Starting June 15th, resellers and information sites in the U.S. will be allowed to use trademarked terms in their ad text under certain conditions. Under the old guidelines only trademark owners and advertisers with explicit approval from the trademark owner have been allowed to use trademarked terms in the headline and description lines.
Here are the new guidelines for using a trademarked term, according to Google:
Under this policy, an advertiser will be allowed to use a trademarked term in the ad text when the ad uses a trademarked term and:
- Does so in a descriptive way, using the generic dictionary definition of the term
- Leads to a reseller or aggregator of that trademarked good or service
- Leads to a seller of components, replacement parts, or compatible products for that trademarked good or service
- Leads to an informational site about that trademarked good or service
Certain cases are specifically not allowed to use trademark terms in the ad text. These cases include:
- Ads or sites that sell or facilitate the sale of counterfeit goods
- Ads or sites that primarily sell or facilitate the sale of competitive goods or services
- Ads or sites focused on criticism about the trademarked good or service
- Unclear ads or sites without substantial information
One other guideline Google mentions is that associated landing pages must sell the goods or services of the trademarked term, and in the case of informational sites they must be non-competitive.
Obviously Google is doing this to bring in even more revenue through Adwords. Being able to use trademarked terms will improve advertiser click-through-rates, and more clicks mean more money for Google. For advertisers it just means we will be able to create more specific and relevant text ads, thus improving quality. I still find the guidelines to be a little grey, especially for informational sites which are “focused on criticism,” so as long as your aren’t “focused” on it I guess you are good to go. Either way I am certain Google will be getting many complaints from trademark owners about sites trying to game the trademark guidelines. Now it’s time to find an account to take advantage of this new policy.
May 18, 2009
Paid Search
1 Comment
At eVisibility, we not only like to face challenges via the Web, but when we see a physical challenge you can bet we’ll find a way to make it fun and interesting. In fact, we are making headlines with our Bike to Work challenge. Erin Cartaya, social media specialist and runner extraordinaire, rode her bike from Pacific Beach into the office. Just over 30 miles , she really takes this biking to work thing seriously!
Fumi Matsubara rode the coattails and joined in the last leg of Erin’s ride, but riding a mountain bike, he managed to ride through every dirt path he could. In viewing the larger picture of this day, George contributed his green efforts by carpooling (unfortunately not by choice, but it counts).
And finally, to top it all off- our very own CEO, Danny DeMichele rode his bike to work. Yes, he pedaled the whole 2.5 miles to work today. Great job! Oh wait, is that an electric bike!? Oh well, we’ll give him an A for effort. Great job everyone for taking part in Bike to Work day!
Here is the official press release: Search Engine Marketing Company eVisibility Takes Part in National Bike to Work Day
May 15, 2009
eVisibility News
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There are new tools and platforms springing up everyday featuring “REVOLUTIONARY” ways to optimize ad placements both for the publisher and advertiser, specifically giving the ability to track engagement time with an ad.
Great, we can now waste time optimizing nothing from nothing. I could be wrong, but it doesn’t sound like tools analyzing ad engagement time can be truly revolutionary; maybe a helpful reporting plugin at best. Rather than continuing to sort out the few remaining suckers and shove non-engaging ads down the throats of social networkers as if we are the patron saints of all that is right in the world, we need to re-think the marketing roles that we’ve carried since the birth of Christ and start involving savvy users in the game.
Imagine a world where the end user has their own ad controls.
What do you think?
May 11, 2009
Media
1 Comment
