[brahyam]

> looking at the companies who buy Google AdWords on their own brand - if someone's searching for your brand on Google your website will already be the top result - a click on the ad is not a true "conversion" in this case and is just wasted money

Could be a true conversion given that all competitors are paying adwords on your brand name search also. If you don't have them you will probably appear after a long list of competitors with really personalized clickbait titles prompting your customers to compare you with them

[20after4]

It's incredibly sad that it's even possible to bid for the top spot above a competitors trademark. The worst blow to the health of the web was likely google's merger with doubleclick.net.

Google has devolved into a shitty search engine even ignoring the advertising. Someone please build a search engine comparable to google in the mid-2000s. No duckduckgo isn't it.

[gverrilla]

would you tell more about why you think ddg is not good? I'm not using it for some reasons so I'd like to know. Thanks

[krustyburger]

Not the original commenter, but before Google fully pivoted to their present focus on monetizing search, the results were often strikingly useful, even for obscure searches. DuckDuckGo can’t (yet) replicate this now-lost magic.

[monadic2]

In my memory the quality of google searches peaked around 2009 or so I'm not sure I'd refer to it as a "present" effect....

[andygcook]

Agreed. This happened with my startup. Basecamp complains about this practice frequently too: https://mobile.twitter.com/jasonfried/status/116898696270498...

Pro tip: if the competitor uses your trademark in their ad copy, you can do a takedown notice and usually the ads will be removed.