Google Adwords Trademark Policy UK Change

August 11, 2010 2:09 pm admin Google Adwords

Although many Custwin clients have been benefiting in this way for some time, Google Adwords advertisers will soon be able to use trademarked terms in their PPC campaigns.  In other countries this has been the case for some time but as from 14th September 2010 it’s officially allowed in the UK.   There are a few points to note here …

You can use trademarked phrases as keywords, but not necessarily in the advert text

For example, you could have a keyword phrase of ‘Nike Shoes’ but you may not get away with including it in the advert text.  However, if you are a reseller of Nike Shoes then you will likely be allowed to use the word ‘Nike’ in your advert (whereas previously this has been a problem with many trademarked terms, which stopped stockists of particular brands of products being able to promote them by brand name within PPC adverts).   If you sell other brands of shoes then you could use ‘Nike Shoes’ as a keyword phrase but your advert would need to be more generic and not include the word ‘Nike’.  For example, this advert could appear when someone types ‘Nike Shoes’:

Quality Shoes For Less
Looking For Brand Name Shoes?
Get The Same Quality For Less Money
www.cheaposportsshoes.co.uk

Experimentation is key

Don’t dive into creating PPC campaigns that use loads of brand name phrases and include them in the adverts text.   Dip a toe in the water and start with a small campaign.  If you want to see whether you can get away with using a brand name in advert text then do so in a small way.  That way, if it gets barred then you’ve not wasted the huge amounts of time that would have been necessary if you’d got carried away creating a huge campaign.

Just because you’ve used a trademark doesn’t mean it’s successful

So you’ve set up a keyword phrase that refers to a phrase that’s trademarked (e.g. Nike).  You’ve set up an advert that includes the trademarked phrase.   However, you don’t actually stock those products but you just want to attract people in who are looking for those products.  Because of the speedy nature of surfing people will often just click on adverts without little thought – they’ll see ‘Nike’ and will click, then realise there’s no actual Nike in your website and most of them will depart.    So you end up with hundreds of PPC clicks (which have cost you money) and you’ve gained little.  

There’s another issue here as well – if the Google system sees that your website landing page also doesn’t have rererence to the trademarked term (e.g. Nike) then your PPC campaign will be marked down, which will end up costing you more.  If you’re familiar with the Quality Score option within Google Adwords then you should know that a quality score of less than 7/10 is not doing you a lot of favours.    I’ve rescued hundreds of PPC campaigns and in most cases the quality scores are poor but the client has thought that the answer is to keep boosting up the campaign cost allowances – big mistake!

14th September 2010 – the opportunities

OK, you don’t have to wait until 14th September – much can be capitalised on now – but that’s the official date.   So how can the average business capitalise on the ability to use trademarked phrases within their PPC campaigns, and also possibly within adverts for added impact?  Here’s the ‘in brief’ guide – contact me for deeper information if needed …

1. Make a list of the trademarked phrases you want to be visible under within PPC adverts when people type those phrases into Google.
2. For each phrase write down what the relationship is between the phrase and what you’re offering.
3. Create a website page that contains the trademarked phrases (obviously, in some cases you’ve got to be careful here – always best to check with the legal people!) but in context with what you’re offering for sale.
4. Focusing on just one of the trademarked phrases to start with, create your PPC advert linked to that phrase, but don’t include the trademarked phrase in the advert itself.
5. Launch the test PPC advert, offering a decent cost per click, and measure the levels of clicks achieved over a period of time (e.g. a week), and what you gained from those clicks (e.g. number of enquiries or sales).
6. As long as the clicks are converting into enquiries/sales that outweigh the investment then for just one of the trademark phrases, build it into the advert text.  Then monitor it closely over a few days to ensure that the advert doesn’t get banned.  The rate of clicks will increase from the time you put the trademarked phrase in so you still have to closely check what results you’re gaining from that.
7. If your results are strong, having experimented with just one trademarked phrase, expand out to more – all the time keeping a very close eye on what results you’re gaining.

Want to know more?  Just contact Custwin for a confidential discussion about how you can best-capitalise on making your business visible in Google when people are searching under trademarked phrases.