Uncontested ads are quietly draining your holiday budget. Here’s how to fight back.
Discover why your holiday CPCs stay inflated even when you’re the only bidder -- and how smart marketers are reclaiming that wasted spend.
This season, Google Search and Shopping Ads are expected to surge past $70 billion in holiday spending. But there’s a hidden flaw in the auction system — one most advertisers don’t realize is costing them money even when competitors aren’t in the game.
BrandPilot calls this the Uncontested Google Ads Problem, and it’s becoming one of the most overlooked sources of wasted ad spend in peak retail season.
During SMX Next, John Beresford, Chief Revenue Officer at BrandPilot, unpacked how a little-known behavioral quirk in Google’s auction logic can cause advertisers to overspend on their own brand terms, their Shopping placements, and even their category keywords — simply because Google doesn’t automatically reduce your CPC when competition disappears.
Instead of paying less when you’re the only bidder, you may be paying the same high rate you’d pay when rivals are active… without realizing it.
It’s a phenomenon happening thousands of times a day across major brands, and many marketers never notice it’s occurring.
In his session, Beresford discussed:
- Why “competition gaps” happen far more often than advertisers think.
- How uncontested moments distort CPCs, even on brand keywords.
- What real-time auction visibility makes possible — and why AI is changing the game.
He also shared examples of how advertisers are reclaiming wasted spend and reinvesting it into growth – without sacrificing impression share, traffic, or revenue.
Watch BrandPilot’s session now (for free, no registration required) to learn how to:
- Pinpoint why your CPCs are being artificially inflated when competitors are absent.
- Estimate the true financial impact of the Uncontested Ads Problem across your annual budget.
- Implement AI-driven bidding and suppression strategies that prevent self-bidding and boost ROAS.
If you’re running Google Search or Shopping campaigns this holiday season, you can’t afford to miss this session. Learn how to stop the Google Grinch from stealing your budget — and start turning those savings into real performance gains.
Opinions expressed in this article are those of the sponsor. Search Engine Land neither confirms nor disputes any of the conclusions presented above.
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