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STOP PRESS: PPC Price war imminent

By Toby Mason

Added Friday 18/04/2008

In less that 2 weeks a PPC price war will begin as Google's change in UK policy will allow competitors to bid on rivals trademarked brands.

So what does all that mean?

Well, lets say you have just saved up enough for that car youve always wanted. You know the internet is the place for a bit of market research before you hit the garages so you go to Google and type BMW into the search box (after all thats the car you;ve always wanted).

Up until now the only sponsored links returned will be those relevant in someway to BMW. However, come 5th May all that changes and even by typing BMW into the search box you may be presented with results for Ford or Audi offering you cut price deals on the "equivalent" ranges!

Understandably these larger companies are mightily "p#!£$d" off. Most have spent millions if not billions creating an maintaining their brand identity only for a small tweak in policy to allow others to muscle in on their patch.

"So what, I'm not CEO of a Global, capitalist orgnaisation, this obviously doesn affect me."

Well it will. If your business has any customers at all and you are in a competitive market then watch out.

Right now if you type "Totally Communications" into Google the first listing you are presented with is quite rightly us. There are no sponsored links as no one is allowed to bid on our name.

By the time I get back from holiday (Tunisia by the way, yes, cant wait) I can expect to see other rival web design and development companies in London buying up space on what should be "our" key phrase, stealing "our" prospects from under "our" noses.

Unless Google releases a widget equivalent of a farmer with a shot gun bellowing "get awwf moy laaaaand" we will all just have to put up with it.

But wait....those of you with GCSE's (or equivalent) will have noted that this is not a one way street. WE CAN STEAL OTHER PEOPLES CUSTOMERS TOO!

What ever your industry you can now go after your biggest rivals trademark and populate your ads with "Cheaper than XXXX", "Better than XXXX" "Quicker than XXXX". Don't feel bad about it, everyone will be doing it.

And thats the rub of it. Everyone will be doing this, and for every Brand name there will be 100's trying to piggy back off it. This will force PPC bidding through the roof on the grandest names, which is obviously good news for Google.

Whether its good news for the rest of us we will just have to wait and see, but someone is bound to lose out.

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