Ask the Collective

How do retailers and competitors bid on your brand terms in Google PPC, and what impact does this have on D2C costs and sales?

Retailers, competitors, and even major platforms routinely bid on your brand search terms on Google, which drives up your PPC costs even if you don't immediately notice the impact. This is a real dynamic D2C founders need to monitor and manage. **The competitive landscape:** - Major retailers (e.g. **Noths**, **Holland and Barrett**), platforms (e.g. **Amazon**, **Google Shopping**), and direct competitors all bid on brand terms simultaneously - Even smaller competitors may bid aggressively on your flagship SKUs - The auction participants change weekly, so competitive pressure is fluid **How to monitor and respond:** - Use **Google Ads Competitive Impression Share** reporting to see who is bidding on your brand terms and what percentage of impressions they're capturing - Set up a **live dashboard** to track bidding activity by keyword, campaign, market, and objective—this lets you spot aggressive entrants quickly - Bid back or escalate spending when competitors become too aggressive (often automated) - Ask retailers not to compete on your flagship SKUs (members report this is "worth a shot," though success varies) **Profitability note:** - Members found that competitor bidding is often unprofitable for them (poor conversion), but it still raises your costs - An unconventional tactic: bid on US brand terms in the UK market if those brands aren't present locally—this captures brand-adjacent search volume at lower cost - Watch for competitors using other brands' names in ads without permission, which some members have encountered Automation is commonly used to manage this, so most founders delegate the daily monitoring and bid adjustments to specialists or tools.