Can I use a competitor's trademark in Google Ads keywords or ad text?

The policy leaves the keyword alone. Four things come with bidding on a name that isn’t yours:

• The ad can’t count on the name. A trademark in an ad from a direct competitor is the first use the policy restricts once its owner complains, so write the ad without it.
• Keyword insertion won’t add it. Google says trademarks restricted under the policy “will not insert into ad text”, so the ad shows its default text. It also asks you to make sure ads comply with its policies after keywords are inserted.
• Ad Strength will ask for it. Google’s Ad Strength suggests “including text from your keywords within your headlines and descriptions”. In an ad group of competitors’ names, that is the suggestion to pass over.
• Quality Score runs low. Google rates expected clickthrough rate, “the likelihood that your ad will be clicked when shown”, and ad relevance, “how closely your ad matches the intent behind a user’s search”, against other advertisers on the exact same search. Someone who types a competitor’s name is looking for the competitor, so expect both to rate low.

Google says Quality Score “is not an input in the ad auction” and shouldn’t be optimized. So judge competitor keywords by what their clicks bring:

1. 01Go to Keywords in the Campaigns menu and find your competitor keywords. A campaign or ad group of their own keeps them apart from the rest.
2. 02Select the columns icon, open the Quality score section and add Quality Score, Exp. CTR, Ad Relevance and Landing Page Exp.
3. 03Set a date range of about three months. A month of a competitor keyword’s clicks often holds too few conversions to judge. Divide their cost by their conversions.
4. 04Set that against what your other campaigns pay for a conversion over the same dates.

Where they pay about what the rest of the account pays, leave them, low score and all. Where they cost far more, bid less for them, or pause the ones that brought nothing. The low Quality Score guide covers the keywords that aren’t a competitor’s name.

Trademarks in ad text is the reason Google Ads gives on an ad or asset restricted under its Trademarks policy. Google’s page for that reason says only: “Your ads are restricted due to our Trademarks policy.” Three things have happened:

• The owner complained. Google reviews a trademark’s use when its owner submits a complaint, and may then restrict it.
• The complaint named you. Google accepts complaints only against specific advertisers, identified by their URLs, so a restriction on your ads isn’t a rule for everyone who uses the word.
• The trademark is in the ad. In its words, not only on the page it lands on.

From then on the restriction follows your site, not one ad. Google says it’s generally applied, on an ongoing basis, to any ads that use the same second-level domain in their final URL, the page a click reaches. So a new ad to the same site with the same trademark generally gets the same restriction.

A complaint holds within the countries and industries in which the owner has demonstrated trademark rights, so a restricted ad isn’t always stopped everywhere. Its status says which:

• Disapproved. The ad or asset can’t run. Each headline and description of a responsive search ad is an asset, and a disapproved asset doesn’t show.
• Eligible (limited) on an ad, Approved (limited) on an asset. It runs, but not in all situations. Google’s definition names Trademarks among the policies that keep an ad from showing in certain locations.

To find the label and what it sits on:

1. 01Go to Campaigns › Ads, or Assets for a single headline, sitelink or callout, and hover over the status in the Status column.
2. 02To read every reason in one column, select the columns icon above the table, open Attributes, tick Policy details and select Apply.
3. 03For the whole account, go to Tools › Troubleshooting › Policy manager. Its Policy issues tab lists the affected ads.

The disapproved ads guide covers every other reason an ad reads Disapproved or Eligible (limited).

Even after a complaint, Google’s policy leaves three uses of a trademark in ad text alone. Each is read on the ad together with the page it lands on.

• You sell it. The landing page is primarily dedicated to selling the trademarked product or service, or its components, replacement parts or compatible products. Two conditions come with it: the page must clearly provide a way to buy and show commercial information such as rates or prices, and the ad and the page must be clear whether you’re a reseller or an informational site.
• You inform about it. The landing page’s primary purpose is to give informative details about the trademarked product or service, or an index of search results related to the trademark.
• You mean the ordinary word. The ad uses the trademark descriptively, in its ordinary meaning. Google’s trademark troubleshooter gives a second case beside it: a term that refers to goods or services that don’t correspond to the trademark.

