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Ads Lighthouse

Glossary

Brand bidding

A plain definition, the context behind it, what Ads Lighthouse can and cannot observe, and the official sources.

Definition
Brand bidding is advertising on searches that include a brand name, whether by the brand itself or by another advertiser.

Brands often bid on their own name to hold the top of the results page, control the message and send people to the right page. Other advertisers may also appear on those searches: competitors, retailers, affiliates, marketplaces or comparison sites.

Whether that is acceptable depends on who the advertiser is, what the ad says and any agreement between the parties. Platform policies treat a trademark used as a keyword differently from a trademark used in ad text, so the same search can raise very different questions.

How Ads Lighthouse observes it

Ads Lighthouse runs your brand searches on Google and Bing for each keyword, location and device you choose, and saves the ads that appeared with their search context. It shows who appeared; it does not show which keywords an advertiser bought.

Official sources

Sources checked on .

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See these terms in your own brand searches

Monitor Google and Bing by keyword, location and device, and review each observation with its full context.

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