Google Changes Trademark Policy

As of June 15 2009, Google will begin showing ads that include trademarked terms.  This is a huge deal for many advertisers.

The new policy will allow advertisers to use trademarks in their ads, even if they don’t own the trademark.  This brings Google’s trademark policy in line with the advertising industry’s standards.

This is a win-win for advertisers, Google and searchers alike.  Advertisers can now include products and brand names in their ad copy that were previously forbidden.  Searchers will see more relevant ad copy and will be more likely to shop around because their search query will be in not just the ad of the trademark owner.  Of course Google will see increased revenue due to higher CTRs.  As an added bonus, Google will not need to deal with trademark discrepancies, thus reducing overhead.

The clear loser in the policy shift are trademark owners because they will need to divert more attention to differentiating themselves in the search space.  They will need to put more emphasis on being the “Official” site to compete against the onslaught of competitors.

There will likely be an increase in CPCs for branded terms across the board. Competitors will find it cheaper to bid on trademarked terms because they can now place them in their ad copy indirectly raising their quality score.  This in turn would make trademarked terms far more competitive.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out for many well-known brands.

For the official policy changes and details visit Google AdWords blog.