The State of Branded Keywords in Paid Search Q2 2015

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1 The State of Branded Keywords in Paid Search Q

2 The State of Branded Keywords in Paid Search Q Table of Contents Study Summary... 3 Guide to Ads... 4 General Findings... 5 Clothing & Apparel... 7 Consumer Electronics... 9 Consumer Finance...11 Education...13 Home Services...15 Hotels...17 Insurance...19 Internet & Telecom...21 Online Retail...23 Software, Web, and Technology...25 Appendix Methodology...27 Terminology

3 The State of Branded Keywords in Paid Search Q Study Summary This study evaluates the paid search landscape on the core branded keywords of over 250 popular, consumer-facing brands from 10 different industry categories. BrandVerity monitored these core brand terms during Q2 of 2015 to evaluate trends in how brands are targeted in general and within their specific industry segments. The purpose of this study is to provide brands with a benchmark of what advertisements appear on the search engines when potential customers search for their brand and how much traffic brands may be losing because of it. 3

4 The State of Branded Keywords in Paid Search Q Guide to the Ads Used in This Study Brand Ad an ad placed by the brand itself on its own brand terms (e.g. an ad placed by brandverity. com on a search for BrandVerity ) No Trademark an ad placed on a brand s keyword by another advertiser (i.e. an advertiser who is not the brand) that DOES NOT include the brand s trademark in its ad copy Figure 1 - This ad was placed by the brand itself, so it would be counted as a Brand Ad. Trademark Usage an ad placed on a brand s keyword by another advertiser (i.e. an advertiser who is not the brand) that includes the brand s trademark in its ad copy Figure 3 - Ad DOES NOT include the trademark of the searched-for brand in its ad copy, and was not placed by the brand itself. This would count as a No Trademark ad. Figure 2 - Ad includes the trademark of the searched-for brand in its ad copy, and was not placed by the brand itself. This would count as a Trademark Usage ad. 4

5 General Findings Ads/SERP All Categories, Averaged Figure A Ads placed by the brands themselves (bottom segment) compared to ads placed by competing advertisers who used those brands trademarks (middle segment) and competing advertisers who did not use those brands trademarks (top segment). Key No Trademark Trademark Usage Brand AOL Bing Bing Mobile Google Google Mobile Yahoo Fewer Ads Showing on Yahoo In contrast to previous quarters, advertising on Yahoo dropped significantly. In the past, Yahoo generally came second only to AOL in terms of how much advertising it displayed on the typical SERP. In Q2, however, the average number of Ads per SERP on Yahoo dropped from 4.54 to This put Yahoo right on par with its counterpart Bing, which came in at 3.09 Ads per SERP overall. The reason for this change isn t entirely clear, but may be attributable to the changes in the Microsoft-Yahoo deal that were announced on April 16, One part of the agreement gave Yahoo more autonomy over desktop advertising, requiring only 51% of its advertising on desktop searches to come from Bing Ads. While it is strange to see Yahoo paralleling Bing more than ever following this increase in autonomy, it s very possible that Yahoo s advertising is simply in flux and hasn t yet fully adapted to the new agreement. Decline on Bing as Well While not quite so dramatic as the drop in advertising on Yahoo, Bing also experienced a sizable drop of its own. Ads per SERP fell from 4.05 in Q1 to 3.09 in Q2. This drop of nearly an entire Ad per SERP, coupled with the reduction on Yahoo, decreased the typical traffic losses for brands in most industries. For brands looking to maximize their direct traffic and sales, this should come as welcome news. Strangely, despite the similarity in the amount of advertising on Yahoo and Bing, Bing still showed far more Brand Ads than its counterpart. Brand Ads accounted for 1.06 Ads per SERP on Bing, but 5

6 General Findings only 0.74 on Yahoo making Bing a bit more brandfriendly. Google Drops the Hammer on Download Sites In a surprising move, Google announced some changes in March regarding how advertisers could promote software in AdWords. The new policy only permitted advertisers to link to the primary distribution source for a piece of software, and was slated to take effect in late April. We had welcomed this change, and anticipated that it would help reduce the number of third parties advertising on brand terms of software and technology companies. Since then, Google has made good on that promise and effectively wiped out Download & Toolbar sites from Google and Google Mobile and even reduced them tremendously on search partner AOL. We hope to see this trend continue through Q3. For full details on the decline in Download & Toolbar sites, see the Software, Web & Technology section on page 25. 6

