The affect of Google’s trademark change
From the 5 May Google will stop enforcing trademark protection on all searches in the UK and Ireland. This means that advertisers are no longer restricted from bidding on trademarked terms.
What does this mean to you?
If you currently own a trademarked term then you will be used to your ad sitting all by itself in a land free of all competitors. The bad news for you is that this won’t be the case for much longer. Once the policy change takes place, any tomdickorharry.com will be able to bid on your brand name and anything related.
You own the trademark…surely that means you can legally protect it?
Unfortunately not, UK law is not clear enough on whether bidding on a keyword in a search engine is infringing on the use of a trademark.
Yahoo were cleared on a trademark infringement case after ‘Mr Spicy’ tried to sue them for showing a competitors ad on this trademarked term .Yahoo argued that none of the competitors were bidding on the trademark, and their ads were matching on related terms such as ‘spicy’.
How will it affect your PPC campaign?
Well, costs for your brand-related ad groups will undoubtedly rise because your average CPC will increase. The increase will be relative to the amount of new competitors that appear, and I can imagine that this in turn, will be relative to the industry.
These ads will all be competing for your top spot, and they will be drawing visitors away from your site so you can expect lower click through rates and fewer clicks for a higher CPC. Sounding good so far?
How can I prepare for the change?
I would sign off some more budget for your brand campaign. You’re going to need it if you want to keep your ad on top of the competition!
You need to plaster your ad with your brand name. The competition still aren’t allowed to use your brand name in their ads, so the big bold words will separate you from them.
And if you’ve still got some budget left, why not set up a competitor bidding campaign? It’s a going to be a completely open market and if the competition bid on your brand, I wouldn’t show any remorse when bidding on theirs.
Choosing an affiliate network
I realise since my last post that I’ve skipped one of the main tasks of getting your affiliate program started; choosing your network.
This is vastly important, and can make or break your program, so let’s take a step back and look at what you should ask yourself before starting.
Are you running the program for a well-known brand?
If your brand is well-known you have a big advantage. Having brand power should help your bartering chances with the network. If your logo improves their client list then they’ll happily lower their fees for you.
It will also make recruiting affiliates much easier. Affiliates will give prime spots on their sites to big brands as these will generate more commission for them based on brand awareness alone.
How much time can you spare for your program?
If you have the man-hours set aside for managing your program then this can save you money. Generally, the cheaper the network’s monthly fee the more work you have to do yourself.
This doesn’t necessarily mean the cheaper networks should be overlooked though, as you’ll see further on in this post.
How much money can you spare for your program?
The best thing about affiliate programs is, for the most part, that you only pay out money when you make money. So it’s a win/win situation right?
Wrong. The network normally charges a set-up fee as well as a monthly service fee. If these are costing you more than the revenue you’re producing from the program then you’re in trouble.
Set-up fees can be more than £5,000 or less than £250. Monthly fees can range from less than £50 to more than £1,500. Keep in mind you get what you pay for. This is the reason you should consider the last question carefully. Don’t forget there will (almost) always be a commission override as well, which is normally 30%.
You must consider all the costs, set-up, monthly fees, commissions, and commission overrides and see how they fit with your model.
So which network is best for me?
There are loads to choose from, just weigh up your options.
If you’ve got a huge brand that does £1,000’s of online revenue every week then one of the bigger networks will be for you.
The big networks will often have a vertical market they are strong in, for example Tradedoubler for retail, and OMG for finance. Ask the network to profile their existing clients and ask them what experience they’ve had with programs similar to yours.
If you’ve got the time to spend promoting your program, and recruiting affiliates etc, then try a more do-it-yourself network with cheaper fees. When I say do-it-yourself, I mean you may pay less for a lower level of account management, and as such you have to do more of the leg work yourself.
The smaller networks include Affiliate Future, Paid on Results, NetKlix, Silvertap and Webgains.
If you’re still not sure which network is for you, then the best thing to do is to ask affiliates/merchants on the A4U forum. They will give you answers from experiences they have had.
The opinions expressed herein are the personal opinion of the author and are not intended as statements of fact and do not represent the view of Coastdigital Limited in any way
