Google’s removal of trademark bidding restrictions is set to happen on the 5th of May, 2008.
What does this mean?
Up until now it has been possible to prevent advertisers bidding on singular trademarked terms. Advertisers choosing to bid on such terms are currently asked to remove their ads allowing the trademark owner to be the lone advertiser for their particular keyword.
Whats changing?
Essentially Google are removing this restriction allowing free bidding on all trademarked single terms. This removal of restrictions is set to be only in the UK and Ireland (not the rest of Europe) and is likely to cause havoc for those UK businesses currently benefiting from the restrictions.
Why?
This Google policy has been in place in the US and Canada since 2004. In Google’s own statement:
“A good proportion of users in the US and Canada have been clicking on competitor ads even when searching against trademarked terms, suggesting that they find the greater number of ads relevant and helpful when researching or making a purchase.”
Online Ad spend topped £2.8bn in 2007, making online the largest ad market, according to the latest analysis from the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB).
Online spend continued to grow at a rate of 38% year-on-year in 2007, with a market share of 15.3%, up from 11.4% in 2006. The IAB claims the rate of growth for online is nine times faster than the entire ad market.
The continued growth was due largely by display, search and classified, which experienced a 31% year-on-year increase. Sales houses and ad networks were credited for monetising the long tail of the internet.
The report predicted that if the growth continued, online could take over TV spend by the end of 2009.
Guy Phillipson, chief executive of the IAB, said, “It’s clear marketing directors now recognise the value of online to drive their business, and more and more are using rich media and video to build their brands, just as they do on TV.”
The research was carried out by IAB in conjunction with PricewaterhouseCoopers and the World Advertising Research Centre (WARC).
>> More information here (external link)
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