Previously, if you were a pet supply company wishing to promote Hartz flea medication, you could more than likely bid on key phrases including the word “Hartz”, but could not include that word in your actual ad.  This led to high bidding costs and low conversion and click throughs. Now, Google is allowing you to include the brand name if you follow the rules.

What does this mean for Google? Well more advertiser spend, of course, resulting in more revenue for Google. Although I have fought for this leniency in the past, I can see how this could be problematic for the owners of the brand name. More targeted competition for their brand name is going to result in higher bid costs for the corporate brand. This can lead to frustration and reduce the ability of the brand owner to brand their particular product, due to increasing conversion costs. Either way, Google comes out as the winner, that is until someone decides to bring a lawsuit against them for the lack of protection on their brand name. Either way, these new rules are now active, so take a look at your current campaigns to see if you can start targeting more efficiently.