PPC Brand Defense
Detect competitors hijacking your branded search terms, estimate the revenue they are siphoning, and launch a defensive bid in one click to protect your share of voice.
Difficulty: 🟡 Intermediate · Reading time: ~10 min
Open this page in your dashboard: Go to PPC Brand Defense [BETA] →
BETA: The PPC Manager is currently in beta. Some features may behave unexpectedly or change based on user feedback. Please report any issues at info@sellermagnet.com.
📋 Overview
Brand Defense finds the competitors bidding on your own brand terms and helps you push them back. When a shopper searches for your brand and a rival's ad shows up in the top slot, that is demand you have already created being handed to someone else. Brand Defense surfaces exactly which of your brand terms are under attack, who the top attacker ASINs (Amazon Standard Identification Number) are, how much revenue the attack is estimated to be costing you each week, and the defensive bid needed to reclaim the top ad slot, all on a single page.
For each brand term it generates one attack card with a severity rating, the attacking products, your current versus recommended bid, and a one-click Create defensive campaign button that hands the term off to the campaign creation wizard pre-filled and ready to launch.
Prerequisite: Brand Defense only works once you have told SellerMagnet your brand names. Configure them in PPC Settings under Brand Terms (the page links you straight there if none are set). Until then, the page shows a setup prompt instead of attack cards.
🗂️ Page Layout
The page has four parts, top to bottom:
Defense overview KPIs : a four-card strip summarizing the selected profile
Profile selector and Re-scan : switch marketplace and refresh attacker detection
Severity filter chips : narrow the cards to Critical, High, Medium, or Low
Attack cards : one card per brand term competitors are targeting
📊 Defense Overview KPIs
The KPI strip at the top summarizes the state of your brand defense for the selected profile.
Brand terms tracked
How many brand terms are configured for this profile (set in PPC Settings)
Under attack
How many of those terms currently have active competitors bidding on them
Est. lost revenue / week
Modeled weekly revenue estimated to be siphoned by competitors across all attacked terms
Defense health score
The share of your brand terms that already have an active defensive campaign running
How "Est. lost revenue / week" is calculated. This is a modeled estimate, not a measured figure. SellerMagnet takes competitor impressions on your brand searches and multiplies by your average click-through rate, conversion rate, and order value, then assumes roughly 30% of that demand would have been yours if the term were defended. Treat it as a directional sizing of the threat, not an exact dollar loss.
Reading the Defense health score: A score of 100% means every tracked brand term has an active defense. If your score is low while "Under attack" is high, you are leaving the easiest, cheapest wins on the table, owning the top slot on your own name is some of the most efficient spend in PPC.
🎯 Attack Cards
Each card represents one brand term that competitors are targeting. From top to bottom a card shows:
Brand term
The exact branded search query under attack
Matching keywords
How many of your own keywords currently target this term (or a note that none do yet)
Severity pill
Critical, High, Medium, or Low threat level
Top attackers
Up to three competitor ASINs bidding on the term, each clickable through to its Amazon product page on the right marketplace
Current bid
Your existing bid on this term (or "None" if you are not defending it)
Recommended
The suggested defensive bid to win the brand auction and push attackers down
Est. lost revenue / week
The modeled weekly loss attributed to this specific term
Defense state
"Active defense" if you already have a campaign running on the term, "No defense" if not
Create defensive campaign
One-click launch that hands this term to the campaign wizard, pre-filled
"Top attackers (account-wide)". When the attacker label reads "(account-wide)", those ASINs are your account-wide top competitor spenders rather than rivals detected specifically on that one brand term. They are shown for context, not as confirmed attackers of that exact query.
Severity Levels
Use the filter chips above the cards to focus on the threats that matter most first.
Critical
Your brand term is being aggressively contested and is undefended or losing badly
Act now
High
A meaningful competitor presence on a valuable term
Act soon
Medium
Some competitor activity, lower stakes
Monitor and plan
Low
Minor or incidental competitor presence
Optional
Quick Win: Filter to Critical and High, then look for cards where the Defense state reads "No defense." Those are brand terms you are actively losing and not yet defending, the highest-value, lowest-risk actions on the page.
