Unfortunately, affiliates do not always abide by the rules and requirements of your program. For example, you may specifically prohibit keyword sponsorship of your best terms or your brand terms. You may look to keep your affiliates from co-promoting you alongside of your competitor(s) on the same landing page, you may have restrictions on paid […]
As you may know, Google recently loosened its policy in the USA related to the use of trademarks in ad copy text, which went into effect on June 15, 2009. The big question is: has this change resulted in an increase in trademark use? The answer is yes. The Search Monitor tracks and monitors trademark […]
The display URL is the part of your ad copy text that tells consumers where they will go if they click on your ad. Therefore, it is a very important tool for branding yourself, as it is how consumers will recognize you in list of sponsored results. Each of the major search providers typically enforces […]
If you are a Google Adwords customer you may have read that the Adwords’ trademark enforcement policies are going through a big change which will impact the control that you have over use of your brands on paid search. The new policies will impact you starting on June 4th and June 15th, 2009. Earlier this […]
Your brand is important to you. Consumers looking for you or a product like yours will often search using your brand in their keyword phrases. Your competitors know this and will likely try to advertise on your brands, slogans, and catchy phrases. How can you tell if you are winning out on your brand terms? […]
Most affiliate managers and brand owners agree that they are not fond of the practice where affiliate marketers direct link from a search campaign to the advertiser’s web site. While frowned upon, the practice may be simply a nuisance because you just don’t like it or could become a more serious problem that is costing […]
Would you like to have a heads-up any time your competitors are about ready to launch a new product? In many cases you can get good advance warning with clever use of search. There are specific competitive intelligence tactics that make this relatively straightforward. But first, take a step back and think about the things […]
Auto-matching is a feature provided by both Google and Yahoo which allows the search provider to autonomously select new keywords for you and to create new ad copy for you, without the advertiser’s advance permission. The new keywords are selected from various places including your ad copy text, your display URLs, your landing page and/or […]
You may not be aware of it, but brand thieves are everywhere, lurking in the shadows of sponsored search, working hard to exploit your brand and steal your clicks. Their favorite tactics include hiding in lower positions during off hours, and targeting markets that you cannot see. Who are these brand thieves? How do they […]