A much debated topic in the Pay Per Click world over the past few years has been the notion of running PPC ads on competitors brand names. In the small business digital marketing world, this happens quite often.  When it comes to mobile, this can be rather effective.

Below are a few examples of large brands running PPC campaigns through Google Ads on competitors brand names. In the case of Tire Discounters (a mid size tire chain), this may be inadvertent since the search "Tire Discounter(s)" can be a broad match keyword in Firestone's campaign. However, in the case of  Outback Steakhouse, it seems like the company is deliberately running ads on Red Lobster's keywords.

In a mobile search like the ones below, this tactic seems like it could be fairly effective.  On a mobile search, these ads are very prominent and will likely cause a user to click. In most cases, brands can get away with this. There is nothing in Google's PPC guidelines that explicitly states that companies are not allowed to do this, but companies can contact them directly if there are blatant cases. The question becomes, is this the right thing to do?

Our data is showing that mobile traffic is about 1-3% of clients traffic in most cases, and growing.  As mobile searches grow, this is going to become more and more prominent, no doubt.