Bidding on restricted keywords

[PeteM]

A few weeks ago noticed the launch of a new affiliate program. I asked if PPC direct to merchant was allowable. Answer was "yes" with no details of any restrictions. So, I placed ads using the merchants trademarks, e.g. widget.com. Big returns, amazing conversions! Anyway a day or so later I noticed that the merchant had added a list of restricted keywords (i.e. his brand names and a load of other) so I removed all the restricted keywords from my ads.

A couple of weeks on I notice that there are still a lot of people bidding on terms containing the merchants restricted key words.

How dangerous is this? Can a merchant tell what what terms a merchant is using? Can Google protect them? Should I join the crowd or do the panel think this is palin old cheating?

Thanks, Pete

[iblaine]

Avoid the situation. You know it's a violation of the merchants policies. Other people may slip through the cracks but that doesn't give you permission to do the same thing.

[jcoronella]

Many merchants watch these closely, give you a free one, then drop you from their program for repeat offenses. Be careful, and make sure to set up a negative match keyword.

[PeteM]

But how do they know who's placed the restricted keyword ad?

[iblaine]

But how do they know who's placed the restricted keyword ad?

Look at the affiliate ID. Every merchant is going to assign an affiliate a unique ID. It's required to track commissions. It could be in a cookie or querystring or obfuscated through javascript functions or redirects but it's always there.

[growingdigital]

I would definitely remove your ads regardless of what the other affiliates are doing. Once those guys get caught they will probably be booted out of the program - and possibly have their commissions reversed. It depends on the individual advertiser, but some are very strict.

If I were you I would log into WordTracker and find as many non-violating keywords as possible.

[skibum]

It is time consuming to enforce the policy but it would be nice if merchants would enforce the policy they set uniformly.

Kind of a bummer when you comply with their policies on keywords, work your butt off to find other that do convert (often at lower if any margin) and watch other affiliates run ads on other keywords for months on end........

Other times the merchant sites are nowhere to be found for the keywords they restrict and it doesn't make any sense that they restrict bidding on them.

[growingdigital]

Another point... I wouldn't necessarily go out of my way to let the Affiliate Manager know about the violators unless you are 100% in compliance. This back fired on me a few weeks ago. I pointed out how unfair it was that sites A, B, and C kept bidding on protected keywords then the AM went out of his way to expand his list to include some words I was bidding on. So TREAD LIGHTLY.

[djohnson]

Sounds like Dell to me... They let you bid on "Dell" for a few weeks and then tell you to stop. Make lots of money and then nothing. Oh well. :D

[cagey1]

tread lightly

Affiliate/Brand managers sometimes allow a few of their "favorite" affiliates bid on otherwise restricted keywords, in order to fill out the ad space without making it a free-for-all. And sometimes the affiliate ad you see is actually the merchant's own ad (placed using their own affiliate program).