7 Clothing & Apparel About These Brands This category includes 25 of the most popular brands that produce clothing, apparel, accessories and similar items. The designation most popular is based on monthly search volume in the United States, according to data from Google AdWords. Category Statistics: Clothing & Apparel Ads/SERP Advertiser Breakdown Clothing & Apparel Figure B The number of ads per Search Engine Results Page placed by different types of advertisers, averaged across all brands in the Clothing & Apparel category. Key No Trademark Other Reseller CSE Affiliate Brand AOL Bing Bing Mobile Google Google Mobile Yahoo Typical Traffic Loss (Clicks per Month) Top 10 Advertisers Using These Brands Trademarks 24,059 For a brand with 1,000,000 n r nded se r es 1. zappos.com 2. nordstrom.com 3. findsimilar.com 4. amazon.com 5. thredup.com 6. stuccu.com 7. 6pm.com 8. macys.com 9. sportsauthority.com 10. shopstyle.com 7

8 Clothing & Apparel Brand Ads Down on Yahoo While brands advertising tends to remain relatively consistent from quarter to quarter, we found a significant drop in Brand Ads during Q2. Brand Ads per SERP dropped from 0.89 in Q1 to 0.68 in Q2 a 23% decrease. Strangely, we didn t observe a parallel drop on Yahoo s sister-engine, Bing. Although Bing did demonstrate a slight decrease of 9%, it wasn t nearly to the same degree as Yahoo s. One potential explanation for this drop is the overall decrease in advertising on Yahoo. In the Clothing & Apparel industry, the overall number of Ads per SERP on Yahoo (including Brand Ads, Trademark Usage, and even ads with No Trademark) decreased by 36%, from 4.45 in Q1 to 2.83 in Q2. However, we also observed a general drop in advertising on Yahoo across all categories but with little impact on Brand Ads. Since Brand Ads typically hold a high position on the page, they re generally the least likely to be left off the SERP. It therefore isn t entirely clear why Brand Ads have dropped on Yahoo. Looking ahead to Q3, we re curious to see whether brands reinvest in their paid search campaigns for back to school sales and in anticipation of holiday shopping. Takeaway for Brands The drop in Brand Ads on Yahoo makes it more likely for customers to end up on other advertisers websites most likely Resellers and CSEs. Clothing & Apparel brands who are focused on selling directly to their customers should pay attention to their advertising on the Yahoo Bing Network, and make sure they re covering SERPs for their brand terms particularly the core brand terms like those monitored in this study. Affiliates Drop Off on Yahoo and Bing With the overall decreases in advertising on Yahoo and Bing, Affiliates lost any significant presence on those engines. Affiliates did remain active on one engine, AOL, but their presence there also decreased moving from 0.17 Ads per SERP in Q1 to 0.13 Ads per SERP in Q2. Looking ahead, if Q3 of 2015 follows suit with Q3 of last year, we may see Affiliate activity drop off entirely. 8

9 Consumer Electronics About These Brands This category includes 25 of the most popular brands that produce consumer electronics products including computers, smartphones, televisions, printers, gaming consoles and other items. The designation of most popular is based on monthly search volume in the United States, according to data from Google AdWords. The brands in this category do not necessarily have their own online stores, although they typically do. Category Statistics: Consumer Electronics Ads/SERP Advertiser Breakdown Consumer Electronics AOL Bing Bing Mobile Google Google Mobile Yahoo Figure C The number of ads per Search Engine Results Page placed by different types of advertisers, averaged across all brands in the Consumer Electronics category. Key No Trademark Other Reseller Downloads/Toolbar CSE Search Arbitrager Brand Typical Traffic Loss (Clicks per Month) Top 10 Advertisers Using These Brands Trademarks 20,647 For a brand with 1,000,000 n r nded se r es 1. amazon.com 2. factoryoutletstore.com 3. walmart.com 4. stuccu.com 5. t-mobile.com 6. device-driver.org 7. iyogi.cc 8. bestbuy.com 9. qvc.com 10. justanswer.com 9

