The search engines’ rules around trademark use in paid search ads in the United States are nuanced and complicated. Unless you work with them every day, as we do, it can be difficult to know when an ad complies with the rules.

What is crystal clear though is the frustration you have when you see a competitor showing up on the search engine results page (SERP) using your branded keywords. Infuriating? Yes, but is it allowed? It depends.

It’s estimated that nearly $19 billion is lost to worldwide digital fraud each year. In response, ad compliance has become a necessity for marketers that want proper channel attribution and protection against ad spend theft. 

If you’ve ever searched for your own brand online, you’ve probably already encountered trademark bidding in some form. Trademark bidding—also known as “brand bidding”—is simply the act of targeting paid search advertisements to branded keywords (searches that include a brand name, or some variation).

BrandVerity ensures brand safety in key markets with geo-specific customized compliance coverage.

Dave Naffziger, our founder and GM, takes a closer look into what the new year has in store for the industry.

BrandVerity’s Paid Search Monitoring solution has allowed iHerb to catch rule-breaking partners across a global program, protecting Marketing spend from payouts to unearned commissions. 

How different will Q4 be for retail e-commerce this year? All signs point to a record-breaking quarter as digital sales become the new normal after months of lockdowns and quarantines. Experts predict that digital will account for 30% of sales during the upcoming holiday season, up from 14% in 2019.

We hosted a webinar around this topic to help companies strategize on how best to protect their brand for the rest of 2020. In this webinar, Helen Southgate, Managing Director of EMEA and APAC at Acceleration Partners and Van Chappell, General Manager EMEA at BrandVerity, had a lively discussion on what brands should expect to see in Q4 and what this enormous digital spike can mean for online brand protection. The full recording of the webinar is available here.

Here are three key takeaways from the webinar:

Every year, we alert our customers and prospects that Q4 is when we see a significant uptick in non-compliant behavior from affiliates and partners. In some cases affiliates may not be aware of the various program rules of the various brands with which they work. In other cases, bad actors take advantage of the surge in online advertising in preparation for the holidays and the fact that brands are distracted and busy. For would-be fraudsters interested in making some easy commission income, the temptation to divert branded traffic is great.

But not this year!

2020 has been a year of profound change for marketers entrusted with the task of driving maximum sales from digital channels. More than ever, marketers need to maximize performance for every digital channel, especially partnership.

Combination of companies immediately creates the global leader in software and service for the partnership marketing category

Today we officially announce that Partnerize, owner of the BrandVerity business, is acquiring Pepperjam, a leader in affiliate marketing technology and services. This is an exciting new chapter in the history of our companies that will present immense opportunity for our clients.