When Google speaks, search marketers listen. And the search superpower has just given voice to some new rules about using trademarked terms in the body of pay-per-click ads. To wit: It’s okay.
That’s a change of policy. For years Google has allowed marketers to bid on trademarked terms as keywords. But those only determine which ads will get served when users do a search; the keywords themselves are invisible. In ad copy, Google has in the past disallowed trademarked terms at the request of the mark holder.
But those policies are set to change on June 11, Google says. From that date, search ads will be able to mention someone else’s trademark if the advertiser sells or resells that product or sells replacement parts. Informational sites can also use the trademarks to send people to product reviews.
Google positions this as a move to make search ads more useful. A post on an official Google blog explained that the old policy was like seeing a supermarket ad advertising “discount cola” and “snacks on sale” rather than mentioning brand names.
The policy should open up new opportunities for e-commerce vendors and multi-brand merchants who will at last be able to mention iPods and Adidas in PPC ads.
But it will probably also pour gasoline on the smoldering rage of brand owners, many of whom were not happy even to see Google selling their marks as behind-the-scenes keywords. Actually having their terms show up in ads will raise the fear that other advertisers can trade on their good name and siphon off searchers who may not realize they’re clicking through to a site run by someone other than the holder of that trademark.
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