Worked Example: Defending One Term End to End
The numbers below are illustrative and rounded for clarity, your own card will show live figures. This walkthrough shows how the pieces on a single attack card connect.
Say your brand is AcmeGear and the page shows a Critical card for the brand term acmegear:
Brand term
acmegear
Matching keywords
0 (you are not targeting this term yet)
Severity pill
Critical
Top attackers
2 competitor ASINs, e.g. B08XYZ1234 and B07ABCD456, both bidding on your name
Current bid
None
Recommended
$1.20 defensive bid
Est. lost revenue / week
~$500
Defense state
No defense
Where the ~$500 comes from. The estimate follows the page's stated model, competitor impressions on your brand search × your CTR × CVR × order value × ~30% recapture:
~3,000 competitor impressions on
acmegearper week× 8% CTR = ~240 clicks
× 20% CVR = ~48 orders
× $35 average order value = ~$1,680 of demand riding on your name
×
30% recapture = **$500/week** modeled loss
Because the term is aggressively contested (two active attackers) and completely undefended, it rates Critical.
Taking action. You click Create defensive campaign. The wizard opens pre-filled with the Brand Defense template, acmegear as the keyword, and the recommended $1.20 bid, replacing your current "None." You review and confirm, and the defensive campaign goes live.
Current bid
$1.20
Defense state
Active defense
Severity pill
Downgraded on the next re-scan as you reclaim the top slot
Effect on your Defense health score. If you track 8 brand terms and 5 already had an active defense, your score was 5 / 8 = ~63%. Defending acmegear moves it to 6 / 8 = 75%, and the "Under attack" KPI drops by one as this term is now covered.
🛡️ Launching a Defensive Campaign
When you click Create defensive campaign on a card, SellerMagnet opens the campaign creation wizard pre-filled for that brand term:
The Brand Defense template is selected
The brand term is added as the campaign keyword
The recommended defensive bid is pre-set
The campaign is named for the term (e.g.
SP - Defensive - <your brand>)
You still review and confirm in the wizard before anything goes live, nothing is created automatically from this page.
Why a dedicated defensive campaign: Bidding on your own brand term in a focused campaign lets you own the top ad slot cheaply (branded terms convert well and usually have low competition), keeps attackers below you, and gives you a clean place to measure your brand-defense spend separately from generic prospecting.
Confirm the bid before launch. The recommended defensive bid is calculated to win the brand auction, but you set your own ceiling. If the recommended value is higher than you are comfortable with, lower it in the wizard, just keep in mind that bidding too low on a contested brand term can leave the top slot to a competitor.
🔄 Profile & Re-scan
Profile selector: Brand Defense is scoped to one marketplace profile at a time. Switch profiles to inspect a different market.
Re-scan Brand Terms: Click to refresh attacker detection from the latest search-term data. Run a re-scan after you add new brand terms in Settings or after a fresh data sync.
Auto-suggested brand terms. If you have not configured any brand terms yet, Brand Defense may detect likely brand tokens from your campaign names and product titles and offer to add them in one click. Review the suggestions, confirm the ones that are genuinely your brand, and skip any generic words before enabling.
📤 Export
The attack list can be exported to CSV or Excel for offline analysis or sharing with your team. The export includes the brand term, severity, attacker count, top attacker ASINs, estimated weekly lost revenue, current and recommended bids, whether the term has an active defense, and the matching keyword count.
⚠️ Common Mistakes to Avoid
Mistake 1: Not configuring brand terms. Brand Defense cannot detect anything until your brand names are set in PPC Settings. An empty page does not mean you are safe, it means the system has nothing to watch. Fix: Add your brand names under PPC Settings > Brand Terms.
Mistake 2: Treating "Est. lost revenue" as an exact figure. It is a modeled estimate (competitor impressions × your CTR × CVR × order value × ~30% recapture). Use it to prioritize, not to forecast precise revenue. Fix: Act on the relative size and severity, not the exact number.
Mistake 3: Bidding too low to "save money" on your own brand. A defensive bid that loses the top slot defeats the purpose. Fix: Stay at or near the recommended defensive bid on Critical and High terms.
