July 11 2008

22% increase in paid brand search following Google’s trademark changes

Following Google’s trademark changes, the top online brands increased their spending on paid search for key brand terms in order to avoid losing search traffic to competitors and affiliates

Hitwise figures show that the top online brands in the UK have significantly increased their spending on paid brand search marketing following the changes to Google’s trademark policy on May 5.

According to Hitwise figures in the four weeks before Google’s changes took effect, 9.2% of the search traffic that the top 100 online brands in the UK received from their top brand term came via a paid listing on a search engine. However this figure went up to 11.2% - equivalent to an increase of 22% - during the first four weeks after the changes took effect.

The biggest increases that Hitwise saw after the change were in travel, telecoms and retail. Most drastically, the top travel brands in the UK increased their paid brand search rate from 18.4% to 26.6%, the largest increase of any sector. The retail industry also saw a significant increase in paid brand search activity, from 11.3% to 16.2%, despite a number of high profile ‘gentleman’s agreements’ amongst some of the largest names in the industry who had agreed not to bid on each other’s brands terms. The telecoms industry also experienced an increase, although there was a moderate decrease from 4.8% to 4.7% amongst the UK’s major banks.

When Google announced the changes, many assumed the amount of Internet search traffic that brand owners receive from searches for their own trademarked brand terms would decrease because competitors and affiliates could now bid on these terms. The Hitwise figures for April show the differences between the UK and US markets seemed to point in that direction, as the top brands in the US receive 7.6% less traffic from their brands, on average, compared to the UK. In fact, there was only a tiny decrease - from 91.8% to 91.3% - in traffic to brand owners’ websites from searches for their own brand names following the changes.

Hitwise concludes that UK Internet users have stayed loyal to their favourite brands, and have chosen to increase paid search activity on their own brand terms rather than lose traffic to competitors or affiliates.

Will this be a short-term trend? Or will this be the future? Only time will tell.

by Marcus Austin (Web Editor)