Currys PPC Terms

[Cockneyrhyme]

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I think one of the Currys affiliate managers float on this board if so great you could help me answer this question, i understood affiliates could not bid on brand names, combinations with brand name or mispellings etc....i received an email earlier this year stating this...yet i found

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en...UK%7CcountryGB
& another
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en...UK%7CcountryGB

Has their ppc T&C's changed or are there sneaky affiliates getting passed their T&C's? if the sneaky affilaites are getting through are currys actually enforcing their T&C's

Thanks
Brian

[Qui Gon Jinn]

Their policy is just on the singular word "currys", mispellings and keyword phrases are permitted. e.g.

Currys Electrical
Currys Online
Currys Moose

So the two you suggested are actually permitted and none of those affiliates are being sneaky.

Infact, Google at one point stopped even the phrases against the exact instruction / wishes of Currys' agency, so Google had to aplogise and correct accordingly in their difficult task of managing trademarks.

The agency looking after Curry's, Wheel Group, embrace affiliate marketing in a very positive manner and look after other programs as well. They are one of a small handful of agencies who do actually understand the market and listen to suggestions from affiliates.

[betterHalf]

Mmmm....

not really a PPC user myself (prefer free traffic) but have seemed to notice a growing trend - as merchants become more 'savvy', they stop affiliates bidding on anything that converts well. In other words, brand names, variations etc. The reason is obvious. Why should they make it easy for an affiliate? They aint in the business of giving money away...

Wouldnt be surprised if curries spot it and change the t&cs...

[Hayley Read]

I manage the affiliate program for Currys and as Qui Gon Jinn said our policy is solely to protect our brand name

i.e. Currys

I fully appreciate the fact that our affiliates generate and drive traffic to their site through SEO campaigns and that is why you are permitted to bid on any variations or words surrounding Currys

Ts and Cs will stay as they are and we will continue to enforce and forbid affiliates to bid on 'Currys' only

Hope this clears up any confusion...

(Same applies for Dixons)

[Qui Gon Jinn]

You'll be surprised how many merchants cannot convert traffic on their brand name, it's a good litmus test to ascertain effectiveness of a merchant & whether it's worth prioritising on your site, or pushing their datafeed or using ppc on non-branded targeted phrases.

Also for a merchant there are a significant number of keyword phrases for a merchant whereby they don't show up on the first page of an organic search, on average a merchant will lose about 50% of its potential customers.

Lets take Churchill Car Insurance, who enforce a restricted keyword policy. A popular mispelling is double "h" i.e churc[b]hh[/]ill. Where do you see their own site on the first page of organic search?

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en...urchhill&meta=

Next type in "Churchill Car Insurance"

http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourc...+Car+Insurance

Granted they appear top in organic search, but then you have a large leakage of traffic for advertisers bidding on "car insurance" due to the broad match of Google adwords. In this instance they have taken an ad themselves to cover their bases, but many merchants don't. Have a look on espotting and you'll see the churchill ad trailing in 11th position

Scenarios involve their competitiors bidding on variations where by an affiliate will strive to push the traffic directly to the merchant without offering unecessary alternatives..., affiliates take the financial risk as well.

With all possible variations, permutations & combinations it ensures that the merchant stays at the forefront of the search listings.

The only thing that bemuses me is that cos sponsored listings are so prominent over and above natural search, some of these merchants that adopt a strict keyword policy don't even use ppc themselves on their brand, in essence being quite foolish or arrogrant.

Argos is an example who don't appear in sponsored ads on Google or Espotting for "Argos". The phrase "argos shopping" is one of their most popular search phrases, but where do they appear in natural search or sponsored listings,,,absolutely no where.

I could demonstate this with 100's of merchants & thousands of phrases. There are merchants out there losing 1000's if not million's of £'s in revenue through ignorance & arrogance.

The only thing I suggest is that if merchants choose to restrict keywords, it's only on the ACTUAL trademarked term. Not variations or mispellings that they don't hold the trademark licences for, unless of course they have a ppc specialist team which is often an agency who charge their client well over the odds to make themselves look good when an affiliates could it at a lower cpa.

Often these restrictions are imposed by those uneducated traditional agencies who generally shun online advertising or don'y understand it like affiliates do. Fortunately the agencies who participate on this forum DO understand affiliate marketing.