Google AdWords UK: Trademark Policy Update

Google AdWords Trademark Policy

September 14 is a big day for Google AdWords advertisers: two changes are taking place that will make significant differences to UK advertisers.

Trademarked Terms in AdWords copy

Some advertisers will now be permitted to use trademarked terms in the text of their advertising copy. That means “resellers, sellers of component, replacement or compatible parts corresponding to the trademark and informational sites” can now include the trademarked term in their advertising.

If you do a quick search on Google for “Louis Vuitton” you will find almost no advertising:  the brand owner, LVMH, currently exerts its rights and has a monopoly on this advertising space.

Similarly,  you’ll see great big empty spaces on the Google search results if you search for travel brands like the hotel chain Le Meridien, insurance companies like Geico, or electronics brands like Nokia and Dell.

However, this change is equally important for Business-to-Business (B2B) brands, and can provide powerful marketing opportunities for niche brands.

This does not appear to be a free-for-all for your advertising to masquerade as your competition;  the issue of misleading customers remains a legal matter, and brand owners will be still able to ask Google to take down an advert by a third party if they feel it confuses users about the origin of the advertised product or service.  And AdWords have made it absolutely clear that relevance of landing pages is paramount:  your landing page must correspond the phrase for which your bidding.

Since 2008, it has been permissible for UK advertisers to bid for trademarked phrases,  but the change is now some businesses may be entitlled to put the brand words right in the text in order to create a more meaningful and useful advert for the consumer

How can your business take advantage of bidding for your competitors’ trademarks?

  1. Any ads you’ve written that have been previously disapproved will need to be resubmitted for approval.
  2. The advertising status “Approved (Limited)” means your ad will be displaying in those limited regions wheere the new policy applies (USA, UK, Ireland, Canada)
  3. Don’t pretend to be someone your not: Write ad copy that emphasizes what makes you different or better than your competitors.
  4. Keep an close eye on your cost per click, and return on investment.  It will be getting more and more expensive to bid for trademarked phrases once the floodgates open

European Advertising Update

In a second change to trademark policy, AdWords will permit businesses running AdWords campaigns across Europe to bid for phrases containing trademarked terms (but not put trademarked term in the ad copy).  This brings Europe in line with current UK guidelines.

Read more about the changes to the UK Trade Policy and the Frequently Asked Questions

Susan Hallam

This post was written by Susan Hallam - Google profile for Susan Hallam

2 Responses to “Google AdWords UK: Trademark Policy Update”

  1. Katie Saxon

    It will be very interesting to see what impact this will have on AdWords users – is anyone out there working for a company with trademarks and feeling concerned? Or are you jumping for joy that you can finally bid on trademarked terms?

    Reply
  2. Jason Marks

    It is very concerning!

    We currently have competition using our trademarks within their ad word campaigns. We are looking into seeing if we have any legal ground to try and stop this. With the change to the policy in using trademarked text within ads, it looks like we may not have any hope. If that was to be the case, if you can’t beat them…join them.

    Reply

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