Google Changing AdWord Trademark policy

Google announced on Friday (4th April) that there is to be change in their trademark policy.

As of 5th May, they will allow open keyword bidding on all terms in the UK and Ireland only. This means, that as of next month, it will be possible for more than one advertiser to appear in the sponsored links after a user has typed in a search query using a trademarked term.

They want to make it clear that this is a revision that only affects keyword bidding. They go on to say that Advertisers and Agencies are accustomed to the fact that users typing in their trademarked term as part of a two, three or four word search will have always resulted in competitor ads running. For example, someone typing in 'x,y,z credit cards' in the search box will see lots of different, relevant credit card ads because broad matching will bring up ads for those advertisers bidding against the keywords 'credit card'. So, they hope this will be a familiar step for agencies and advertisers.

However, despite this trademarked keyword change, their strict ads text policy remains unchanged: unauthorised advertisers will not be able to use a monitored trademarked term in their ad text. So, ads of trademark owners are still likely to have the edge over those of non-trademark owners because these ads can use the trademark terms in the ad text: they are likely to have higher click through rates; and therefore more likely to achieve a better position in the sponsored links.

This change brings the UK and Ireland into line with the US and Canada which has been running this policy since 2004. A good proportion of users in the US and Canada have been clicking on competitor ads even when searching against trademarked terms, suggesting that they find the greater number of ads relevant and helpful when researching or making a purchase.

The rest of Europe will not be affected by this change and we will not allow advertisers to bid against monitored trademark keywords outside of the UK and Ireland.

Google Trademark help - Google AdWords Help Center

This will give both advantages and disadvanges to Google AdWords bidding and opportunities for Agencies, Affiliates and Customers alike.

Regards

Richard Burn