10 Consumer Electronics Reseller Advertising Continues to Drop In Q1, we noticed a drop in Reseller advertising following its Q4 peak during the holiday shopping season. In Q2 of 2015, Reseller activity continued to fall edging closer to baseline levels on Google and dropping well below those baseline levels on Bing and Yahoo. On Google, Reseller advertising decreased from 0.44 Ads per SERP to On Bing and Yahoo, Reseller Ads per SERP dropped from 1.16 to 0.83 and from 1.52 to 0.86, respectively. These decreases have also resulted in a drop in expected traffic losses for the typical Consumer Electronics brand, from nearly 30,000 lost visitors per month in Q1 to just above 20,000 in Q2. Takeaway for Brands Consumer Electronics brands are making strides to capitalize on their brand terms by increasing their own advertising, and are simultaneously benefiting from less competition as the presence of Resellers decreases. If these brands want to maximize direct traffic and sales from brand traffic, they should continue to invest in their own ads and make sure to enforce any agreements they have that limit Resellers from bidding on their trademarks. Brand Ads Rise on Bing and Bing Mobile Consumer Electronics brands started to advertise more actively on their brand terms in Q2, particularly on Bing and Bing Mobile. Brand Ads per SERP rose from 0.52 to 0.72 on Bing and 0.40 to 0.49 on Bing Mobile. This change suggests that brands are investing more effort and budget into Bing Ads, which can at times suffer from less attention than its AdWords counterpart. 10

11 Consumer Finance About These Brands This category includes 25 of the most popular brands in the consumer finance industry including banks, credit card issuers, investment firms and similar brands 1. The designation of most popular is based on monthly search volume in the United States, according to data from Google AdWords. Category Statistics: Consumer Finance Ads/SERP Advertiser Breakdown Consumer Finance Figure D The number of ads per Search Engine Results Page placed by different types of advertisers, averaged across all brands in the Consumer Finance category. Key No Trademark Other Search Arbitrager Brand AOL Bing Bing Mobile Google Google Mobile Yahoo Typical Traffic Loss (Clicks per Month) Top 10 Advertisers Using These Brands Trademarks 8,220 For a brand with 1,000,000 n r nded se r es 1. local.com 2. accountratefinder.com 3. bankingonlinenow.com 4. strictlyinvesting.com 5. needbroker.com 6. moneybulge.com 7. wow.com 8. ask.com 9. creditcardaccessweb.com 10. chargesmart.com 1 This category does not include retirement firms that specialize in life insurance and similar plans, as those brands were included instead in the Insurance category of this study. 11

12 Consumer Finance Brands Paying More Attention to Bing Mobile After warning that brands were neglecting Bing Mobile in our report from Q1 and observing the lowest amounts of Brand Ads on Bing Mobile of any engine Consumer Finance brands increased their coverage on Bing Mobile during Q2. Ads placed by the brands themselves increased from 0.43 Ads per SERP in Q1 to 0.62 in Q2. While this remains much lower than the 0.92 Brand Ads per SERP on Bing desktop, it s still a positive change from Consumer Finance brands who want to capture the most traffic on their brand terms. Takeaway for Brands Consumer Finance brands should welcome the drop in Search Arbitrage on Yahoo in Q2, as they continue to have the lowest levels of trademark bidding of any industry in this report. Nonetheless, even at these relatively low levels of trademark bidding, the typical Consumer Finance brand still loses nearly 10,000 visitors per month to other advertisers. Brandconscious organizations can continue to chip away at Search Arbitrage and other trademark abuse by submitting infringements to the search engines and getting those ads taken down. Advertising Down on Yahoo, Search Arbitrage Cut in Half While we observed advertising on Yahoo decrease in most industries, Consumer Finance showed one of the largest drops, with the total amount of advertising decreasing from 3.40 to 2.00 Ads per SERP. This 41% decrease cut the Affiliate segment out of the Q2 chart, and reduced Search Arbitrage to less than half the Ads per SERP from Q1. Although it is uncertain why the drop in Yahoo advertising was so emphatic in the Consumer Finance industry, it may be attributable to how brand-conscious these companies already are. Consumer Finance has consistently returned the least trademark bidding of any industry in this study, so these brands may simply be making the most out of the general decrease in advertising on Yahoo. 12

