Googles Trademark Change of Heart

Google have recently announced that they will be extending their trademark policy in the US across the UK. What does this mean for us here in ole’ Blighty?

Well, since last year in America Google have allowed some advertisers to use third party trademarks within adtext even if they do not specifically own the trademark or have permission from the trademark owners.

This, according to Google was in an attempt to provide users with a “higher quality experience”, presumably by giving the user more choice within the search results. Google are fairly specific about who can use this, as defined by this list:

Reselller

  • Sellers of component, replacement, or compatible parts corresponding to the trademark
  • Informational sites

The example Google give is that of a seller of jeans. In the US resellers of jeans have been able to make the user aware of the brand of jeans they are selling. Being able to specifically advertise what you sell is always a good thing!

If you fall into one of these categories then as of September 14th you can go right ahead and include that trademark in your adtext.

Here at Sleeping Giant Media this will impact on several of our clients substantially, in a way we think this will be positive. Some of our clients are unable to advertise on some trademark terms despite being a reseller. With this change, we will be able to incorporate targeted adtext, which may increase Click Through Rate.

We may find a situation where Average Cost Per Click increases, as more advertisers are allowed to bid and competition for positions becomes tough. How will you update your PPC Strategy? Will you rewrite adcopy to utilise specific trademark terms? Will you use Dynamic Text Insertion to cover as many of these terms as possible within one or two ads?

As ever though, you need to ensure your advert complies with Googles updated policy, which you can access via this link:

Googles Updated Policy

As ever, we are keen to hear what fellow PPC marketers are doing, so let us know your thoughts and comments.