Competitor to Competitor Bidding – Play.com on Waterstone’s
posted in Affiliate Marketing, PPC Brand Name Bidding |
Following up to the most excellent read on Revenue Addict, this is just one of a numerous number of instances in the marketplace with competitor to competitor bidding which networks all too often think is just an affiliate affliction.
With the example illustrated below, take note how gimpish the offending merchant is failing to cover their tracks … Blatant & Unethical! … Do they have no shame? … I wonder if the actual client knows what their paid search agency is doing.
The clue is in the highlighted red text.
Especially when there is a conflict of interest when both merchants are on one network, and that is Buy.at. No doubt if they see this they might inform their client & claim it as their own superior client support. But you saw it here first. However if they do, then are they blagging on one of their clients (Play.com) who might not be impressed. But if they have a quiet word first with the culprit (Play.com) to suggest removing it, then wouldn’t Waterstone’s be aggreived that Buy.at didn’t inform them first. To add to the mix if Play.com employ an agency to do their search, does the actual client realise the agency is acting unethically on their behalf?
Reverse psychology? Mind games? No win situation? … Perhaps … A quandary it is though.
Merchants need to get a true perspective, for every affiliate which is inadvertently appearing to or actually breaching a keyword policy, there are multiple times more other merchants & competitors who deliberately are, yet affiliates get tarnished with the poor reputation.
Merchant’s if your network is truly looking after your interests, then insist they point out these other merchant competitors to you, or do networks/merchants not have the integrity to take on the likes of Ebay, Ask & other merchants.
Also if you have trademarks, though the process maybe tedious, register them with the various paid search engines. The initiative is in your own hands.
True to form, from below, you can see Ebay & Ask dominating the space on Waterstone’s brand. What else did you expect?
