Why don't national brands have PPC ads that target their names, while smaller brands do?

[CakeWebsites]

Google's policy is to allow other businesses to run PPC ads against your business name, even when trademarked, so long as the ads don't include the trademarked name. At least that's what I have experienced and read online.

Source: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/AdWords/thread?tid=55e2b4bf90ae9585&hl=en

Why do so many national brands have no PPC ads showing on their names in Google searches?

• http://www.google.com/search?gcx=c&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=best+buy
• http://www.google.com/search?gcx=c&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=victorias+secret
• http://www.google.com/search?gcx=c&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=office+depot

And so on.

Smaller brands, even when trademarked, are awash in competitors targeting their names:

• http://www.google.com/search?gcx=c&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=nally+used+cars
• http://www.google.com/search?gcx=c&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=la+jolla+cosmetic+surgery+centre

Consider these two hotels:

• http://www.google.com/search?gcx=c&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=ritz+carlton+new+york
• http://www.google.com/search?gcx=c&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=hotel+3030+new+york

There are two slightly different questions in play here, as I have clients I'd like to better protect against this type of PPC poaching:

1. So, are there any different policies at Google Adwords RE: national brands and having competitor's ads show on their names?
2. How do the major brands block the advertisers on their names?

Thanks!

[EricaMcGillivray]

Something I experienced when running an in-house ppc campaign for a smaller brand was that big companies aren't afraid to send out C&D letters from their very expensive lawyers if you bid on their branded terms (not using their name in the text). While there is certainly no law saying you can't bid on a branded term, a smaller brand is going to cave because they won't be taking on a giant in court.

[john4math]

The ads that rank best may appear at the top of the page.  In the screenshot you've attached, the top result there with the orange background is an Office Depot ad.  Branded searches rank very well, so you'll usually see that companies result up there at the top of the SERPs.

In my experience, bidding on competitors branded terms does not convert well.  People are looking for that site, and not your site.  My experience is not in e-commerce though; if you sell shoes, and you bid on "buy nikes", you're may be doing it right.

[CakeWebsites]

Excellent point.

[CakeWebsites]

Thank you for your good responses.

It is the last situation mentioned - why PPC advertisers are not targeting other national brands (Brand A paying to show on Brand B) that I was primarily asking about.

It may be that I am simply being filtered out by the PPC ads that are in the system for brand keywords (wisely, I might add, if that's the case). But I can reproduce these results using proxies, and I can reproduce them using different geographic locations. The brand pages are often much quieter than any small brand keyword search and my mentioned ones show almost devoid of competing ads.

If a brand were paying for top position, that hardly precludes other ads in the lower positions on the page.

Any other thoughts? Is the lack of competing PPC ads perhaps the result of lots of direct contact, asking other advertisers to lay off their trademark targeting?

Are you able to reproduce my national brand searches with PPC ads each time? Here's a screenshot. I see only one brand ad for each of my big brand examples:
http://markup.io/v/s46jhgayjdbn

s46jhgayjdbn

[RyanKent]

John nailed it.

The examples you shared where small companies searches show competitive ads are highly influenced by the search term. For the first three searches you used the company names "best buy", "victoria's secret" and "office depot". The other searches you used more generic terms which naturally trigger ads. "Nelly Used Cars" is showing ads, but "Nelly" isn't the trigger. "Used Cars" is the trigger. Try the search again for just "Nelly", then try another search for "Used Cars". The ads have nothing to do with "Nelly". The same feedback applies to "La Jolla Cosmetic Surgery Center".

[SEOPA]

I believe you are asking why 'BIG BRAND A' doesn't have competitors bidding for 'BIG BRAND A' related search terms -- vs why 'BIG BRAND A' doesn't bid on their own brand name. On first read I thought it was the latter, but now I see your intent (correct me if I'm wrong).

For the latter, big brands are in paid search for their own brand queries all the time. The examples you showed even have it. The cost is so low, and there are some added brand positioning arguments.

The trickier question is with competitors bidding on other competitors brand terms. e.g. Fredrick's of Hollywood bidding on 'Victoria's Secret' etc. I think some of the other responses addressed this.

[EGOL]

Just opinion here...

Big brands are often arrogant and presumptuous that you will look for their website before clicking - and they are often correct with that thinking.

The little guy often must stand on a chair, waive his hands, jump up and down while shouting to get the consumer's attention away from the big brand.

... and most importantly... these aggressive little guys are often very smart.

(this post is written assuming that the little guy is advertising his own brand name and NOT the brand name of the big competitor)

[john4math]

First, in answer to your questions:

1. There are no different policies other than what you stated above.  You can not use a companies trademarked name in ad text, but you can use their names in keywords.
2. They don't block them.  By entering the auction, they'll drive up the price for their competitors.  Since their quality scores are higher, they'll win the auctions with cheaper bids.

If your sales are pretty steady, you can run a test to see if running a branded campaign bidding on your own name is worthwhile.  Your organic traffic will go down a bit, but since people are looking for your company, your keyword quality scores will be very high, and you should be winning the auctions with relatively cheap bids. If anyone else is bidding on your brand keywords, it's almost always a good idea for you to be in there as well.  Otherwise, it's worth testing to see if it has a positive ROI.

Your examples are a bit flawed... a query like "Nallys used cars" is going to trigger for all broad and phrase keywords targeting "used cars", which many companies are going to target.  Also "la jolla cosmetic surgery centre" has "cosmetic surgery" which lots of people are bidding on.

Also, I saw ads for all of your examples above which you didn't see ads for (Best Buy, Victoria's Secret, and Office Depot).

[Bandicoot]

Hi Cake --

Google's AdWords trademark policy is pretty extensive, and is summarized here: http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=16316. The policies apply regardless of business size.

As someone who has had the conversation many times with clients, I can tell you that whether or not a company bids on their own brand terms is an ongoing debate. The "PPC poaching" that you point out is the very reason that I almost always recommend setting up a brand campaign in PPC, but some clients refuse to "pay" for clicks on their brand terms when they have such a strong organic presence. My view? It's a very, very inexpensive way to ensure that you at least have the top paid spot on searches for your own brand name.

Bottom line: If you don't see a PPC ad on a business' brand name, it's either (1) ignorance, or (2) them not wanting to pay super cheap CPC's for brand protection.

Hope that helps.