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Well yes, sure. With broad match keywords and keywordless targeting many advertiers inadvertantly serve ads for their own brand (where they don’t do so purposesly) and their competitors’ brands.
There are several fixes for this.
For your own brand you can exclude it from campaigns using a brand list (noting this functionalty is now only available in search campaigns that have AI Max activated – not great obviously).
You can also just use a traditional negative keyword at the campaign level, as a negative list, or even the account level if you don’t want to run for your brand at all.
For competitors you can also use a negative brand list noting the issue above. Otherwise yes, you have to play a bit of whackamole with negative keywords.
Advertisers and/or agencies that are aware of this shift can easily take care of it so let’s not make a mountain out of a mole hill.
And by the same token, targeting your own brand and competitor conquesting are both valuable strategies for many advertisers.
