Thursday, March 21, 2013

Google Trademark Policy Change


Google have just announced a change to their Adwords trademark policy which will take effect from 24 April 2013.

Google will no longer monitor or restrict keywords in response to trademark complaints for ads served to New Zealand users which aligns with their global policy.  Google will continue to investigate and take appropriate action regarding use of trademark terms in ad text.

What this means: Despite your company holding a trademark, Google will allow competitors to bid on your trademarked terms - for example company and product names.

What we think: The standard Google rules regarding quality score still apply, so unless your landing page and ad copy are relevant to a competitor’s search term you will be penalised  and your cost effectiveness compromised. However, savvy advertisers who embark on an integrated comparative advertising strategy may well reap rewards.  There are other scenarios where bidding on competitors keywords will work depending on the key objectives.

To learn more about this trademark policy revision, visit https://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=177578

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