The owner’s permission isn’t on the list, and Google no longer asks for it. Its trademark troubleshooter tells owners: “You no longer need to authorize Google Ads advertisers to use your trademarks, as trademark restrictions are only applied to the specific advertiser(s) identified in the complaint.” An owner who is content with your ads can revoke the complaint against you, following the instructions in Google’s response to it.

Google gives two ways out of a trademark restriction: “remove the trademark from your ad content”, or appeal. Which one depends on whether an exception is yours.

1. 01Find the label, and the ad or asset it sits on.
2. 02Set that ad and its landing page against each exception, condition by condition, as the table below does.
3. 03If none holds, edit. Go to Campaigns › Ads, hover over the ad or asset, select Edit, take the trademark out and select Save. Google reviews it again automatically.
4. 04If one holds, appeal. Hover over the trademark restriction in the Status column and select Appeal, or select Appeal on the ad in Policy manager’s Policy issues tab, then choose Dispute decision or Made changes to comply with policy.

That leaves Cedar & Pine a choice:

• Replace the headline. A headline that names what the range holds and not its maker, such as Flatweave and Kilim Wool Rugs, is reviewed again when it’s saved, and the ad keeps its 9 headlines.
• Keep the name: fix the page, then appeal. The wool rugs page has to say that these are Marram Loom’s rugs and that Cedar & Pine sells them. Then the reseller’s conditions hold, and the appeal has its ground.

Three things to know before you appeal:

• Each restriction is its own appeal. One ad can carry several trademark restrictions, and Google says you appeal each separately.
• Don’t add the trademark to new ads meanwhile. Google warns that if you create new ads that violate the policy after submitting an appeal, the restrictions will generally be maintained, whatever you change afterwards.
• A restriction isn’t a suspension. The policy page says a warning is issued at least 7 days before any suspension of your account.

The disapproved ads guide has an appeal’s limits, and where to track one.

If the trademark is yours and another advertiser’s ad uses it, the policy page sends you to Report Content On Google, in Google’s Legal Help. Google takes complaints only from the trademark’s owner or someone authorized to act for them.

1. 01On Report Content On Google, select A Google Ad, then the type of ad, such as Search Ad.
2. 02Select Legal Reasons to Report Content, then Intellectual Property, then Trademark: Report a use of my trademark that is likely to cause confusion.
3. 03Answer two questions: whether your concern is a scam or phishing, which goes to Report an ad/listing and not the trademark form, and whether you’re the owner or authorized to act for them.
4. 04Select Create request, which opens the complaint form.

What to know before you file:

• Name the advertisers. Google accepts complaints only against specific advertisers, identified by their URLs.
• Show your rights where the ads run. A complaint holds within the countries and industries in which you’ve demonstrated trademark rights.
• Keywords stay. Google won’t restrict a competitor’s bid on your name as a keyword, or your name in their display URL’s domain. The complaint is about the words of their ad.
• Resellers and informational sites may keep the name where they meet the conditions above.
• Nobody needs your authorization. A restriction reaches only the advertisers you name, so your resellers and partners are untouched unless you name them. To restore one you did name, revoke the complaint by the instructions in Google’s response.
• After you file. Google reviews requests in the order it receives them and emails you once it’s done. If you disagree with the outcome, appeal by the path in its response.

A product listing in a Shopping ad has its own complaint form, on Merchant Center’s Trademarks page.

Every day Goldbeater reads Google’s verdict on each enabled ad, on every headline and description of your responsive search ads, and on each asset linked to your account, campaigns and ad groups, with the policy Google names and any words it points at. A trademark restriction comes up as one of these:

• A disapproved headline or description inside an ad that still serves: medium, raised once however many ad groups the ad runs in, with its replacement drafted.
• A disapproved ad: high. An ad a policy keeps out of every place its campaign targets is high too, and one allowed only outside them is medium.
• An ad that serves with limits: low, grouped by policy, so one trademark on many ads is one decision. Its advice names Google’s three exceptions: take the trademark out, accept the limit, or appeal if one of them is yours.

