WebProNews

UK policy mirrors US AdWords rules

Just as advertisers in the United States may bid on trademarks as keywords to trigger ads, AdWords clients in the UK and Ireland will be able to do the same thing starting next month.

Google's move to open trademarks to competitive bidding in the UK and Ireland should yield a nice boost to the search ad company's revenue stream. Prior to the decision, trademark holders could appeal to Google about ads driven by their brand names to have them removed.

"Good news for naughty affiliates. Nightmare for real brands," UK-based PPC Blog said.

"They cannot, in most cases, display the trademarked term in the advertisement. But the term can be use to trigger the display of the ad in Google.co.uk," Search Engine Roundtable noted.

The change has nothing to do with the fortunes of competitors or affiliates. By permitting the purcahse of competitor keywords, Google opened up AdWords to more aggressive bidding. Brand names horrified by the prospect of a competitor placing highly in paid search for their trademark may believe they have no choice but to bid for their own brands.

Meanwhile, Google sits back and collects the profits. This should help international revenues nicely for the company.