your next paid campaign.