Comments on: The trademark lift on GoogleAdwords UK - Is Google getting greedy(er)?

By: SlightlyShadySEO

SlightlyShadySEO — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:56:16 +0000

@Rishil: Normally you’re 100% right on that point. But it’s not that simple. There’s many brands that are damaged, and have sketchy reputations. Affiliates up the conversions rates off that stuff quite well. Also take a look at how much people are bidding for “home security alarms”. That’s about branding. Last I checked, some don’t even offer service in many areas they’re bidding in.
@Lisad: No problem But yeah, I can see your point. I think it’s going to be a split. Some companies can benefit, some can get hurt.

By: Lisa Ditlefsen

Lisa Ditlefsen — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:12:54 +0000

@Excile282: Yes this has been the case in the US since 2004. But that doesn’t mean its right, also the UK search market is slightly different to the US. I think it will have a bigger impact here now being 4 years later.

@Rishil: Good find on the Hitwise data, I like it! Have given you a Sphinn as well ;)I totally agree Rishil, the brand traffic from Google PPC is imperative, and this will make costs rocket!!

@SlightlyshadySEO: Appologise for the slight “Affiliate bashing” I did. I know its alot more to Affiliate than “stealing your traffic” but in this instance the Affiliate market will really win and in essence earn loads of money on “brands” that really, belongs to the brands.

By: rishil

rishil — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:08:00 +0000

Just to back up the issue, Hitwise have done an excellent study of the possible effect of the loss of trademark protection http://sphinn.com/story/43009

By: rishil

rishil — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 09:16:11 +0000

@shady Dude brand traffic is the Highest Value, Highest Conversion, Cheapest Traffic you can get on Google UK PPC. I normally agree with everything you say - on this one, I differ.

When affiliates bid on brand, they are in effect taking your share of cheap traffic - for example in one of my projects brand converts at £10 per conversion (direct google PPC), while affiliates convert at £50 per conversion (based on their commission).

So although I can use the affiliates to help me protect my brand space, I will pay 5 times as much to be able to do so. If I spend £200K a year normally, this equates to atleast a 3x increment, if not exactly the 5x based on simple estimates.

By: SlightlyShadySEO

SlightlyShadySEO — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 14:28:16 +0000

Affiliates don’t just “steal your traffic and sell it back to you”.
They pre-sell your services or product, building it up to make a sale more likely.
And beyond that, many people bidding for “Branding” purposes have miserable conversion rates. Affiliates put their own cash on the line, fulfill the “branding” segment(if they’re even allowed to), and make it 100% sure the company will return a profit(which most branding ventures don’t).
In some cases, I will agree that it’s a negative. But not so all the time.

By: exile282

exile282 — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 21:54:12 +0000

Hasn’t this been the case with Google for quite a while if not forever in the U.S.? I figure that they simply consider it as bringing their European business practice into line.

By: Mr Happy

Mr Happy — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:13:45 +0000

Hmmm. google trying to make cash, whatever next. TBH It’s been a great opportunity to grow accounts. Clients with running aff. programs are developing startegies that use their affiliates to start ring fencing the brand space in PPC on their behalf. By offering increased commissions to ‘trusted partners’ it should be possible to make it a ‘protected’ space. May be more costly than we can do at present with trademarking but at least it protects their brands.

By: Matt Ridout

Matt Ridout — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 11:17:52 +0000

Hi Lisa, this topic has been on the horizon for our clients for quite some time now and when the “fan is started up” it will be a worrying time for some of them.

For medium - large brands I doubt there will be any significant impact , they should have an affiliate base under their own PPC listings which are controlled in a way where they can never outbid your own listing - a force field if you will!

Therefor for any new competitor to try and outbid on a brand term will be costly to say the least, and unless the landing pages are carved by the big man himself, the conversions wouldn’t provide a good RIO.

Google are talking out of their ass about this though, they want more money..as usual.

By: rishil

rishil — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 11:17:25 +0000

I think its a major shame that they have done this - however the fact that Yahoo won a case recenlt gave a greenlight to this change. Plus, they are backing it up with the fact that this policy has been in play in the US for over 3 years.

I think brand will have to play smarter and cleverer - it was quite funny to hear that some UK affiliate co.s had champagne parties because of this announcement - because now brands will have to work closer with affiliates to try and keep competitors off search results.

By: Julie Joyce

Julie Joyce — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 20:19:32 +0000

This is freaky stuff. Considering one of my clients ONLY bids on brand keywords and is quite successful doing so, I really do hate to see them doing this. Twats.