That is the headline read above. Goldbeater drafts the change and leaves the words to you, in a field that counts the 30 characters and refuses the words Google named, here Marram Loom. Goldbeater’s AI agent suggests up to three replacements to start from, and the one shown is the kind a person writes. The finding drafts the replacement, and its advice names Google’s three exceptions and the appeal for where one of them is yours. Whether one is yours is the reading above, and an appeal is filed in Google Ads.

A sitelink, callout or other asset is read the same way. One Google disapproved gets one finding, listing every campaign and ad group it’s linked to, medium where those campaigns carry a thousandth of the account’s 30-day spend. One that serves with limits is low, and where the limit is by country, it’s raised only if a campaign it’s linked to targets one of those countries. Assets Google created itself aren’t counted.

Competitor keywords are judged apart from the rest. A keyword counts as a competitor’s where your account files it so: in a campaign or ad group named for competitors or for one of them, or spelling a name you bid on there. Where an ad group’s competitor keywords score 4 or lower and spent $20 or more in 30 days, Goldbeater sets their cost per conversion over 13 weeks, or their ROAS where your conversion values are real, against the median of your other campaigns.

• Not paying. A ROAS under half of it, a cost per conversion over double it on too few conversions for chance to explain, or no conversion after three conversions’ worth of spend. Medium where they spent $200 or a thousandth of the account’s spend, whichever is more. The advice is to pay less for them or pause the ones that brought nothing.
• Anything else. Low, with advice to judge them by their conversions and not the score.

Which competitors to bid on is yours to decide, so that finding is advice and drafts no change. And where Google’s Ad Strength asks a competitor ad group for more of its keywords in its headlines, Goldbeater leaves that suggestion out, since the keywords are a competitor’s name, and doesn’t raise the ad group where that’s all Google asks. The ad strength guide covers the rest, and the audit checklist has each of these with where to find it by hand.

Is bidding on competitor brand names allowed in Google Ads?

Google’s Trademarks policy doesn’t restrict it: using trademarks as keywords is on its list of what Google Ads will not restrict. What Google may restrict, after the owner’s complaint, is the trademark in your ad’s text. That is Google’s policy, not the law where your ads show.

Can a competitor use my trademark as a keyword?

Yes. Google doesn’t restrict trademarks used as keywords, and a complaint won’t change that. A complaint can restrict your trademark in the text of a named advertiser’s ads, unless they resell your product, inform about it, or use the word in its ordinary meaning.

Why does my ad say Trademarks in ad text?

The trademark’s owner filed a complaint that names your site, and Google found the trademark in the ad. The restriction generally applies to any ad using the same second-level domain in its final URL. Take the trademark out of the ad, or appeal from the notice on its status if one of Google’s three exceptions is yours.

Can a reseller use a brand’s name in a Google ad?

Yes, on three conditions. The landing page is primarily dedicated to selling the trademarked product, its parts or compatible products. It clearly provides a way to buy and shows prices. And the ad and page are clear whether you’re a reseller or an informational site.

How do I report trademark infringement in Google Ads?

If you’re the trademark’s owner or authorized to act for them, open Report Content On Google and select A Google Ad, the type of ad, Legal Reasons to Report Content, Intellectual Property, then Trademark. The complaint has to name specific advertisers by their URLs, and holds in the countries and industries where you’ve demonstrated trademark rights.

Is there a Google Ads trademark authorization form?

You don’t need one. Google’s trademark troubleshooter says owners no longer need to authorize advertisers, because restrictions apply only to the advertisers named in a complaint. An owner who wants a named advertiser’s ads restored revokes the complaint, following the instructions in Google’s response to it.

Is Google’s trademark policy the same in every country?

The policy page gives one set of criteria and names no country. A complaint holds within the countries and industries in which the owner has demonstrated trademark rights, so an ad can be restricted in one country and run in another. Google marks an ad that runs with such limits Eligible (limited). For appeals, Google says advertisers located in the EU may have additional redress options under the Digital Services Act.