The decision to allow or not allow affiliates to buy your trademarked keywords in paid search is a difficult one. Here are the pro’s and con’s to allowing this:
Pro’s for letting affiliates buy trademarked/branded keywords:
- Increases the number of slots taken up by your brand on the brand search thus freezing out competitors (particularly important in Google because competitors can still buy the keyword without using it in their copy)
- If structured properly, these high value keywords can be used as a carrot to expand the non-branded keyword programs your affiliates are using to drive traffic/sales to your site
- If, for some reason, your SEO efforts aren’t effective for your keywords then you have more options for end users to click on a placement that leads to your site.

Con’s for letting affiliates buy trademarked/branded keywords:
- Affiliates care only about making money and will do, say just about anything to reduce costs and improve conversion – regardless of the reflection on your brand.
- Competitive affiliate bidding on branded keywords drives up the CPC of your branded terms increasing the cost per action of that keyword category.
- Branded keywords are “easy money” for affiliates and unless managed appropriately will only spend energy on these terms vs. expanding your overall program.
There are three options for working with affiliates with regards to branded keywords:
- Do not pay for any sales, service or leads generated from your branded keyword list. The trend in the industry is to move more towards this position in order to reduce costs and have more control over the brand messaging.
- Give affiliates unfettered permission to use branded keywords in their paid search programs. This will result in the most sales and the happiest affiliates, but at higher costs and risks to the brand.
- Establish a set of messaging and bid-cap rules for affiliates with regard to using branded keywords including:
1. The maximum cost per click they are allowed to bid in the engines. This is a hard rule to monitor as none of the major engines give you exact data on what the affiliates max bid is. However, you can closely monitor your CPC for the category and ensure that you are in the #1 position. If your CPC for the #1 position goes over the max bid cap – you have reason to “talk” to the affiliates.
2. Stipulate a % of sales, leads, etc. that can come from branded keywords. Do this by using a unique linking URL for branded keywords by affiliate. This will let you see how much traffic/business is being generated by each affiliate.
3. Have a clear list of do’s and don’ts with regards to the messaging and copy that can be used with the branded keywords. Make sure to give the affiliates lots of examples of what they CAN say in conjunction with very strict guidelines of loaded keywords, numbers, amounts, discounts, etc. that are off limits.
4. Set aside time on a regular basis to monitor the affiliates. Engage your top affiliates to help monitor the rules as well so that you have more eyes keeping the playing field level.
5. Have strict two strikes rules on your affiliates. You can give an affiliate (especially a new one) one strike with regards to these rules. Second strike should be an immediate restriction of those keywords and/or exclusion from the program. Do not waffle on this or your will get into issues of “fairness” with the broader affiliate group.