13 Education About These Brands This category includes 10 of the most popular brands in proprietary education, representing online schools as well as schools with campus-based programs. The designation of most popular is based on monthly search volume in the United States, according to data from Google AdWords. Category Statistics: Education Ads/SERP Advertiser Breakdown Education Figure E The number of ads per Search Engine Results Page placed by different types of advertisers, averaged across all brands in the Education category. Key No Trademark Other Search Arbitrager Brand AOL Bing Bing Mobile Google Google Mobile Yahoo Typical Traffic Loss (Clicks per Month) Top 10 Advertisers Using These Brands Trademarks 25,015 For a brand with 1,000,000 n r nded se r es 1. local.com 2. universitydegreenow.com 3. academyeverything.com 4. earncollegedegreenow.com 5. ask.com 6. about.com 7. edu.com 8. indeed.com 9. openlearning.com 10. informationvine.com 13

14 Education Brand Ads Jump to New High Similar to in other categories, the Education industry experienced a rise in Brand Ads on Bing. Interestingly, although this was already a very healthy 1.28 Ads per SERP, in Q2 it rose all the way to 1.52 Ads per SERP one of the highest rates of Brand Ads we ve ever observed in any industry/engine combination in this study. Given the high amount of trademark bidding by direct competitors (in the No Trademark) segment, it should come as no surprise to see such a high rate of Brand Ads in the Education category. The prospect of losing customers to direct competitors on branded keywords is likely a powerful motivation for Education brands to ensure as much SERP coverage as possible. In many cases, Education brands will even advertise from multiple domains in order to take up more space on the SERP. Takeaway for Brands Education brands continue to battle with trademark bidding by direct competitors, who typically account for a good deal of the No Trademark section. This intense competitive bidding explains the emphasis on advertising coverage by the brands in this category, which is most notable by the high volume of Brand Ads per SERP on Bing. To prevent themselves from losing students to their competitors, Education brands could benefit from developing no trademark bidding pacts with their direct competitors. Such agreements would enable both parties to market more effectively and at a lower cost. Lead Gen Sites Drop Off Despite regularly showing up on Bing and Yahoo in the past, Lead Gen sites became insignificant in Q2. After appearing at rates of 0.18 and 0.16 Ads per SERP in Q1 on Bing and Yahoo, respectively, they are no longer pictured in the chart at all. While it s unclear what caused the fall of Lead Gen sites, we ll be watching to see if they resume activity in Q3 as we approach fall enrollment. 14

15 Home Services About These Brands This category includes 10 of the most popular brands in the home services industry, including real estate brokerages, moving companies, and providers of services such as exterminating, plumbing and cleaning. The designation of most popular is based on monthly search volume in the United States, according to data from Google AdWords. Category Statistics: Home Services Ads/SERP Advertiser Breakdown Home Services AOL Bing Bing Mobile Google Google Mobile Yahoo Figure F The number of ads per Search Engine Results Page placed by different types of advertisers, averaged across all brands in the Home Services category. Key No Trademark Other Partner Lead Gen Franchisee Search Arbitrager Brand Typical Traffic Loss (Clicks per Month) Top 10 Advertisers Using These Brands Trademarks 53,531 For a brand with 1,000,000 n r nded se r es 1. pestexterminator.com 2. pestremovalzone.com 3. local.com 4. thestreet.com 5. homelistingsfinder.com 6. topagentsranked.com 7. officiallistings.com 8. about.com 9. protectamerica.com 10. jobhat.com 15

