Advertising on competitor's domain name

[wheel]

I just got a whine from a competitor's lawyer (actually a competitor of a client, the lawyer's clearly clueless about this newfangled internet stuff) claiming we're advertising on 'theirdomain.com'. I checked the PPC, and we don't have those anywhere as a keyword.

It's worth noting that they're not claiming trademark infringement...because their domain is 'keyword.com' where 'keyword' is a common english word.

I'm happy to remove it, if I could find it.

I'm guessing that Google's slapping up my ads on their domain name, even though it's not explicitly in my account. Is this likely?

[smallcompany]

It is a broad match of some of your keywords. The only way to ensure your ad will not show is to enter a negative of what you've been asked not to bid on, at ad group or campaign level.

Personally, I am strongly against bidding onto domain.com keywords if you don’t actually advertise for that particular domain. At the same time, you’re right, if the domain name is a common word dot com, well, some people expect to find the best answer about cars at cars dot com I guess.

[poster_boy]

Is this likely?

Yes, this has happened to me, as well.

And, while I was apathetic about the specific term in question - the word was common enough to be included in many other useful keywords. For that reason, I simply directed the complainant to Google - as this is who their beef was with.

[trannack]

Surely all they have to do is add your site to their competitive ad filter in adsense. Problem solved.

[rocknbil]

Yeah, if your ads are showing up on their adSense campaign, it's their problem. :-)