Adwords UK and Trademarks

Supplier has asked Google to suspend ads using their name.

[liamgt]

Over the last week or so Google Adwords in the UK has been suspending ads in my account because i am using a certain term in the ad text. This term is the brand name of a range of products that we sell.

eg if the brand was joebloggs and the product was a widget we can now not use the word joebloggs in our adtext even if someone searches for joebloggs widgets

The company in question actually supplies us with the products and basically they want the monopoly on the adword ads and would prefer to sell direct to the public because they can keep their prices higher and make more money.

Any one had any experience of anything like this and GoogleGuy if you read this i would apreciate any feedback. Any advice as always greatly appreciated.

Liam

[La_Valette]

This happens to me all the time...

[running scared]

Part of life on AdWords I am afraid. What is frustrating though is the seeming lack of consistency in the way the policy is enforced.

[AdWordsAdvisor]

Any one had any experience of anything like this and GoogleGuy if you read this i would apreciate any feedback. Any advice as always greatly appreciated.

liamgt, I think the most useful thing I could do would be to point you to the info pages in the AdWords Help Center, regarding AdWords Trademark Policy. Reading these pages will give you a good overview:

What is Google's trademark policy?
[adwords.google.com...]

Trademark Complaint Procedures
[google.com...]

AWA

[cline]

Happens all the time. Contact the trademark holder to request permission to use the term. If they see you as a partner rather than as a competitor they will likely grant you an exception.

[liamgt]

cline - I have already contacted the Company in question and basically they do not want anyone else using their name in ads because we are selling their products cheaper than they are. They want to supply to trade and also retail but thay are trying to force a pricing policy which is against the competition act in the uk.

Maybe this is not such a bad thing anyway as my natural listings are above theirs and if there are less adwords ad then this can only be good.

[cline]

So, they've decided you're a competitor. One asset they have that you don't is the ability to use their trademark in their ad copy. You'll just have to deal with it and be clever with your ad copy.

You might also wish to check the other ads on your important keywords to ensure the trademark usage ruling is being uniformly applied. I've experienced lots of problems with this and have had to report dozens of competitors' ads that had gotten by Adwords' editors. It's an annoying task, but you need to do it to ensure the playing field is level.

[AdWordsAdvisor]

... You might also wish to check the other ads on your important keywords to ensure the trademark usage ruling is being uniformly applied. I've experienced lots of problems with this and have had to report dozens of competitors' ads that had gotten by Adwords' editors. It's an annoying task, but you need to do it to ensure the playing field is level.

Do be aware, though, that a trademark owner may choose whom they wish to designate as an exception. In other words, they are able to let some (but not all) others use their trademarked keywords in Ad Copy - depending on whatever criteria they wish to set.

So if you see others running with a trademarked term in their Ad Copy that you are not able to use, it does not automatically point to a mistake. It might also point to a conscious choice made by the trademark owner.

AWA

[liamgt]

AWA - I realy dont see this company giving people permission to use their trademark as I think they would prefer to have the market share all to themselves but thank for the useful advice.