Why don't national brands have PPC ads that target their names, while smaller brands do?
-
Google's policy is to allow other businesses to run PPC ads against your business name, even when trademarked, so long as the ads don't include the trademarked name. At least that's what I have experienced and read online.
Source: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/AdWords/thread?tid=55e2b4bf90ae9585&hl=en
Why do so many national brands have no PPC ads showing on their names in Google searches?
- http://www.google.com/search?gcx=c&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=best+buy
- http://www.google.com/search?gcx=c&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=victorias+secret
- http://www.google.com/search?gcx=c&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=office+depot
And so on.
Smaller brands, even when trademarked, are awash in competitors targeting their names:
- http://www.google.com/search?gcx=c&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=nally+used+cars
- http://www.google.com/search?gcx=c&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=la+jolla+cosmetic+surgery+centre
Consider these two hotels:
- http://www.google.com/search?gcx=c&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=ritz+carlton+new+york
- http://www.google.com/search?gcx=c&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=hotel+3030+new+york
There are two slightly different questions in play here, as I have clients I'd like to better protect against this type of PPC poaching:
- So, are there any different policies at Google Adwords RE: national brands and having competitor's ads show on their names?
- How do the major brands block the advertisers on their names?
Thanks!
-
Something I experienced when running an in-house ppc campaign for a smaller brand was that big companies aren't afraid to send out C&D letters from their very expensive lawyers if you bid on their branded terms (not using their name in the text). While there is certainly no law saying you can't bid on a branded term, a smaller brand is going to cave because they won't be taking on a giant in court.
-
The ads that rank best may appear at the top of the page. In the screenshot you've attached, the top result there with the orange background is an Office Depot ad. Branded searches rank very well, so you'll usually see that companies result up there at the top of the SERPs.
In my experience, bidding on competitors branded terms does not convert well. People are looking for that site, and not your site. My experience is not in e-commerce though; if you sell shoes, and you bid on "buy nikes", you're may be doing it right.
-
Excellent point.
-
Thank you for your good responses.
It is the last situation mentioned - why PPC advertisers are not targeting other national brands (Brand A paying to show on Brand B) that I was primarily asking about.
It may be that I am simply being filtered out by the PPC ads that are in the system for brand keywords (wisely, I might add, if that's the case). But I can reproduce these results using proxies, and I can reproduce them using different geographic locations. The brand pages are often much quieter than any small brand keyword search and my mentioned ones show almost devoid of competing ads.
If a brand were paying for top position, that hardly precludes other ads in the lower positions on the page.
Any other thoughts? Is the lack of competing PPC ads perhaps the result of lots of direct contact, asking other advertisers to lay off their trademark targeting?
Are you able to reproduce my national brand searches with PPC ads each time? Here's a screenshot. I see only one brand ad for each of my big brand examples:
http://markup.io/v/s46jhgayjdbn -
John nailed it.
The examples you shared where small companies searches show competitive ads are highly influenced by the search term. For the first three searches you used the company names "best buy", "victoria's secret" and "office depot". The other searches you used more generic terms which naturally trigger ads. "Nelly Used Cars" is showing ads, but "Nelly" isn't the trigger. "Used Cars" is the trigger. Try the search again for just "Nelly", then try another search for "Used Cars". The ads have nothing to do with "Nelly". The same feedback applies to "La Jolla Cosmetic Surgery Center".
-
I believe you are asking why 'BIG BRAND A' doesn't have competitors bidding for 'BIG BRAND A' related search terms -- vs why 'BIG BRAND A' doesn't bid on their own brand name. On first read I thought it was the latter, but now I see your intent (correct me if I'm wrong).
For the latter, big brands are in paid search for their own brand queries all the time. The examples you showed even have it. The cost is so low, and there are some added brand positioning arguments.
The trickier question is with competitors bidding on other competitors brand terms. e.g. Fredrick's of Hollywood bidding on 'Victoria's Secret' etc. I think some of the other responses addressed this.
-
Just opinion here...
Big brands are often arrogant and presumptuous that you will look for their website before clicking - and they are often correct with that thinking.
The little guy often must stand on a chair, waive his hands, jump up and down while shouting to get the consumer's attention away from the big brand.
... and most importantly... these aggressive little guys are often very smart.
(this post is written assuming that the little guy is advertising his own brand name and NOT the brand name of the big competitor)
-
First, in answer to your questions:
- There are no different policies other than what you stated above. You can not use a companies trademarked name in ad text, but you can use their names in keywords.
- They don't block them. By entering the auction, they'll drive up the price for their competitors. Since their quality scores are higher, they'll win the auctions with cheaper bids.
If your sales are pretty steady, you can run a test to see if running a branded campaign bidding on your own name is worthwhile. Your organic traffic will go down a bit, but since people are looking for your company, your keyword quality scores will be very high, and you should be winning the auctions with relatively cheap bids. If anyone else is bidding on your brand keywords, it's almost always a good idea for you to be in there as well. Otherwise, it's worth testing to see if it has a positive ROI.
Your examples are a bit flawed... a query like "Nallys used cars" is going to trigger for all broad and phrase keywords targeting "used cars", which many companies are going to target. Also "la jolla cosmetic surgery centre" has "cosmetic surgery" which lots of people are bidding on.
Also, I saw ads for all of your examples above which you didn't see ads for (Best Buy, Victoria's Secret, and Office Depot).
-
Hi Cake --
Google's AdWords trademark policy is pretty extensive, and is summarized here: http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=16316. The policies apply regardless of business size.
