We were all surprised with Google's announcements that they're making their trademark policy more liberal and allowing everybody to bid on previously trademarked terms. This really goes against our idea of ethical business practice, something which the old rules used to enforce, and leaves the door open to brand bidding by any interested party. As brand building can be quite an expensive exercise (TV and radio ads, for example, don't come cheap), we rely heavily on the full returns of our investment - it is quite a tricky balancing act for us.
So what does I Want One Of Those do about all this? Well, as we run most of our PPC in-house, we have a direct control of what we do and do not bid on. We've created a special Competitors campaign in AdWords where we negative match our competitors names and URLs. Here's a screenshot of it:
Please contact us if you think we've omitted somebody - sorry if we have, being ethical ain't easy!
As for affiliates - I believe it is in our T&Cs that we will not honour any orders coming from an affiliate that bids on brand names, be it ours or a competitor's. I know mistakes do happen, but if this kind of activity goes on we'll simply kick the affiliate out of the programme if they refuse to take the ads down. (Hope this sounds scary)
So all in all, I think Google's decision will not really affect any of us much. Good affiliates and brands will continue to work well, while unethical ones find themselves in trouble.
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4 comments:
Paul. Good open and honest communication. I suspect, and hope, that the majority of your competitors will follow suit.
Hi Paul,
Good post. We'll be doing the same - I really don't think it's "cricket" to be brand name bidding on somebody elses name...
Zak.
That is extremely good of you, it just shows that there are some huge companies out there (such as yourselves) who are not trying to dominate the market and push us minnows right out by doing tricks like this.
We also do our PPC in house but have never even tried to go the 'bid on brand names' route. We will also keep it that way.
I see some are doing it (including one in your neg list), but rules are rules, if Google allows you to do it, what can you do.
PS..... We aren't on the list but we not as huge as some of the big boys you have on your negatives list, YET! :) (Deviltronics)
I have fully agree with what you say about ranking organically for your brand. for me that's ticket right here. If you are already strong than this is a best choice for you.
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