16 Home Services Lead Gen Up on Yahoo, Despite General Decrease in Advertising While the total Ads per SERP on Yahoo decreased from about five and a half in Q1 to slightly less than four in Q2, Lead Gen sites still managed to increase their activity in Q2. Lead Generators jumped from 0.19 to 0.26 Ads per SERP on Yahoo, and even showed a slight increase on Bing as well. These sites are most likely upping their paid search spend in anticipation of late spring and summer spikes in demand, particularly in the extermination and real estate fields. Franchisees Disappear from Google and Bing Mobile Takeaway for Brands Similar to the Education industry, Home Services brands continue to be the target of trademark bidding by direct competitors (encapsulated in the No Trademark segment). The result is that Home Services brands lose traffic to trademark bidders at a clip of more than 50,000 visitors per month the highest of any industry in this study. Home Services brands also tend to work with a variety of marketing partners, and thus typically face a relatively fragmented set of advertising that can include Lead Gen sites, Franchisees, Partners, and Search Arbitrage. By limiting its partners paid search activity, and creating no trademark bidding agreements with competitors, a Home Services brand can simplify its branded search results and gain more direct customers. After representing a significant segment of advertising on Bing Mobile and Google in Q1, Franchisees have been reduced to negligible advertising on these two engines. Franchisee Ads per SERP also dropped on AOL and Yahoo from 0.17 to 0.12 and 0.19 to 0.12, respectively. Perhaps during the summer months of Q3, Franchisees will follow the model of Lead Gen sites by upping their advertising and make a rebound. 16

17 Hotels About These Brands This category includes 25 of the most popular Hotel brands. The designation of most popular is based on monthly search volume in the United States, according to data from Google AdWords. Category Statistics: Hotels Ads/SERP Advertiser Breakdown Hotels Figure G The number of ads per Search Engine Results Page placed by different types of advertisers, averaged across all brands in the Hotels category. Key No Trademark Other OTA Search Arbitrager Affiliate Brand AOL Bing Bing Mobile Google Google Mobile Yahoo Typical Traffic Loss (Clicks per Month) Top 10 Advertisers Using These Brands Trademarks 18,174 For a brand with 1,000,000 n r nded se r es 1. hotels.com 2. hotelsavings.com 3. hotelroom.com 4. priceline.com 5. hotelreservations.com 6. booking.com 7. orbitz.com 8. trivago.com 9. local.com 10. localjobster.com 17

18 Hotels OTA Advertising Falls on Bing and Yahoo OTA activity dropped by roughly a third on Bing and Yahoo during Q2. OTA Ads per SERP on the two engines fell from 2.04 to 1.42 and 1.90 to 1.22, respectively. Those are decreases of 30% on Bing and 36% on Yahoo. This follows another decrease that we observed last quarter, where OTA advertising dipped on all engines. OTA advertising is now the lowest that we ve seen it in any edition of this report. Traffic losses were also their lowest, at 18,000 lost visitors per month for the typical hotel brand. However, despite this recent pattern, OTA advertising is still relatively close to our data from Q3. These fluctuations may be cyclical, with OTA advertising bottoming out around Q2 and Q3, and then rising with holiday travel in Q4. We ll be sure to update the status of OTA trademark bidding in subsequent reports. Takeaway for Brands The combination of decreased OTA advertising and the relative increase in share of voice by brand name OTAs should give hotels some optimism. Not only are they losing fewer customers to OTAs the OTAs that they re losing them to are increasingly known and trusted partners. Nonetheless, the typical hotel brand continues to lose a significant number of visitors and bookings to trademark bidding. Furthermore, Q3 and Q4 may bring on an increase in trademark bidding in anticipation of holiday travel. Hotels who are looking to maximize their direct bookings should take this as an opportunity to continue gaining ground by monitoring their partners and enforcing their agreements. Brand Name OTAs Increase their Presence in Top 10 In past reports, we ve observed that many of the most popular OTAs have been conspicuously absent from the list of Top 10 Trademark Users. Instead, sites like hotelsavings.com, hotelroom.com, and hotelreservations.com have dominated the top 10 list. But this quarter, we ve noticed more brand name OTAs cracking into the top 10 than before. This may be welcome news for hotel brands. Although many hotels would like to sell direct whenever possible, if they must have some sales through the OTA channel, they may prefer those to come through trusted, established partners. 18

19 Insurance About These Brands This category includes 25 of the most popular brands in the Insurance industry, including providers of auto, home, life, property and casualty insurance. The designation of most popular is based on monthly search volume in the United States, according to data from Google AdWords. Category Statistics: Insurance Ads/SERP Advertiser Breakdown Insurance Figure H The number of ads per Search Engine Results Page placed by different types of advertisers, averaged across all brands in the Insurance category. Key No Trademark Other Lead Gen Search Arbitrager Brand AOL Bing Bing Mobile Google Google Mobile Yahoo Typical Traffic Loss (Clicks per Month) Top 10 Advertisers Using These Brands Trademarks 31,644 For a brand with 1,000,000 n r nded se r es 1. insurancestep.com 2. usinsuranceonline.com 3. quotes2compare.com 4. compare8.com 5. local.com 6. instantratesquote.com 7. about.com 8. autoquotewizard.com 9. autoinsurancequotes.com 10. insure.com 19

