Comment on Geico Google case implications
ClickZ Internet Advertising News"Google's trademark policy leaves individual trademark disputes to be worked out between the trademark holder and individual advertisers. It will 'perform a limited investigation of reasonable complaints,' the policy states. Overture, which settled its portion of the GEICO suit two weeks ago, has a similar trademark policy.
The potential for litigation, as well as other potential negative impacts, leads many search engine marketers to advise clients against purchasing trademarked keywords or using them within their ads, said Melissa Burgess, director of business development at SEM firm Impaqt.
'We highly advise our clients not to buy a competitor's keyword. It's not something that is in the best interest of our clients,' she said. 'We do encourage them to purchase their own trademarks as search terms to protect them.'
A company owning its own trademarks helps ensure that it, and not its competitors or affiliates, gets the traffic from searchers who are farther along the buying cycle, when they tend to narrow their searches with specific brand names, or model names and numbers, Burgess said.
She notes that a PPC search campaign should include broad keywords, such as 'laptop,' more specific keywords like 'Sony laptop,' and finally precise keywords like 'Sony VAIO 500.' This would help deliver buyers who are in various stages of research and buying readiness, she said.
'This helps you get the branding impact, and helps you down through the purchase cycle when someone knows the exact make and model they're interested in,' Burgess said. 'You go broad to get visibility and brand awareness, but you're going to get higher conversions from the specific terms.'
Though Burgess' opinion is shared by many search engine marketers, a recent study by comScore and Overture finds that most people don't even get to the point of searching by manufacturer or product name. The report also revealed that broad search terms that do not include a manufacturer name account for 70 percent of total search volume, and 60 percent of all conversions. Trademark searches, meanwhile, accounted for 20 percent of all online searches. "
posted by Jen @ 1:00 PM
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