Protected SEM Bidding Keywords

2 replies
  • PPC/SEM
  • |
Do you know the laws in the US regarding trademark keywords?

I am in an affiliate program that says you can't bid on certain keywords. I am concerned that people are breaking this rule which can skew the EPC.

How can they even enforce should a rule banning keywords, especially when your ad could come up after searching for a trademark term which you can have a broad match keyword that picks it up?
#bidding #keywords #protected #sem
  • Profile picture of the author a2hosting
    From my experience it's pretty obvious when an affiliate is trademark bidding. The traffic source and the abnormally high conversion rates are generally a dead giveaway. I would probably stick with phrase match and modified broad bidding techniques to be on the safe side. More importantly if there are only a program or two that you're promoting with PPC, why not reach out to the affiliate manager to hear their thoughts on your promotion techniques?
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  • Profile picture of the author dburk
    Originally Posted by BrianJM View Post

    Do you know the laws in the US regarding trademark keywords?

    I am in an affiliate program that says you can't bid on certain keywords. I am concerned that people are breaking this rule which can skew the EPC.

    How can they even enforce should a rule banning keywords, especially when your ad could come up after searching for a trademark term which you can have a broad match keyword that picks it up?
    Hi Brian,

    It has noting to do with trademark law. It is the policy of many affiliate merchants to not permit bidding on their brand names. They don't allow it because the don't want their affiliates to interfere with their own brand marketing campaigns.

    You can easily prevent your broad match keywords from trigger impressions when someone searches for a prohibited brand name by including a negative match keyword for that brand name in your ad campaigns.
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