D-Day – The Battle Commences – Google AdWords Trademark Policy Revision –
posted in Affiliate Marketing, Closed Groups, PPC Brand Name Bidding |
Let me commence with a definition of Praetorians, these people were venal & corruptible. Venal means these are people capable of betraying honour, duty, or scruples for a price. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr summarised this quite nicely as “A large praetorian bureaucracy, filled with ambitious, possessive . . . and often sycophantic people, makes work and makes trouble”, ruthlessly seeking personal advantage. Historically the Praetorians were eventually defeated by the citizens & Constantine who united the empire at the cost of much toil and bloodshed. In my opinion these Praetorians are the affiliates, merchants, networks & agencies associated with brand bidding groups who plunder at the expense of the citizens (decent & ethical content affiliates)
Today, May 5th, as you are probably aware marks the introduction of the Google AdWords Trademark Policy Revision, Google will no longer prevent you or anyone else using AdWords to place adverts on Google for trademarked terms of other companies or competitors nor will they prevent previously unauthorised ads from showing.
Initially I doubt there will be any almighty surge & it will probably commence with a whimper, but it will gradually gather pace into a crescendo. So don’t panic Mr Mannering just quite yet, just monitor you brand & have contingency plans in place if the situation arises.
It’s probably worthwhile reading my previous blog and those from other respected affiliates to give you a little background on this latest Google policy change Click Here For Details.
Personally, I sit on both sides of the fence on this topic depending on the circumstances. Bidding on competitor brands isn’t particularly good practise & shouldn’t be encouraged though for the competitor this can be extremely beneficial in increasing the profile of their smaller unrecognised brand by riding on the back of a larger brand (not necessarily better reputation).
No doubt gentlemen’s agreements will increasingly unfold, mainly between larger brands, where parties agree not to become embroiled by bidding on each others trademarks. The problem is misspellings, variations & hybrids are not realistically covered and sometimes encroach other marks in the process.
If a merchant has any fairly generic words in their brand name, there isn’t a whole lot they can do on broadmatching issues & any networks trying to enforce affiliates putting in negative phrases can take a run & jump from a very tall building.
Put the boot on the other foot, would merchants put 30,000 affiliate brands as -[negative] keywords into all their campaigns … Of course they wouldn’t. And with paid search affiliates having dozens or hundreds or thousands of adgroups it’s impossible & impractical.
So any network or merchant telling you to put in negatives can be prodded with the poopy end of a highly electrical charged cattle stick on the genitals & requested to shove off, wiping their feet on the way out.
The Exception to The Rule
If you followed the link above Click Here If you didn’t, then those Praetorians involved with BBGs I consider as legitimate targets, these parties involved have never considered the rest of us affiliates with cookie overwriting by selling out & “Getting Rich Quick by Selling br$and to the Arabs for £75m” or getting on some broadsheets rich list plus the other familiar BBG’ers. There are primarily four networks.
Therefore I will openly applaud any advertisers, affiliates or competitors, to target these parties. Will I personally involved with this? I haven’t yet decided, but I wouldn’t be foolish enough to have anything traceable back to myself, but will possibly / potentially quite happily furnish the foot soldiers the keywords required. It’s about time we rightfully clawed back some of what has been taken.
There is a small army of citizens (content affiliates) who have simply had enough. Those Praetorians in their Ivory Towers can quite happily have their discussions about myself & a few other affiliates. The Gauntlet has been picked up it’s been “enough is enough” for sometime now.
I haven’t forgotten the quote from a newly appointed UK network representative in Las Vegas last year who expressed they as a network wouldn’t change their ways & that this person was there to build up #29 & other BBG businesses.
Therefore if you are a merchant who currently has a BBG in place then I suggest you rethink & rapidly adopt alternative options like the one proposed here. “Sharing the Wealth – The Solution to Brand Bidding Groups”
Please note if a merchant doesn’t have a BBG then please don’t target them.
In the immortal words of Citizen ‘Wolfie’ Smith … “Power to the People” & a thumbs down to the The Praetorians. (relevant wrt to Roman times when the original Praetorians existed & the thumbs down given by the emporer in arena battles)
Rules of Engagement
Parties involved with BBGs manipulated the unwritten rules of engagement & worked the system via sheer greed with zero concern for anyone else, the seeds of this incentious period are quite obvious when you examine events chronologically, patterns, career paths, social circles with information volunteered quite freely when alcohol induced & a Penfold (the mole from Danger Mouse). The rules of engagement will change & for the better.
Ask Yourself
Are you a Praetorian, A Citizen or an Apathetic Buffoon?
Opting Out Required
Due to some networks reluctance to disclose which merchants have BBGs, I propose an Opt Out form or application where the merchant has to publicly say they don’t operate a BBG, thereby reducing the chances they will be subject to competitor bidding. As having to opt out seems to be the fashion, this maybe a prudent course of action to get transparency once & for all.
Exciting Product Launch
Hopefully, very soon, maybe this week even I’ll be able to blog about an exciting product launch pertaining to competitor & affiliate brand bidding, which may upset a few apple carts of those in their Ivory Towers & is highly recommended for merchants to use.
Happy Birthday Grandad
Finally I would like to say Happy Birthday to my grandad, who passed away a few years. He is fondly remembered & his words of wisdom I still follow.
