The new Google UK Adwords Policy – My view on the pros and cons
I’m slightly late in blogging about this as I’m currently enjoying a few weeks off work with the wife and kids but the changes that google have recently made have some big implications for the affiliate industry and I’ve managed to find a few hours spare to jot down my thoughts on the various pros and cons.
I’m sure others have blogged about the topic already and apologise for a lack of links but I’m writing this on a trip to Manchester and for some reason Virgin have yet to enter the 21st Century and enable wifi on their trains!
So let’s firstly look at what the changes are. For the unaware, trademark owners in the UK have been fortunate enough to be able to go through a very tedious process of registering their trademark with google and blocking anyone from bidding on their brand via the sponsored listings – the process may be slow but it has worked well. In an effort to bring the policy inline with the US regulations however, this is no longer possible and on May 6th all previous blocked keywords will be opened up for sale.
This has big implications for brands across the online channels but as affiliate marketing is my “thing” I’ll try and stick to the various pros and cons of this – it’s still very early days and I’m yet to pass judgement but here’s some initial thoughts..
Pros
Better for the user ?
Whilst there is debate about if this is better for the user or not there is no little to argue with that it could help expose the user to products and services that they were unaware of previously and even help them save money. If a user is searching for a previously blocked term like “ipod” they could see ads from various alternative suppliers like Archos who have a more superior product at a better price!Good news for smaller brands
It’s getting easier to start an online store and there are some great “small brands” out there who can now start bidding against competitor terms, giving them further reach towards their target audience.More volume though Affiliate Marketing
This is a biggie. A VIOP affiliate will now be able to big against terms like “skype” and ultimately get more traffic and more sales – when paid search policies are done correctly this could be a great thing for the industry.More brand affiliate programs
Rightly or wrongly Affiliate Marketing can all of a sudden be sold as a way to help protect big brands from being outbid by their competition – this could well mean we see more programs from bigger brands with more money to spend!Cons
More Brand bidding / Overridden cookies
The most disappointing thing about all of this is that a few of us in the industry have been campaigning against brand name bidding for some time – my main issue with it has always been that it ends up overriding cookies from content affiliates as the last man approach is flawed by this. It’s a real shame and hopefully we’ll see more done by networks to stop it from having such a negative impact; Affiliate Window recently released a solution where cookies are not overridden by brand terms that seems a perfect way of preventing legitimate commission in being awarded.Lower ROI for Merchants
Brand terms are cheap and increase competition will of course push up the prices of this – this may well see a much lower ROI to merchants; something that may end up affecting the overall prices to consumers.Legal implications
Google may well of used the test case against Yahoo to define their position but that does not mean that it is legal for merchants and affiliates to target competitor terms; this may well lead to a lot of headaches and I don’t think it will be long before we start to see news in the tradepress of companies being taken to court for try to “pass off” as their competitor – be careful and check what you are doing is legal before doing it!Harder work for Affiliate Managers!
There are some dodgy affiliates out there who try and get away with bidding on brand (or competitor) terms, even when it’s against the policy restrictions. With all the terms being opened up the policing aspect will make it harder work for affiliate managers and networks!
That’s most of the things I’ve thought of so far – I sure there is plenty more that I have missed so please do leave a comment if you have any additions and I’ll get them added to the post. It’s certainly going to be an interesting time for the UK market and hopefully the positives will outweigh the negatives but to be honest, I’m yet to be convinced it’s a good thing and been done for anything over than google’s profit margins!
April 12th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
[...] The new Google UK Adwords Policy – My view on the pros and cons [...]
April 15th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Sorry for being a numpty, but on your “More Brand bidding / Overridden cookies” section I don’t really understand what you are implying might happen? Could you explain in a little more detail please?
April 15th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
Hi Neil,
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Essentially one of the problems that affiliate marketing has faced over the past year or two is the increase in programs allowing brand name bidding.
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The problem with brand name bidding is that it is damaging to content affiliate sites. Imagine that you are a camera review site and you have spend a lot of time on writing a review on the latest kodak camera. You’ve then linked the article off to Jessops and a customer comes to your site (finding it via the natural listings) and goes though tot he jessops site, a cookie is then dropped.
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The customer doesn’t buy straight away (perhaps he goes to look for some more reviews) but comes back to the Jessops site shortly after by searching on google for Jessops. A brand PPC bidder has placed the ad and the cookie that you’re site set is overriden.
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Not a great scenario but it happens every minute - one of the problems is that we’re likely to see this happen more and more with the changes in google’s policy.
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Thanks for your comment.
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James
April 16th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
Thanks for the response, I kind of figured that might be what you meant. I guess I don’t understand what the problem is really. I suppose to me it sounds like you are annoyed by only providing info to the potential customer when they are in research mode but not getting the sale when they are in buy mode? Perhaps you need to tailor your PPC/websites to buy mode?
April 16th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Hi Neil,
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I’m not annoyed at all - the post was just providing some of the pros and cons of the changes to google’s adwords policy from my POV as an affiliate manager.
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I’ve mentioned a few times on my views of brand name bidding and that it adds no value whatsoever to a merchants campaign but this may very well change when the new regulations come into effect.
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Thanks for your comments!
James
April 16th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Fair enough, you didn’t say you were annoyed, I said that, sorry.
So in your opinion, before this recent change in Google’s policy merchants shouldn’t have bothered bidding on their own brand name, but now they might/will find themselves in competition with their own affiliates? This might force them to either a) bid on their own terms and/or b) explicitly state it is against their own terms and conditions when the affiliate signs up?
But then there will always be the problem of competing brands with similar products though as you mentioned (e.g. ipod vs Archos).
Anyways, interesting take on it, and again, I wasn’t trying to put words in your mouth!
April 16th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
Hi Neil,
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What I was saying is that before the change, merchants should not have allowed their affiliates to bid on their brand, as they could get it protected easily enough by google.
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Now however some merchants may be forced to allow their affiliates (or some of them) to bid on their brand to stop their competition from appearing. This will mean brand terms are more expensive for the merchants and commission will be paid out on sales via the easiest form of affiliate marketing, brand bidding.
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A merchant can of course still stop affiliates bidding on their brand by stating this in their affiliate terms but they will now risk competition and competitive affiliates that they are unable to control coming up and sending the traffic elsewhere.
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Hope that explains it - as I said, there are pros and cons and this is just one of them.
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Cheers
James