Google AdWords Trademark Violations Explained

In this video, Nancy McCord President of McCord Web Services, shares her insights on trademark use on Google AdWords. In this video you will learn:

  • Trademark policy overview on Google AdWords
  • What a trademark violation flag looks like in the AdWords control panel.
  • What you can do to lock up your own trademark from use in Google AdWords.
  • How to resolve a trademark issue in Google AdWords.
  • Tips to prevent trademark problems in AdWords.
  • Why you need to be concerned about trademark violations and flags.

For information about our Google AdWords advertising services please visit our programs page.

Google Cracks Down on Misleading AdWords Service Providers

All third party service providers of Google AdWords™ advertising account set up and management services are being audited. I am in the middle of my compliance review right now. For some businesses who perform Google AdWords™ services, this will be a real wakeup call!  I won’t name names, but there are some big mainstream providers whose names I hear from clients consistently as offenders.

It is about time that Google really cracked down on what third party providers sell in regards to Google AdWords™. I cannot begin to tell you about the phone calls I have received from clients shopping for a new account manager and the misinformation that they have been told about their service providers relationship with Google.

I have heard from prospective clients that their current account managers have:

  1. A special relationship with Google to get clicks at a lower cost or bundled price.
  2. They have a deal with Google that their ads get top placement always.
  3. That they buy placement on Google as well as buy keyword activity in bulk.
  4. That they and only they get special pricing and their clients don’t compete in the AdWords auction.
  5. That their account is not transportable and that they are not allowed account access.
  6. They get special ad positions from Google because of who they are.
  7. If you spend so much in a 30 day period, Google will match it dollar to dollar up to $10,000.
  8. If you pay them you are guaranteed top placement of your ads in Google Places.

If you are tired of being mislead by your account provider or been approached with these types of selling tactics, you can complain directly to Google about that service. Rest assured that they will be found out in the months to come as ALL third party providers come under the AdWords™ services compliance microscope.

At McCord Web Services, we make no margin or commission on any clicks delivered in  your account. Find out from Google more about working  with third party account managers like McCord Web Services. McCord Web  Services manages your account with the highest level of integrity and adheres  strictly to Google’s policies to provide full transparency for how clicks are  delivered and how your budget is spent. At all times, you have full access to  your AdWords™ advertising account.

AdWords Exact Match and Phrase Match Changes Coming in May

AdWords announced this past week that in mid May they will be changing the way they use exact match and phrase match keywords for ad delivery. In the very near future, AdWords will imitate adCenter in using plurals and misspellings of words you have set with these selected match types in addition to the specific words and phrases.

Google has stated that:

“Starting in mid-May, phrase and exact match keywords will match close variants, including misspellings, singular/plural forms, stemmings, accents and abbreviations. Based on our research and testing, we believe these changes will be broadly beneficial for users and advertisers.”

You can read the full article and see some examples of this new behavior on the AdWords blog.

As Google feels that they can identify the intent of a search from the query and search history, it makes sense to deliver ads to users when their is small variation and even though the specific keywords may not be in an advertisers keyword list. I consider this enhancement good news, and one of the things I particularly liked about Microsoft adCenter which supplies the pay per click ads for Bing and Yahoo.

 

Organic Placement and AdWords Ads

AdWords has just released the results of a very interesting review. Although your results may be different it is worth taking a careful look-see. Here’s what the AdWords staff found:

  • On average, for advertisers who appear in the top rank organic slot, 50% of ad clicks are incremental. This means that half of all ad clicks are not replaced by organic clicks when search ads are paused.
  • For advertisers whose organic search results are in the 2nd to 4th position, 81% of ad clicks are incremental. For advertisers appearing in organic position of 5 or lower, 96% of ad clicks are incremental.

You can read the full blog post here.

The bottom line is that when you pause your AdWords ads and you have an organic position of 2 to 4 81% of your ad clicks are not replaced by organic generated clicks. For websites in position 5 or lower when you stop your ads 96% of your ad clicks are not replaced by organic generated clicks.

I personally feel that many website benefit from the exposure that Google AdWords ads bring even if they have fairly good organic placement.