On May 5, Google changed its bidding policy on company names and other trademarked keywords in the U.K., allowing advertisers and affiliates to bid on their competitor's terms. And in the four weeks
since the change, spending on branded terms jumped 22%, likely buoyed by both competitor bids and trademark owners upping the ante themselves.
"When Google announced the changes,
many assumed the amount of Internet search traffic that brand owners receive from searches for their own trademarked brand terms would decrease because competitors and affiliates could now bid on
these terms," Marcus Austin.
But according to Hitwise data, traffic to brand owners' Web sites dipped by less than 1% in those four weeks. "Will this be a short-term trend? Or will
this be the future?" Austin says. "Only time will tell."
Read the whole story at Internet Retailing »