A PPC Hero subscriber brought this to my attention the other day. He said that the name of his client’s company was trademarked, and they filed this trademark with Google so no competitors could display their trademarked term in any PPC advertisements. However, he noticed that one of his competitors did have the name of the trademarked company in their display URL. I contacted my Google rep to ask if this conflicted with the trademark policy and sure enough, trademarked names are allowed in the Google display URL.
Here’s what she had to say,
Our trademark policy only applies to the use of the term in the ad text. We don’t monitor the display URL and thus we will not disapprove an ad if the trademark term only appears in the URL line.
For example, say “Nike” was the trademarked company we’re talking about. This is what you can’t do if Nike has filed a trademark with Google:
Nike Shoes at Discount Prices
Buy Nike Shoes at Major Discount
Prices at Shoes Galore Outlet.
www.shoesgalore.com
However, this is what you can do:
Tennis Shoes at Discount Prices.
All Tennis Shoes at Discount
Prices at Shoes Galore Outlet.
www.shoesgalore.com/Nike
Notice the “Nike” trademark is located in the display URL, and according to Google does not violate their trademark policy.
Personally, I don’t understand why this is okay. The whole point of filing a trademarked name with Google is so competitors can’t advertise on that name and gain from it. But if you can put it in your display URL, then ultimately you can advertise on that name and yes, earn sales from it, assuming you are able to bid on that trademarked term.
I investigated this matter further, and there is actually an article in the Google help section that explains why they don’t monitor trademarked names in the display URL.
Basically, a company can have a trademarked name as a real sub-domain on their site for site architecture purposes. Example, using the same Nike reference, if I own a website called shoesgalore.com, and I have a full page of Nike shoes, I would probably name that page www.shoesgalore.com/nike in order to achieve the best site architecture possible. With that said, Google can’t force advertisers to change their sub-domain names just because they’re selling a trademarked name product. This makes complete sense to me. Now what is unfortunate, is that in our particular case, the company doesn’t have the trademarked name as an actual sub-domain on their site. They only are using the trademarked name in their display URL to enhance click-through rates and for branded purposes.
Google says they can’t arbitrate the use of trademarked names in the display URL even if this is the case. But they do mention that you can ask the company at large to cease using your trademarked name in their display URL. However they can deny your request.
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[...] has a great post that discusses why trademarked terms are allowed in display URLs: Basically, a company can have a trademarked name as a real sub-domain on their site for site [...]
I think Google isn’t being completely honest here. The advertiser in question would have to make *no changes* to their site architecture to comply with a notional policy that excluded TMs from Display URLs. They would just use http://www.shoesgalore.com as their display URL.
Anyway, I have a longer writeup here:
http://blog.brandverity.com/196/why-trademarked-terms-are-allowed-in-adwords-display-urls/
@ David, I agree with you to the point that they could just not put the sub-domain name in the display url but only have it in the destination url. But I also don’t know if it’s entirely fair to the advertiser either. I’m stuck in the middle on this one.
While subdomains and directories containing trademarks should not be enforced, I do feel that if you must own the DOMAIN in order to use it in your display URL. Our URL is the company’s trademarked name.
We have affiliates blatently using our URL as their display URL in order to get credit for the referral. This is completely against our policy, and we can them we find them. Still, we find a dozen or so per quarter. It’s like whack-a-mole!
Simply requiring proof of domain ownership would reduce a lot of headaches.
Thanks for that great article that actually answered several questions I had about trademark related PPC. I’ve also fired this link off to one of my clients that had the questions I’m sure he will be pleased. Cheers.
Hmm… so do I sit on this knowledge since I can’t think of a legit rationale or pass it on to our guys to use. Thanks for that ethical challenge 5 minutes before I hit the sack
@Glenn, I agree!
@Online Internet faxing, thanks for reading!
@ Matt L, not sure what to tell you, but thanks for reading!
[...] ad copy, you can use them in your display URL. Amber has a great post on why AdWords allows trademarks in the display URL here. Using the trademark in the display URL some argue confuses potential clickers into thinking that [...]
[...] your ad copy, you can use them in your display URL. Amber has a great post on why AdWords allows trademarks in the display URL here. Using the trademark in the display URL some argue confuses potential clickers into thinking that [...]
[...] your ad copy, you can use them in your display URL. Amber has a great post on why AdWords allows trademarks in the display URL here. Using the trademark in the display URL some argue confuses potential clickers into thinking that [...]
This makes perfect sense if you consider affiliate marketing. The main brand will have protected “keywords” for example Nike would prohibit their affiliates from using “nike” and any other specific keywords, but would let them all compete against each other for other things – perhaps as the affiliate you take the search “modern running technology” and you then want to promote the nike product on your site. Obviously Nike isn’t going to waste their time on that keyword, but they don’t want to pay the affiliate if someone is looking directly for them with a search like “nike shoes”.
If the adwords advertisers doesn’t have any Nike shoes and puts it in the display URL then they are less likely to convert if the user is clicking because of the Nike, so its a shot in their own foot.
@ David, I agree with you to the point that they could just not put the sub-domain name in the display url but only have it in the destination url. But I also don’t know if it’s entirely fair to the advertiser either. I’m stuck in the middle on this one.