Pros and Cons of Trademark Plus Bidding in Affiliate Marketing

Trademark plus bidding in affiliate marketing is generally controversial. Ignite OPM typically doesn’t allow trademark bidding within their affiliate programs for several reasons. Read on to learn Ignite OPM’s pros and cons of trademark plus bidding in affiliate marketing.

While Ignite OPM generally doesn’t allow trademark plus bidding within their affiliate programs, there are a few instances where it could make sense:

1. To gain a greater share of voice on a search result page plagued with your competitors. This increases the cost to your competition but doesn’t necessarily drive prices up for you.
2. To bury highly-ranked organic review sites which gave you poor reviews.
3. When your competitors have a very similar name to yours and are trying to confuse and convert your customers.
4. When you want your brand’s good reviews to be guaranteed as a top search result.

There are always exceptions to the rule, however, Ignite OPM has observed that 90% of clients don’t allow trademark plus bidding in order to ensure their profitability. Trademark plus bidding can drive up internal search costs, which can also hurt search conversions due to stolen traffic and an overall decrease in organic rankings; this is assuming your brand is already well-optimized for organic traffic. The pain trademark plus bidding can cause to your organic traffic costs more in the long run as you’ll end up paying for reviews instead of earning them organically. Although removing trademark plus bidding from affiliate programs usually decreases affiliate revenue, overall profitability generally increases.

When weighing the benefits of trademark plus bidding, it’s important to remember that the majority of brands end up with stolen paid and organic traffic while driving little to no incrementality. As an affiliate agency, it is Ignite OPM’s job to drive profitable, incremental traffic. Trademark plus bidding is a case-by-case tool that should only be used when proven necessary by a client’s needs.

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