Little content ahead, but I’ve found it amusing last night when I was too lazy to type ‘www’ myself.
I guess it’s the biggest compliment when your competitions SEO hits your brand name 
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Interesting, because I get the direct TR on top (no SUF ad) when done on PC with Chrome, FireFox, and Edge.
My guess is OP was retargeted. He visited SUF website, it tracked him with cookies to Google because it considered him a prospective subscriber, and plopped in the ad when he went to search. Pretty common marketing tactic these days to have ads follow you around the web like that.
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This is pretty common in Google Adwords marketing. They have likely added ‘trainerroad’ as a keyword in their ad account, so when the right person searches it might show the ad. But whether an ad is shown varies a lot depending on search volume and the relative value of that search term.
Ultimately yes, it is kind of a compliment… 
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another fine example of Google’s “don’t be evil” and Alphabet’s “do the right thing” – because misdirecting people to Sufferfest when searching for “trainerroad” isn’t deception or false advertising.
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The weird part is that the Sufferfest doesn’t have to put “trainer road” at the beginning. They choose to do that, I’m guessing because they want people to think they are going to TrainerRoad.
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yes, we used to call that deceptive and misleading advertising.
My opinion of SUF and Wahoo has hit new lows.
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It’s probably not them doing it but rather a marketing agency. So to be fair they might not even know the specifics of the single ad.
Conquesting is quite common which is why brands often pay for ads on their own brand name even if they own the organic listing.
Shady to put “Trainer road” in the actual ad but it likely keeps their costs down because it’s seen as more relevant. From what I can tell they’re paying about $1.60 evertime someone clicks on that ad…give or take.
And like Nate said, at first glance if you don’t know what you’re looking at, you think you’re hitting the TR site. Though that opens up the whole other question of the people who are frustrated they were misled.
Weirdly no. I never visited SUF or searched for it. Only contacts in recent history were articles and forum discussions about the wahoo deal.
They’ve done something like this before on the App Store and apple made them stop.
Since this is an ad they don’t need our name in the title. They just pay for the keyword and then show a link to SF.
I’m trying to give them the benefit of the doubt but I can’t see any reason why they would put that there other than to trick people.
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Perhaps I’m more cynical? The use of “Trainer road” was deliberate and calculated. Right up there with the Wahoo CEO plausible deniability kerfluffle earlier this year over bezelgate aka “Product Renderings” in the DCRainmaker comment section. And Kickr Core-gate. What is going on at Wahoo?
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Yeah, using the TR name in the Ad is misleading and likely against Google policy.
If the name TrainerRoad is trademarked then it is definitely against Google Adwords policy, and usually the system automatically denies those ads.
The deliberate sidestep to that is the “space” in the SUF version (Trainer Road as 2 words, and the official is 1 word without a space), that likely avoids a direct violation.
But it’s dirty pool regardless. Shame on them.
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this is what you get for using google.
Break out of the Evil Empire, dude.
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I always make a point of clicking on my competitor’s SEO links. If they’re going to ride on my customer’s searches, might as well have them pay for it.
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Clearly Google’s algorithms determined TR needed to increase spend 
Alphabet’s “Do the right thing” has become a double entendre
Thanks for sharing their communication back, @Nate_Pearson. As a happy annual subscriber to both The Sufferfest and TrainerRoad, I’m relieved the air was cleared for me, too.
Yep, the App Store is hilarious for this across the board. Keyword turf war is real.
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No doubt. Ask yourself this - who owns advertising on mobile and the Internet in general?