20 Insurance Search Arbitrage Cut by Two Thirds on Yahoo As we observed in many industries this quarter, the general pool of advertising declined significantly on Yahoo. Insurance was no exception, with the total number of Ads per SERP dropping from 5.00 to While Brand Ads and Lead Generators remained very consistent, the No Trademark and Search Arbitrage sections declined significantly. Search Arbitrage, in particular, dropped from 0.94 to 0.30 Ads per SERP a 68% decline. This should be an encouraging sign for brand owners. To have Search Arbitrage account for such a large share of the total drop in advertising suggests that Yahoo s algorithm is becoming more strict about its quality control. Search Arbitrage typically adds no value for the searcher and simply serves as a diversion and distraction, so it s interesting to see Yahoo starting to curb more of it. Takeaway for Brands While Yahoo s efforts to clean out low quality advertising like Search Arbitrage is a positive for brands, Insurance brands still face a considerable amount of trademark bidding. Lead Generators consistently pull customers to their landing pages, inflating marketing costs and potentially even passing a customer along to a competing insurer. Furthermore, direct competitors continue to cloud the SERP with their messaging (the No Trademark segments are typically populated by competitors). Insurance brands should take more proactive steps to monitor their marketing partners and competitors so that they can start taking action to curb this trademark bidding. Lead Gen Sites Continue to Own Trademark Usage Similar to past quarters, the majority of the Top 10 Trademark Users are Lead Generators. These sites continue to have a significant presence on each search engine, and are the only advertisers that have used these brands trademarks with any regularity on Google and Google Mobile. These sites promise insurance quotes, and often present quotes for a variety of insurers on their landing pages despite advertising on individual brand terms and using that specific brand s trademark in their ad copy. 20

21 Internet & Telecom About These Brands This category includes 10 of the most popular brands in the Internet & Telecom industry, including Internet service providers, wireless service carriers, and cable and satellite television providers. The designation of most popular is based on monthly search volume in the United States, according to data from Google AdWords. Category Statistics: Internet & Telecom Ads/SERP Advertiser Breakdown Internet & Telecom AOL Bing Bing Mobile Google Google Mobile Yahoo Figure I The number of ads per Search Engine Results Page placed by different types of advertisers, averaged across all brands in the Internet & Telecom category. Key No Trademark Other Reseller Partner Search Arbitrager Affiliate Brand Typical Traffic Loss (Clicks per Month) Top 10 Advertisers Using These Brands Trademarks 20,304 For a brand with 1,000,000 n r nded se r es 1. infinity[brand].com 2. [BRAND]deals.com 3. get[brand]cable.com 4. [BRAND]savings.com 5. buy[brand].com 6. [BRAND]internetservice.com 7. go[brand].com 8. local.com 9. mint.com 10. nocontractcellphonesplus.com 21

22 Internet & Telecom Brands Invest More in Bing Mobile Although Internet & Telecom brands placed a lot of their own ads on Bing in the past, we found that they hadn t exactly followed suit on Bing Mobile. Despite having the highest rate of Brand Ads out of any industry/engine combination in Q1, at 1.58 Ads per SERP, these brands only placed 0.82 of their own Ads per SERP on Bing Mobile. In Q2, that figure rose to 1.07 a 30% increase. It s not quite yet in line with the incredibly high figure on Bing and it may never quite reach the same level as desktop search considering that mobile tends to show fewer ads in general but nonetheless it wouldn t be surprising to see these brands continue to place more of their own ads on Bing Mobile. Takeaway for Brands Internet & Telecom brands seem to have figured out a means of taking extra control of the SERP by advertising heavily on brand terms through their own ads and through a network of marketing partners. However, this doesn t mean that said Partners always strictly adhere to their advertising territories, ad positions, ad copy restrictions, or other requirements. To fully understand the advertising landscape, brands should start monitoring their brand terms and tracking their Partners activity. Known Partners Own Top 10 List Many of the same Partner sites showed up once again in top 10 Trademark Users list. Four of the top five on this quarter s list were previously in the top 10 last quarter. This provides mounting evidence that these known partners are permitted to advertise in this manner. Such behavior may even be encouraged by the brands they work with as a means of controlling more of the search results. 22

