Comments on: Should You Allow Closed Group Affiliate Brand Bidding?

By: ADAM LAURIE

ADAM LAURIE — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 12:25:54 +0000

I’m not sure i agree that all affiliate brand bidding will be negative. If controlled in the right way you could use it to benefit your company/campaigns.

By: TestCountry

TestCountry — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 08:02:51 +0000

Id be more tempted to try and cover my brand terms with product specific sites and ads where possible or potentially set up some sub brands to take over the space for me, that way, you are still getting the traffic and only paying face value!

By: centralmarketing

centralmarketing — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 08:31:21 +0000

I agree, I also have found brand bidding appearing in social media sites so have started amending ts & cs for clients to prevent affiliate brand use in social media post titles. Any thoughts on this?

Thanks

By: Southampton bookkeeper and accountant

Southampton bookkeeper and accountant — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 10:25:22 +0000

I agree – its a real concern that others will basically be able to hijack my brand for their own purposes

Good post

By: Bingo

Bingo — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 09:50:15 +0000

I agree with the above piece. I think under no circumstance affiliate brand bidding will be positive.

By: jatiN mahindrA doT coM » Reputation Management for Affiliate Marketing

jatiN mahindrA doT coM » Reputation Management for Affiliate Marketing — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 14:58:24 +0000

[...] to know how current affiliates are representing the merchant’s brand. Affiliates become the “face of the brand” for those consumers interacting. However, in many cases, there are very specific limitations to [...]

By: Picky Boot

Picky Boot — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 05:39:46 +0000

Sometimes we can allow the closed group affiliate for brand bidding. Where the competition is relatively high. Obviously they can reach their targets without seeming to pay a higher cost to do it.

By: murfster

murfster — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:06:45 +0000

Hi all,

Further to this, i agree with the principle of brand protection in this instance, as in particularly competitive markets this will help keep the competition outside of the top 4 listings.

However, the presence of affiliates here needs to be tightly controlled in terms of Creative, as well as ensuring they maintain their rankings whilst having the minimum possible impact on the own brand campaign costs.

If affiliates are generating £20 Car Insurance Sales, are they cannibalising sales which could have been generated for half the cost on the PPC brand campaign? Robbing Peter to Pay Paul – and give him a Tip!

If this is the case, does this limit the ability of the PPC campaign to actively push on generic terms, because fewer brand conversions at a lower cost will reduce the ability to leverage a strong generic presence on the main terms!

By: Digital Lookout

Digital Lookout — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 22:57:13 +0000

The closed group bidding strategy has become more of a viable option since the removal of trademark protection on google, after all, much better to have affiliates there than competitors! I agree on the monitoring though, too many people going about it the wrong way or turning a blind eye. If I was a client side marketer Id be more tempted to try and cover my brand terms with product specific sites and ads where possible or potentially set up some sub brands to take over the space for me, that way, you are still getting the traffic and only paying face value!

By: PPCblogger

PPCblogger — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 18:25:28 +0000

Good points and I agree with the Time Warner Cable example -

I can see their own advert or at least display url (which doesn’t look to be an affiliate), three affiliate adverts and only a single competitor.

They are ranking at the top naturally and have their own PPC advert. For me, that’s enough brand protection considering they have just one competitor ad. They will be paying affiliates commissions where it’s really not neccessary and are actually directly forcing up their own bids. It looks very messy as well.

There are equally as many examples over in the UK to!.

Thanks for the comments.