Become an affiliateStart your program

Traffic and channels

Brand bidding

Also called trademark bidding, brand keyword bidding, TM bidding, brand term bidding.

Short answer

Brand bidding is when an affiliate bids on the store's own brand name as a paid search keyword, for example store name plus discount code. It belongs in the program terms, or the store pays commission for a customer already searching for it.

Definition of Brand bidding.

The mechanics are simple. The affiliate creates an ad on a brand keyword, the customer searches for the store's name, sees the affiliate's ad, clicks on it and buys. The order triggers a commission. The store has then paid twice: a higher cost per click on its own brand ad, because there is now one more bidder in the auction, and a commission on top for a sale it would presumably have got anyway.

There are three positions to choose between when the term is written. Banned outright, where no affiliate may bid on the brand name or close variants. Allowed in combination, where the brand may be used together with another word such as review or alternative, but not on its own. Or allowed for selected partners, where the store deliberately lets a few cover searches it does not want to pay for itself.

The disagreement is about incrementality. The store sees a customer who had already made up their mind and an affiliate standing in the doorway. The affiliate replies that if they do not bid, someone else will, and the customer will then click on a competitor's ad instead. Both can be true at the same time, which is why brand bidding is a matter of agreement rather than a calculation with one answer.

How to handle brand bidding in practice

The term must be concrete enough to be followed. A workable wording names the word forms covered – the brand name, compound spellings, common misspellings and the domain name – and states whether they may appear in keywords, in ad copy and in the display URL. Those three are separate questions and must be answered one by one.

Checking is done by searching. The store searches for its own brand terms at regular intervals, ideally from several geographic locations, since ads can be narrowly targeted. Affiliates who do not want to hit brand searches by accident add the brand terms as negative keywords in their generic campaigns.

Brand bidding vs. ad hijacking

AspectBrand biddingAd hijacking
What happensthe affiliate advertises on the brand name with their own adthe affiliate copies the store's ad and shows it as the store's own
What the customer seesa third-party ad that can be recognised as suchsomething that looks like the store itself, including its display URL
Is it alloweddecided by the program termsmisleading, and against the ad platforms' rules on display URLs
How it is spottedsearch for your brand terms and see who is advertisingthe same search, but look at the display URL and where the click actually lands

Brand bidding is an agreement the store can grant or refuse. Ad hijacking is deception and cannot be permitted by anyone.

How it goes wrong

  • 01

    The terms do not define the brand

    A ban on bidding on the brand says nothing about compound spellings, misspellings or the domain name. Without a list of the word forms covered, the rule cannot be followed and cannot be enforced either.

  • 02

    No negative keywords among the law-abiding

    An affiliate bidding broadly on generic words will hit brand searches without meaning to if the brand terms have not been added as negatives. The breach looks deliberate in the report but is a settings error.

  • 03

    Checking happens once

    Ads are switched on and off daily and can be targeted by geography and time of day. A single search in March says nothing about what is running in June, let alone what is running in another part of the country.

At Affilyflow

Brand bidding in practice

Program terms on Affilyflow have a field for brand bidding, where the store marks whether affiliates may bid on the brand name. The field is saved as part of the terms and is an agreement, not a technical block. Affilyflow cannot see the ad auctions or the keywords, but every click is measured: a click from a Google Ads or Microsoft Ads ad carries a click ID, and if the store only bans the brand name, Affilyflow assesses such clicks itself.

Enforcement therefore happens where it can. The store checks its own brand searches, and if an affiliate breaks the terms, they can be blocked. A blocked affiliate cannot earn commission, whichever way the sale comes in – the block sits in the database, not in the user interface.

Frequently asked questions

Is brand bidding illegal?

Brand bidding is first and foremost a matter of agreement between store and affiliate. On the major ad platforms, bidding on a trademark term is usually allowed in itself, while use of the trademark in ad copy is restricted and a misleading display URL is prohibited. If it is banned in the program terms, the consequence is exclusion from the program.

How do I find out whether someone is bidding on my brand?

Search for your brand terms yourself in a private window, and repeat the search from several geographic locations, since ads can be narrowly targeted. Look at the display URL in the ad and at where the click actually lands. Repeat the check regularly, since ads are switched on and off daily.

Why do stores ban brand bidding when it brings more sales?

Because the sales are rarely new. The customer was already searching for the store's name and on their way in. The store then pays both a higher cost per click on its own brand ad, because the auction has gained another bidder, and a commission for an order it would presumably have got anyway.

What are negative keywords in the context of brand bidding?

Negative keywords are search terms an ad is explicitly not allowed to show on. An affiliate who has promised not to bid on a brand adds the brand name and its variants as negatives in their generic campaigns. Without that, broad keyword match types can hit brand searches even though nobody has bid on them directly.

Read on