A competitor can buy your company name, and it is allowed
The Google Ads trademark policy does not restrict buying a trademark as a keyword. It governs its use in the visible ad text, and only after a complaint from the rights holder. A competitor can therefore appear on your company name without breaking anything.
The discovery is almost always accidental, when an executive searches their own company and sees a competitor's ad above their site. The usual reaction is to ask Google to stop the practice. That is not what Google does.
The distinction fits in one line. The keyword is not restricted. The ad text can be, if you hold the trademark, if you file a complaint and if the use is confusing. Exceptions exist for authorized resellers and informational sites, which matters when your partners or resellers also advertise on your name.
The commercial question is more interesting than the policy one. Someone searching your company by name already knows you. That is the cheapest and best-qualified traffic in your whole account, and leaving it undefended means paying to acquire a customer only to lose them at the last metre.
What you can do, in order
Occupy the ground yourself first. A campaign on your own brand costs little, ranks at the top nearly always, and takes away the space someone else would settle into. Many businesses refuse that spend on the grounds that they already rank organically, which is true and beside the point: the competing ad appears above the organic result.
Then document. If a competitor uses your name in their ad text, the screenshot is your evidence, and it disappears the moment the ad changes. Registering the trademark with the relevant office is what makes a complaint admissible.
Finally, decide whether you do the reverse. It is allowed, it is common, and it is judged on profitability like any other campaign, not on irritation.
The two-minute check
- Search your exact company name and note who appears in an ad above you.
- In your ad account, open the auction insights for your brand queries and see who shares the impressions.
A competitor who has been on your name for months has found the spend profitable. That is information about your market before it is a problem.
Deciding whether a brand campaign is justified for you, and at what budget, is part of what we cover in a paid audit.
This describes a platform policy, not the applicable law. Trademark law and unfair competition call for legal advice, and a practice allowed by Google can still be challenged in court.
The overall view of paid channels is in concentrating budget on one channel.
Account structure and where brand campaigns fit is covered in Google Ads, structure, exclude, measure, and reading real returns in the break-even threshold of a campaign.
- Google Ads, Trademark policy, Google advertising policies help centre, accessed January 2027. Distinction between using a trademark as a keyword and using it in ad text, and complaint handling at the rights holder's request.
Gabriel almost always takes your first call and carries out your audit. He builds the strategy starting from your growth goal: where to put your budget, which market to test and how to connect each lead to a real sale in your CRM. He mainly leads engagements for three goals: Optimize the profitability of your digital campaigns, Develop a new market, and Generate demand and growth. With Geneviève, he also works on organic search (SEO), AI visibility (GEO) and conversion rate optimization (CRO). The sales a Google Ads or Meta Ads campaign brings in depend on the page that receives the click. He writes mainly about marketing strategy, paid advertising and measurement.
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