The days of brand protection in Google Ads are numbered –

A few days ago Google announced that it will change its brand protection policy within Google Ads (Old Google Adwords). This change will specifically affect the

What does brand protection have to date in Google Ads?

Having your brand protected in Google Ads means that:

• Only the owner of the trademark can use this in the
• Anyone (Owner or not) can put that brand in the URL and bid on that brand.

Until now, this gave a clear advantage to advertisers who had their brand protected, because by being able to put the brand in the text of the ads, they always had better , and therefore usually lower CPC.

We remind you that in order to apply for brand protection, you had to make a manual request to Google and prove that that advertiser is the owner of that brand. Subsequently and after reviewing it, Google granted this protection or not. In other words, the fact of having your trademark registered in a patent and registration office did not mean that you automatically had it protected by Google.

What changes are already underway?

The main change is that in countries such as Australia, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland and New Zealand, using the mark in advertisements is now allowed not only to the owner of the mark, but also to any distributor, reseller or owner. of an informative web page on the products or services of the brand in question.

The release date in Spain is not confirmed, but Google has announced that it will be soon. Apart from launching in our country, it will also be released in Japan, Germany, France, Portugal and Spain.

What repercussions can it have?

There are really sectors that are going to be greatly affected by this change. Without going any further, the hotelier with all the hotel search engines such as Tripadvisor will see quite a few changes. To date, many hotels bid on their brand and could also include the name of their hotel in their ad, from now on Tripadvisor will be able to bid and include that brand or hotel name in their ad.

This change seems interesting for any type of reseller, but we understand that it can do some damage to smaller advertisers, as in the example that we put above. In other words, now no one protects a small hotel from any hotel search engine using its name in the Google Ads ad.

On the other hand, it is to free up the rules of the game within Google Ads, which can also benefit smaller advertisers, who will be able to compete with more established clients. In other words, if I am an online store that sells certain brands, from now on I will be able to use those brands that until now could only use the brand and some reseller with an agreement.