Yahoo To Prohibit Competitive Keyword Bids Containing Trademarks

In a recent article, Yahoo stated that "competitive keyword bids containing trademarks" will be prohibited starting on January 8th, 2018.

This means that if you have your trademark or brand name in any of your competition bidding keywords, they will not be accepted. This includes all competitive low (LTP) bids and these changes apply to the following markets: United States Search Marketing (USSM), United Kingdom Search Marketing (UKSM), Canada Search Marketing (CAMSM) and Mexico Mexico Search Marketing (MXSMSM) markets. The Yahoo team is also encouraging sites to use branded keywords in relevant Adwords campaigns instead of their trademarked names so as not to impede their advertising account management.

While Yahoo would not disclose the exact numbers of affected keywords or bids, the article posted at Advertising Age stated that "about 85 percent of all trademarks in these search markets are used in competitive keywords" for gaming publishers who bid on keywords like "casino slot machine," "poker," and "casino" to reach visitors. In addition, they found that about 10 percent of trademarks were used for branded searches in the US, UK and Mexico. It should be noted that these figures are based on data from sites that opted into Yahoo's Trademark Advertiser Program (TAP) which requires authors to identify their brands in their ads.

Keep in mind that these changes will not be applied to keywords that are contained in a long Tail Domain Name (LTDN) but only to those with a single, straight domain name. While Yahoo states the original AdWords policy has allowed for suspending bad ads from violating trademarked names, it was unclear if this followed through to a complete prohibition on competitive keywords containing trademarks. While we are hopeful the prohibition on closely related advertising will be temporary (we will see), it is clear that Yahoo continues to extend its reach over all of its publishers' ad campaigns.

Key takeaways from this change include:

Yahoo will not allow advertisers to bid on their trademarks. Advertisers are advised to use generic keywords or their brand name instead to prevent the suspension of their advertising account. The full article is available at Yahoo News or you can contact our team for more information.

Consult your Yahoo account rep for any questions you may have regarding these changes and make sure that your keyword lists are compliant with Yahoo's policy changes.

Source: https://www.yahoo.com/news/yahoo-banning-keywords-containing-marks-135560561.html?soc_src=sm

Date: Submitted on: 2012-10-10 22:29:11 GMT

Category: Keywords & Trademarks, Legal, Market News, Marketing News, Yahoo, Advertising Age

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Conclusion

We will see how this policy evolves in the future, but what are your thoughts? If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to post them in the Comments section below and we will address them as soon as possible.