As someone who has had the conversation many times with clients, I can tell you that whether or not a company bids on their own brand terms is an ongoing debate. The "PPC poaching" that you point out is the very reason that I almost always recommend setting up a brand campaign in PPC, but some clients refuse to "pay" for clicks on their brand terms when they have such a strong organic presence. My view? It's a very, very inexpensive way to ensure that you at least have the top paid spot on searches for your own brand name.
Bottom line: If you don't see a PPC ad on a business' brand name, it's either (1) ignorance, or (2) them not wanting to pay super cheap CPC's for brand protection.
Hope that helps.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Is it possible to link two sites' Search Console to Adwords?
My company is a healthcare organization that has two brands, one that's our 'system' and is mainly adult health services and the other is pediatric only focused care. Both have separate websites. Our SEM is managed by an outside agency. We're in the process of linking our Google Search Consoles to the Adwords account. Our GSC has both of the sites as separate properties, but the Adwords account has all of the campaigns for both brands under one account. Is it possible to link both of the GSC properties in the Adwords account to be able to get accurate information for the Paid & Organic report in Adwords?
Paid Search Marketing | | Kyleroe950 -
How to track B2B conversions when the searcher isn't the one who transacts?
Hi, Wondering if anyone can recommend how to track B2B conversions when the searcher isn't the one who transacts? I am looking at my Adwords campaigns and I don't think the conversion is 100% right. In our industry, the eventual end user (and the person who does the search) does not have the authority to purchase the product. It is usually the purchasing department who eventually get in contact and purchase the product. Sometimes it is another company on behalf of the original company who purchase the part as we might not be on the vendor list. So, in this case, the order goes from the original searcher to their purchasing department to another company who then purchase from us. Just wondering how to track this on AdWords? Thanks
Paid Search Marketing | | DavidLenehan0 -
Is it better to place PPC when competition is high or low?
When managing a clients PPC campaign is there any advice on throttling up and down the accounts depending on the search popularity. Let's take "wedding cake" there are obvious trends here https://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=wedding cake but would you advise to spend more on Ads during the quite months as competition is low and you can get more click for less cost, or do you load up on clicks when it is more competitive/expencive . Please don't get bogged down in the "weeding cake" keyword, I'm looking more for views on when would be best to load an account in terms of return on investment. For example would you get better quality clicks when low search volumes as opposed to high. Lets also assume that our product costs us the same all year round. I have seen different side to the story. What are your views
Paid Search Marketing | | smartcow0 -
Name of Reliable, Cost Effective Service for Setting Up Adwords??
Could anyone suggest a reasonably priced service for setting up an Adwords campaign? My monthly advertising budget is no more than $2,000 and the objective to target Google Adwords and Yahoo/Bing. There are companies providing this service but they seem to require fees of $750 to $1,000 per month for their services for a six month commitment and a mimimum advertising spend of $5,000 per month. Certain tools like Wordstream are available for around $300 per month, but I am not sure how much value they add, if in fact they facilitate the process. Also, I am not sure if advertising spend is completely wasted unless I create special landing pages just for PPC. My category, commercial real estate in New York City is very competitive with keywords ranging form $5-$15.00 click. I would greatly appreciate some advice regarding PPC. Thanks, Alan
Paid Search Marketing | | Kingalan10 -
Number of reviews in PPC advert
Hi all Got an email from a client asking about this, Ive not come across this one before. The client has a Google + account with about 2500 reviews on their website on. They have linked this into their adwords so these show on their ppc. However, on the ppc ad it says only 650 reviews. Quite a difference!! Anyone know why this would be the case? Thanks
Paid Search Marketing | | GrumpyCarl0 -
Is ppc becoming more influential than organic search with consumers?
Simply put, are consumers clicking on ppc in lieu of organic search. In the past, people use to say that ppc accounted between 30-40% of traffic with organic accounting for majority of activity. My question is whether those numbers have changed, and if so, where are we now? A friend in Boston in does SEO, remarked that many of her 'sophisticated' friends didn't know the difference between ppc and organic. Seems odd, but with the move to place ppc results from the right hand sidebar to the top left hand column, certainly gives it more presence and makes the separation between ppc vs. organic less distinct. I certainly understand the value of doing both, but depending on the answer, it begs the question... is the expense of moving up a position or two in organic worth the effort and monies, if ppc is becoming the dominant raffic tdriver? Anybody have any recent statistics on ppc vs. organic? Thanks.
Paid Search Marketing | | ahw0 -
Index or Noindex PPC Landing Pages?
Hi all, We have thousands of PPC landing pages for our products. Usually, these pages are very similar and may differ only slightly for the keyword in question. The landing pages are sitting in a sub-domain of our site. From SEO perspective, assuming we don't want to get hit by Panda, Penguin and other animals Google stuffed into its ranking algorithm...Is it a good idea not to index these landing pages at all (i.e. add meta robots - noindex, nofollow to these pages)? What say you? Thanks!
Paid Search Marketing | | ShivaS0 -
Graph ad groups by cost in Adwords
Easy one for someone I'm sure, but I can't figure it out. In Adwords under campaigns "Widget" I have ad groups "Blue", "Green" and "Red" each with 3 ads in them. How can I produce a compared report on cost per day of each ad group. So I want something that looks like 1st 2nd 3rd ...
Paid Search Marketing | | StalkerB
Blue £12 £14 £9 ...
Green £8 £11 £5 ...
Red £9 £22 £16 ... Possible?0