Yesterday Google announced that it will modify its Trademark policy on the 14 of September 2010. How is this likely to affect search marketers, you might ask?
What is changing in Europe?
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As a result, advertisers will be able to buy their competitor's brand without having to fill in an exception request. While buying trademarked terms will be allowed, using those trademarked terms in the adcopy won't be permitted.
What is the likely effect of this change
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- Your brand CPC might increase during the first weeks. With time the Quality score should play its role and allow you to keep a fairly low CPC on your brand keywords
- Based on how appealing your competitors ads are, it might lower a little bit your CTR
- Advertisers that are not currently buying their brand will now need to buy it otherwise competitors might take sales from them
What is changing in the UK?
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While buying trademarked terms has been possible for a year now in the UK, it was not possible to include trademarked terms in the adcopy. On the 14 of September, selected advertisers will now be able to include trademarked terms in their ads. Advertisers will only be able to do this if they have sufficient content on their site regarding the trademarked term that they want to buy.
I would encourage all search marketers to keep a close eye on their brand performance on Google before and after the 14 of September 2010. If you have any questions please feel free to send me a tweet @efrontier or @efrontier_fr
Olivier Lemaire
Account Director, France
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