A few days ago, Google informed users that it had changed the brand protection policy in contextual advertising of Google Ads (what used to be called AdWords).
In practice, this means that any advertiser can use any brand name with the same conditions as the owner of the brand.
Let's remember what this protection means:
Only brand owners can use it in the title or description in ads.
However, anyone can use it in the visible URL of the ad.
Anyone can use the brand name in their keywords.
For example, an ad for any hotel may appear when searching for the key phrase “Hotel Shalyapin”, if the advertiser paid for the keyword “shalyapin”.
When searching from English-speaking countries such as Australia, Canada, USA, UK, Ireland and New Zealand, the owner of the brand is not the only one who has the right to use its brand.
Google allows any distributor, reseller, or owner of an information site for the brand’s products to use it. Google calls such an advertiser a reseller.
What does this change mean?
When in practice there was no protection, the situation in the above-mentioned countries will not change,. We see this below as a result of a search made from the USA.
On the first page, along with the owner of the brand Hotel Liabeny, we see hotel aggregators that use the name of the hotel, that is, someone else's brand, in the ad header.
Google regarding resellers, the results would be different: If we did this search from Spain,
Only two paid advertisements are shown: one from the official website of the hotel, and the other from Booking.com (without specifying the name of the hotel in the headline or ad declaration, but instead it appears in a visible URL).
After this new policy comes into force, the use of the brand may be possible not only in English-speaking countries. In Russia, this has become possible.
It can be seen that the name of the hotel is used both in the title and in the announcement.
In other countries, this modification will take effect soon, starting with Japan, Germany, France, Portugal and Spain.
How can this innovation affect the contextual advertising of a hotel on Google?
Previously, the name of the hotel, which could only be used by copyright holders. Climate and clickthrough rate (figure, which represents the number of clicks, the number of your ads, divided by the number of impressions).
It is understandable - a person is looking for your hotel, a person finds it in the title of a single advertisement with a similar title.
Changing the brand protection policy in reverse effect in all countries where, until now, the brand has been protected:
1. Increasing CPCs
2. Reduced CTR
In other words, we’ll pay more for each click, and a lower percentage of people will click on our ad with the same number of impressions.
Question: “Should I advertise my hotel on Google Ads?”
The answer is a resounding YES. Now more than ever, you need to have a presence on paid Google results. All other advertisers will be there, and if you don’t, the reservation that should have been for you will be intercepted by someone else.
