Comments on: Why Trademarked Names Are Allowed in Google Display URL

By: cheap MBT shoes.....

cheap MBT shoes..... — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 06:00:37 +0000

@ 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.

By: Eric Goldman

Eric Goldman — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 07:03:00 +0000

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.

By: How To Increase Your CTR - 5 More Ways to Improve Click Through Rate | iMarketwell

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 11:42:43 +0000

[...] 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 [...]

By: How To Increase Your CTR - 5 More Ways to Improve Click Through Rate

How To Increase Your CTR - 5 More Ways to Improve Click Through Rate — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 12:21:28 +0000

By: Web Business Tutorials - WebProBusiness.com » Improving Your PPC Click Through Rate (CTR)

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 17:10:36 +0000

[...] 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 [...]

By: Amber

Amber — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 13:38:00 +0000

@Glenn, I agree!

@Online Internet faxing, thanks for reading!

@ Matt L, not sure what to tell you, but thanks for reading!

By: Matt L

Matt L — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 04:38:39 +0000

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

By: Online Internet Faxing

Online Internet Faxing — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 06:09:10 +0000

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.

By: Glenn

Glenn — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 21:07:17 +0000

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.

By: Amber

Amber — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:03:48 +0000