Mistake 4: Adding generic words as brand terms. If you add a common category word as a "brand term," every competitor in your niche looks like an attacker. Fix: Configure only genuinely branded tokens (your name, sub-brands, signature product names).
🔧 Troubleshooting
"No attackers detected, but I expect some"
Confirm your brand terms are configured. Brand Defense can only watch terms you have set under PPC Settings > Brand Terms. If none are set, the page shows a setup prompt, not attack cards.
Run a re-scan. Attacker detection reads from the latest search-term data. If you just added a brand term or synced fresh data, click Re-scan Brand Terms to refresh.
Check the profile. Detection is scoped to one marketplace profile at a time. Switch to the marketplace where the attacks are happening, an attacker on your DE brand searches will not show under a US profile.
Give the data time. Amazon delivers search-term data with a 24-72 hour delay, so brand searches from the last day or two may not have surfaced attackers yet.
You may genuinely be well-defended. If a term already reads "Active defense" and you own the top slot, competitors may simply not be showing on that query right now.
"My Defense health score is not improving after I raised bids"
Raising a bid is not the same as adding a defense. The Defense health score measures the share of brand terms that have an active defensive campaign, not how high your bids are. Use Create defensive campaign on undefended terms to move the score.
The campaign may not be live yet. If you started the wizard but did not confirm, or the campaign is still paused, the term still counts as undefended. Confirm it launched and is enabled.
Re-scan after launching. The score and the card's Defense state update from the latest scan. Run a re-scan after your defensive campaign has gone live and gathered data.
Term mismatch. If the campaign keyword does not match the exact brand term on the card, the term still reads "No defense." See the FAQ entry on "No defense" below.
"There is an attacker I cannot outbid"
Stay at or near the recommended defensive bid. It is calculated to win the brand auction. If you lowered it in the wizard to save money, raise it back toward the recommended value on Critical and High terms.
Branded terms are cheap to own. Your own brand query is highly relevant to your listing, so your effective cost to hold the top slot is usually far lower than a determined competitor's. A well-set defensive bid normally wins.
Relevance and listing quality matter too. Amazon weighs relevance, not just bid. Make sure the defended ASIN is the right, in-stock, Buy Box-eligible product for that brand search.
If a rival keeps overspending irrationally, hold your recommended bid to keep them below you and use the modeled lost-revenue figure to decide how hard the term is worth contesting, do not chase an unprofitable bidding war on a low-severity term.
"A brand term I care about is not being tracked"
Add it in PPC Settings > Brand Terms. Only configured brand tokens are tracked. Sub-brands and signature product names must be added explicitly, they are not inferred automatically.
Check the auto-suggested terms. If Brand Defense suggested brand tokens from your campaign names and product titles, confirm the genuine ones, they are not tracked until you accept them.
Avoid generic words. If the term is a common category word, adding it will flag every competitor as an attacker. Only genuinely branded tokens belong here.
Re-scan after adding. A newly added brand term appears in the KPIs and as a potential attack card only after the next re-scan.
❓ FAQ
Where do I set my brand terms?
In PPC Settings under Brand Terms. The Brand Defense page links you straight there when none are configured. Once set, every PPC keyword can be classified as Brand vs Generic and Brand Defense can detect attacks.
Is the "Est. lost revenue / week" a real measured loss?
No. It is a modeled estimate based on competitor impressions on your brand searches multiplied by your average click-through rate, conversion rate, and order value, with an assumption that roughly 30% of that demand would have been yours if defended. Use it for prioritization, not exact accounting.
Does clicking "Create defensive campaign" launch anything automatically?
No. It opens the campaign creation wizard pre-filled with the brand term, the Brand Defense template, and the recommended bid. You review and confirm in the wizard before the campaign goes live.
What does "(account-wide)" next to the attackers mean?
It means the shown ASINs are your account-wide top competitor spenders rather than rivals confirmed on that specific brand term. They are displayed for context.
Why is a brand term showing "No defense" when I think I'm bidding on it?
The Defense state reflects whether an active campaign is running on that exact brand term for the selected profile. Switch to the correct marketplace profile, run a re-scan after your latest sync, and confirm the term matches the keyword you are actually bidding on.
➡️ What's Next?
PPC SettingsPPC AI OptimizerLast updated