We are excited to announce that BrandVerity has been selected as one of Built In Seattle’s Best Small Companies to Work for in Seattle! This distinction is awarded to companies that have gone the extra mile in creating an awesome work culture that empowers employees to live their best lives.

The Rise of Google Shopping

Most paid search experts believe Google Shopping is a big opportunity for online retailers and it will continue to play an important role in years to come. According to Merkle’s Digital Marketing Report for Q4 2018, while text ad spending fell 9% Y/Y following three quarters of single-digit growth, spending on Google Shopping ads grew 42% Y/Y in Q4 2018. This was the highest growth rate for Google Shopping spend since mid-2016. For retailers, Google Shopping ads accounted for 63% of all Google search ad clicks–an all-time high as well.

We recently asked six paid search experts what they thought were the most important PPC trends for 2019. While there were a variety of answers, the clear winner in terms of impact on SEM for the coming year was automation. Like it or not, automation is unavoidable and search engine marketers need to learn how to thrive in this automated paid search world.

Noticed anything different when setting up call-only ad campaigns in Google Ads? In December, Google made changes to their call-only ads policy. While the changes may appear relatively minor, they have implications for advertisers wishing to use this type of ad. These updates are in line with Google’s philosophy of providing a smooth customer journey and ensuring that people engaging with ads on their search engine are finding what they want.  

Buzzfeed published an article last week largely based on a study conducted by Adthena, a paid search competitive intelligence company. The main point of the story was that Amazon engaged in a targeted strategy to aggressively bid on competitors’ branded terms over the Black Friday to Cyber Monday period.

We found the article and the supporting research to be misleading. Nothing in either piece supports the point of view that Amazon was doing anything intentionally aggressive or even differentiated. The purpose of this blog post is to provide more context as well as correct information on competitive brand bidding and Google’s trademark policy itself.

For the last couple of years, we have used BrandVerity’s Paid Search Monitoring tool to examine brand bidding during the busiest online shopping days of the year – Black Friday through Cyber Monday. We set up monitoring on some of the most anticipated gifts of the holiday season and see how advertisers take advantage of the holiday search volume surge to attract clicks. In many cases, we find ads that mislead customers and win commissions on unearned clicks.

For online retailers, Q4 is undeniably the busiest time of year. Everyone knows that. Less well known, however, is that this quarter is also a boon to third-party trademark infringers and affiliate abusers. For those interested in making some easy commission income, the temptation to divert branded traffic is great.

This is the first in a new series highlighting our employees! We talk a lot about how important and unique our culture is at BrandVerity. But to understand why its special, you need to meet the people that make the magic happen. Emily joined the Engineering team about two years ago, and here's how she answered my questions.

This is the last in our four-part series on protecting your trademark in paid search. The earlier pieces included a deep dive on Google Ads trademark rules, a step-by-step guide to submitting trademark infringements to Google, and a set of commonly asked questions regarding trademark policies. While this series focuses on Google, the techniques and considerations are similar across all search engines.

You think a competitor is abusing your trademark in the copy of their ad. You’re a little rusty on Google Ads Trademark policy. You seem to recall something about how Google doesn’t allow trademarks in the ad text, but they can use them in the display URL. You go to the Google Ads support page that describes what is and what is not allowed, and by the end of reading it, you are more confused than you were before! Don’t worry! You are not alone. Many smart people have read and re-read Google’s policies on trademark and come away with more questions than answers.