Ask the Expert: Your Brand Name is Your Trademark – Use It, Protect It

The following is a post from Rob Mulcahy, Search Engine Marketing Manager at TIG Global.

It’s no secret that Search Engine Marketing has grown exponentially over the last five years and is quickly becoming “the place” to channel the majority of your marketing dollars. With a rising demand for proven results, online marketing techniques have responded by growing increasingly savvy. This post outlines one strategy, or more appropriately, one defensive tactic that can help increase your customer base. The concept is an old one, but it is an approach that many of the top companies in the world have adopted. Make your consumer come to you by eliminating your competition.

So where and how can we eliminate the competition?  In terms of pay-per-click marketing, the most effective space to forge ahead exists at the branded keyword level. Branded keywords are typically defined as the actual name of your product or your company, and it is proven that these particular keywords are among the highest converting elements in any online marketing campaign, no secret there. But, then again, it’s no secret to your competition either.

It is important to understand that the average consumer does not start their search with a branded keyword. In the consumer purchase cycle, shoppers tend to start with a generic keyword, land on your site, poke around, leave, go to another site, leave that site, and so on and so forth. Now, once they’ve considered their options and they’ve narrowed it down to your site, what method do you think they will use next to return to your site? I’ll give you a hint: they’re not going to perform the original generic keyword search again; they are going to search specifically for your brand name. This is the critical space where you want to feature your brand ad and where you will capture bookings. Unfortunately, that’s also where a lot of your competition is stepping-in and intercepting your hard-earned, branded business.

Picture this. You’ve setup your first Adwords campaign and hit go. Later that day you do a search for one of the brand keywords you’re bidding on to see if your ad shows up. Great news! You see your ad. This Internet marketing thing really does work! But wait, what’s this? There are three other ads that are using your name in their advertisements.

What can you do about it? I’ll tell you exactly what you can do. Tell Google to eliminate that ad for you. Sound good? Well, I have even better news. Google will actually take it one step further and prevent all other advertisers from using your Trademark, ever again.

Perfect.

But, now you may be asking, why are these steps actually necessary? It’s my trademark. Why is anyone else beside me allowed to use it? The answer is that it’s up to you, owner of said trademark, to inform Google that it’s yours. That’s right; “Superpower” Google does not know everything. Fair enough. But then why is it that my competitors want to use my trademark when they are not even vendors of my product?  That answer can be summed up in three words. Relevance is cheap.

All search engines, not just Google, are relevancy based, meaning that you type in a search query and they provide you with the most relevant ad results possible from across all reaches of the internet.

To determine an ad’s relevance to a particular search query, Google analyzes many different aspects about the ad, but a well known, accepted and Google-promoted part of the formula lies in how similar the search query is to the keyword you’re bidding on and whether or not that keyword is included in the ad text.

So, if someone searches for a keyword you’re bidding on and Google sees that your ad contains some (if not all) of the same text in your Headline or Description Lines, they consider your ad to be more relevant than an ad that does not have the search query included in its text. I know that sounded confusing, so here’s an example using the search term: california travel

Google is not shy about relevancy and, in fact, instructs advertisers to “include keywords in your headline, since that’s what people are looking for.”  This not only makes the ad more pertinent in the eyes of Google, but (and here’s the clincher) Google rewards advertisers for doing it. A more relevant ad typically receives a lower cost-per-click (CPC).

So, if Google is telling people to follow these practices, and saying that, once implemented, this strategy could increase your chances of getting a click and it’s cheaper, it’s safe to assume that each of your competitors is going to implement three steps to ensure they are properly, effectively, cheaply, and legally stealing your customers.

1.    They will bid on terms related to your product or company name
2.    They will include your product or company name in their ad text
3.    They will attempt to convince consumers to click their ad instead of yours using compelling ad copy.

Ready for a real shock? Number one is completely legal. Google is not concerned with which keywords you choose to bid on. You can bid on any word that your heart desires, and this attitude will likely never change.

Additionally, as I mentioned before, if your brand name and/or product name has not been registered with Google as a legitimately owned trademark, number two is also completely legal and advertisers can freely use the name of your product in their ad copy, however and whenever they like.

The last surprising truth, as it relates to relevancy, is this: if a competitor’s ad copy is somehow more compelling than yours, and Joe consumer decides to click on it, well my friend, you’ve just lost a potential customer, possibly forever.

Multiply this scenario by a minimum of hundreds of searches being performed each day and the numbers become incredibly staggering. Scary, I know.

Ok, so what do you do about it?

First things first, you file a trademark complaint with Google. This will act two-fold. First, it will register your Trademark with Google. Secondly, it will prevent any future use of your Trademark in another advertiser’s ad copy. I say future because Google will not retroactively investigate and disapprove ads that are currently using your trademark. To have current ads disapproved you can report a trademark violation to Google and they will take appropriate action.  Follow this advice, and in a few short weeks, (the amount of time it takes Google to process your request) you’ll have protected your trademark and be all the better for it.

So remember, it’s your brand name and that makes it your trademark. Take the necessary steps to protect your identity, and feel secure in the knowledge that your site is the only option consumers will find when they are, in fact, searching for your site.

Tagged as: Ask the Expert