• Netimperative, Monday, April 7, 2008 12:15 PM

Starting May 6, AdWords advertisers in the U.K. and Ireland will be able to bid on their competitor's branded keywords, as Google is set to expand its formerly U.S.-only trademark bidding policy. While European search firms that manage international client's accounts may be used to participatie in branded term turf wars, other firms and advertisers may be in for a drastic change to their bid prices and brand management strategies.

According to the Netimperative team, the new policy is "tipped to send prices skyrocketing, and could leave the search giant open to legal challenges from the major U.K. brands likely to lose millions as a result."

And the move may have a sweeping effect on the affiliate marketing business. "Look at affiliate marketing and PPC: many brands restrict their affiliates from brand bidding but these policies now need to be reviewed," says Andrew Girdwood, head of search at the search-centric U.K. agency bigmouthmedia. "It may now make sense to let affiliates brand bid, compete using trade names against brand competitors and bring a stable cost-per-acquisition model to the auction market that Google has just made volatile."

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