Google Adwords Trade Mark Ban Lifted
15th May 2009 by David Thomas
Until recently the “Trade Mark” bidding policies on Google’s Adword platform had caused much controversy and confusion amongst advertisers. As a PPC Manager over the past year i have had to act for both parties involved from both sides of the fence. Let me explain..
Right up until this week Google prohibited the use of brand names that carry a trademark from being utilized within the copy of third party ads on its search engine results page. There were exceptions to this rule where the brand itself permitted this activity, and allowed certain advertisers to use their name in their ads. This ruling has now been lifted…in the US for now anyway.
Google have seen many cases argued in the past and many battles fought, won and lost under these rulings. Some advertisers argued that not being able to use the brand terms in their ads when stocking these goods in their online shops was unfair, whilst some advertisers were arguing that canny affiliates would use their brand name to entice searchers to visit and buy from a page or site containing non branded products in these fields.
Imagine opening a magazine and viewing a full page ad offering huge discounts and money off or buy 1 pair get 1 pair free deals on “Top Brand Trainers” instead of “Adidas Trainers” well until now this is how Adwords advertisers had to word their ads in the sponsored listing. Many advertisers have been complaining for some time, as the search master Google has always dug its heels in when it comes to relevance in the ad copy but how can this be done when we cant even name the product in question?
Although this is good news for the smaller retailer in the sense that they can now advertise the brands that they carry, will they be priced out of the market by the bigger retailers with bottomless budgets?
Will more low level reviewing and screening be needed? Will this mean that the review process will now take much longer? Who knows what the future holds only