Our views on the recent Google Adwords change
Obviously this post would have been way more useful a few weeks ago, but I didn't have the blog running then!
The recent lifting of Google Adwords trademark restrictions caused a lot of discussion and a bit of panic within the industry. I even got quite concerned about it myself, not least because it would potentially mean a lot more work in monitoring PPC.
Before the change we sent an e-mail out to all our affiliates, and I thought it might be useful to publish this here, just to make our policy nice and clear, and it also might be useful for other merchants who want to write about policy in a non-threatening way. Incidentally, it seems to have worked, according to Keith Bond it was the e-mail out of the many he got that stuck in his mind!
Sent the week before the Adwords change:
Firebox PPC terms: upcoming
changes to Google Adwords
As you
might already have heard, Google is about to make some pretty sweeping changes
to their Adwords policy and we think this could (accidentally) put some of our affiliates’
paid search activity in breach of the Firebox.com PPC Policy.
We don’t
want this to happen - and we know you don’t either - so we’ve put together some
advice in this email to help you avoid it.
If you
run any paid search activity under our programme then a) thanks! and b) we’d be
super grateful if you could take the time to read the info below..
So
what’s all the fuss about?
As of
Monday May 5th, Google Adwords are removing the trademark
restrictions that are currently in place on lots of brand keywords, including
the keyword “Firebox”.
This
means that anyone will now be able to bid on these previously trademarked
terms, although trademarks are still restricted in the ad text itself. Lots of
brand owners are getting nervous that competitors might start bidding on their
trademarks or get up to other mischief online.
Firebox
isn’t about to start bidding on trademarked terms – we don’t think it’s big or
clever - and we don’t want our affiliates to either. We’re not making any
changes to our PPC policy for affiliates at this time and we haven’t set up any
‘closed groups’ to allow brand bidding. Our PPC policy continues to apply to
all affiliates with no exceptions.
What’s
the Firebox PPC Policy again?
Glad you
asked. The Firebox.com PPC policy is:
- No “Firebox” Brand Bidding – Like most online retailers we have brand name bidding
restrictions are in place and so Affiliates in our programme are not allowed to
bid on the following brand terms (or any variations or misspellings):
“firebox”, “fire box”, “firebox.co.uk”, “firebox.com”.
- Direct Linking & Display URL is OK – We’re delighted for affiliates
to link directly to us from search engines and we think you’ll get a better
conversion rate. You can also use our display url (www.firebox.com)
for the same reason.
- No Competitor Brand Bidding - Please do not bid on the trademarked brand names of our
competitors when promoting Firebox. It makes us look bad and feel icky. (Plus
we get nasty phonecalls from our competitors, which nobody likes.)
So how
does this affect me?
You might
not specifically be bidding on trademarks in your paid search campaigns but
your ads might show up anyway thanks to things like Google’s “broad match”
feature. Below are some tips on how to avoid falling foul of our PPC Policy
after the Google change:
1) Firebox
trademarks
If you
are running a campaign using “broad match” keywords that promotes or mentions
Firebox or our products, I recommend adding our brand terms as negative
keywords. Previously the trademark restriction would have given you protection
against your ads appearing for our trademarked terms, after Monday this will
not be the case.
2) The
trademarks of our competitors
When you
are promoting us or our products, do not bid on the trademarks of our
competitors. We know it would be a near-impossible task to add ALL of these
into your negative keywords for broad matched campaigns, but please just be
sensible when thinking of which keywords to bid on.
Some
examples of competitor trademarks include “iwantoneofthose.com” “prezzybox”,
“gadgetshop”, “boysstuff”, etc.
We don’t
bid on competitor trademarks because we feel it would be unethical, and we hope
all our affiliates will respect this, despite the Google change.
If we are
alerted to a breach of our PPC terms we will try to contact you first to
resolve the issue as we understand that genuine mistakes can occur. However, if
you do not respond or cannot remove any offending adverts promptly, we will
have to suspend you from our programme. We may also cancel your commissions for
sales made as a result of rule breaking.
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