Competitor Conquesting
Competitor conquesting is bidding on a competitor's brand name as a Google Ads keyword so your ad shows when people search for them. It is legal and permitted by Google's policy in most markets — Google restricts trademarks only in ad text, not in keyword targeting. Using the competitor's trademark in your ad copy is a separate question, usually disallowed if they've filed a trademark complaint.
In depth
Two separate rules: targeting the brand keyword (almost always allowed) vs. naming the brand in ad text (usually disallowed once the owner files a Google trademark complaint).
US case law (Rosetta Stone, the 1-800 Contacts FTC action) holds that a trademark used purely as a keyword trigger is not infringement — confusion is judged on what the ad says, not the invisible keyword.
Your Quality Score on a competitor's brand term is structurally low (your landing page isn't relevant to their brand), so conquest CPCs run high. It pays off only with a strong differentiator and a high-value conversion.
Defense: run your own brand-defense campaign (near-perfect Quality Score, cheap top slot) and file a Google trademark complaint to block competitors naming you in their copy.
Common misconception
Bidding on a competitor's brand name will NOT get your account penalized — there's no penalty for it, and it doesn't affect your Quality Score on your own keywords. The only enforcement is ad disapproval if you use their trademark in ad text where a complaint is on file.
Source: Google Ads Help — Trademark policy
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