23 Online Retail About These Brands The Online Retail category is based on the 100 top brands represented in Internet Retailer s Top 500 Guide from Some exclusions have been made for brands whose brand names are relatively generic and led to significant false positives. Category Statistics: Online Retail Ads/SERP Advertiser Breakdown Online Retail AOL Bing Bing Mobile Google Google Mobile Yahoo Figure J The number of ads per Search Engine Results Page placed by different types of advertisers, averaged across all brands in the Online Retail category. Key No Trademark Other Reseller CSE Search Arbitrager Affiliate Brand Typical Traffic Loss (Clicks per Month) Top 10 Advertisers Using These Brands Trademarks 14,682 For a brand with 1,000,000 n r nded se r es 1. findsimilar.com 2. amazon.com 3. localjobster.com 4. officedepot.com 5. couponsfans.com 6. guruaid.com 7. local.com 8. install-antivirus.com 9. wow.com 10. thredup.com 23

24 Online Retail Brands Face Less Competition on Bing and Yahoo In Q2, the overall Ads per SERP fell considerably on both Bing and Yahoo. Bing s total dropped by nearly an entire Ad per SERP, meaning an entire ad slot was cut out of the typical SERP. Yahoo s total dropped by even more. The result is less competition for traffic on brand terms, resulting in fewer clicks lost for the typical Online Retailer. Whereas in Q1 the average brand lost more than 20,000 visitors per month to trademark bidders, in Q2 the average brand lost a little under 15,000 visitors per month. Affiliate Activity Drops Off on Bing Takeaway for Brands The decline in trademark bidding on Bing and Yahoo is good news for Online Retailers. However, even at these reduced levels of trademark bidding Online Retail brands can still experience significant traffic losses. In particular, brands who have a very high volume of searches on their brand terms will experience greater losses than smaller brands, simply because their customers will be exposed to more ads from trademark bidders. Retailers who work with marketing partners (such as Resellers and CSEs) should take steps enforce their trademark bidding agreements. All brands should take steps to combat trademark abuse such as Search Arbitrage by submitting trademark complaints to the search engines. In an event that s likely related to the overall drop in advertising on Bing, Affiliate advertising became negligible on Bing in Q2. Previously coming in at 0.15 Ads per SERP during Q1, Affiliate advertising was no longer significant enough to appear on the chart in Q2. 24

25 Software, Web, & Technology About These Brands This category includes 25 of the most popular brands in the Software, Web & Technology industry, including popular social networking sites, web services, software programs, and others. The designation of most popular is based on monthly search volume in the United States, according to data from Google AdWords. Category Statistics: Software, Web, & Technology Ads/SERP Advertiser Breakdown Software, Web & Technology Figure K The number of ads per Search Engine Results Page placed by different types of advertisers, averaged across all brands in the Software, Web & Technology category. Key No Trademark Other Downloads/Toolbar Search Arbitrager Brand AOL Bing Bing Mobile Google Google Mobile Yahoo Typical Traffic Loss (Clicks per Month) Top 10 Advertisers Using These Brands Trademarks 9,657 For a brand with 1,000,000 n r nded se r es 1. the-best-apps.org 2. downloadape.org 3. wow.com 4. imusic-go.com 5. downloaddown.com 6. melonapps.org 7. downloadinfo.co 8. freeappstall.com 9. iyogi.cc 10. download77.com 25

26 Software, Web, & Technology Download Sites Nearly Fall off the Map In late April, Google changed its policy covering software distribution. After the change, advertisers were only permitted to link to the primary distribution source of the software. We had suspected that this policy change would be a significant boon for brands in our Software, Web & Technology category. Fortunately, our prediction seems to have come true ads by Download & Toolbar sites fell dramatically on all engines in Q2. Takeaway for Brands Software, Web & Technology brands should be thrilled with the effect that Google s new policy is having. Simply put, this is a great outcome for them as well as their customers. Trademark poaching download sites are almost entirely blocked from one of their best means of promotion. We look forward to Q3 s data in anticipation of an even more complete elimination of these sites from search results. Not only have they been essentially eliminated from Google and Google Mobile (as they weren t significant enough to appear in our charts for those engines), they also dropped from 1.32 to 0.50 Ads per SERP on AOL. Since AOL is part of Google s Search Network, it seems clear that this policy has spilled over and created some gains for brands there. But it doesn t stop there. Interestingly, we also observed significant drops in Download & Toolbar advertising on Bing and Yahoo as well. Download & Toolbar Ads per SERP dropped from 0.59 to 0.25 and 1.24 to 0.60, respectively despite being sourced from the Yahoo Bing Network instead of Google AdWords. Phishing Makes an Appearance In the vacancies left by the mass exodus of Download & Toolbar sites, some new advertisers were able to creep in. One of the most common of these advertisers, featured in our list of Top 10 Trademark Users, is actually phishing site. The site masquerades as a brand, attempting to steal credit card information from unsuspecting visitors. This is the first case of phishing that we ve noticed at such a scale in this report, so we re very curious to see whether it continues or even expands. 26

27 Appendix The State of Branded Keywords in Paid Search, Q Methodology Setup This study was entirely based on the core branded keywords of the various brands included in the study. These core branded keywords are terms that clearly signal an interest in a specific brand and are typically used navigationally to locate the brand on various search engines. These fit into the following categories: Brand Name the stand-alone name of the brand (e.g. BrandVerity ) Domain Name the primary domain the brand uses for its web presence (e.g. brandverity.com ) Misspellings & Variants close variations of the brand name that users commonly search for (e.g. BrandVarity or Brand Verity ) BrandVerity monitored each of these core terms multiple times per day across the major U.S. search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo, AOL, and Google Mobile) during Q2 of BrandVerity s monitoring was conducted using BrandVerity s Paid Search Monitoring tool. Monitoring was distributed across a wide range of geographic locations in the United States to develop a nationwide snapshot of how brands are affected. About the Metrics BrandVerity applied some weighting in order to more accurately reflect the impact that brands experience. Using search volume data from Google AdWords, ads were weighted according to which search term they appeared on. Ads that appeared on more highly trafficked search terms were weighted more heavily; ads that appeared on lower-traffic search terms were weighted less heavily. Additionally, all brands were weighted equally within their category to ensure that brands with disproportionately high search volume were not over-represented in the data. Ter n Advertiser T es A number of terms recur throughout this study. Some of these are used to describe paid search and the study s metrics, but most are used to describe various types of Trademark Usage from advertisers who appear in the study. These terms are defined below: SERP short for Search Engine Results Page, a page of ads resulting from a single search of a brand term Ads per SERP the average number of individual advertisements that appear on each Search Engine Results Page CTR clickthrough rate, the percentage of the time that an ad is clicked on by a user when it appears on a Search Engine Results Page CPC cost per click, the average amount that an advertiser pays for each click on its campaigns Affiliate performance marketing partner that uses a tracking link (either from a third-party such as an affiliate network or directly provided by a brand) to earn commissions for sales or other actions on a brand s site Comparison Shopping Engine (CSE) a site that lists products and pricing with outbound links to various retailers websites Download & Toolbar sites that primarily promote bundled software installers, toolbars or other downloads Franchisee a party that licenses the brand name from a larger chain, typically localized to a specific place or region Lead Generation a site that generates leads using web forms, generally selling those leads to an exchange or a specific brand 27

28 Appendix The State of Branded Keywords in Paid Search, Q Online Travel Agency (OTA) a site where a traveler can book hotel rooms, airline tickets, and other travel itinerary Partner a marketing partner that is not an affiliate or lead generation site and helps a brand promote its products or services Reseller a retailer other than the brand that was searched that sells the brand s offerings or products and services that complement the brand s offerings Search Arbitrager an advertiser who places an ad with the sole purpose of attracting traffic to a page that shows additional ads Other Trademark Usage that did not fit into one of the categories above. 2 2 In some cases, Trademark Usage that represented a negligible fraction of the advertising in a particular category was included in the Other segment. 28