3AdDue to so-called brandbidders, well known brands lose millions annually, although through proper management up to 80% of keyword thieves could be kept at bay.

On average, every fifth click on search engine ads (21%) gets lost to competitors, which intentionally use third-party branded keywords to direct traffic to their own search listings, according to AdPolice, a company that was founded in 2008 in Hamburg by Daniel Karlovic and Markus Krapf, intending to bring more transparency into search engine marketing.

In extreme cases, even up to 90% can be misdirected in this way. This is at least the conclusion that the tool provider AdPolice comes up with, based on their calculations.

Since 2010, the cost per click (CPC) has increased purportedly tenfold on branded keywords. If competitors or affiliate partners abusively use terms of well-known brands, the cost for the own search ad increases substantially for the original brand and the brand might potentially pay erroneous commissions. In addition to the traffic loss, other consequences can be the threat of damaging the image of the brand, if the brand name shows up in conjunction with rogue ad texts.

The evaluation by AdPolice is based on a selection by 53 customers of various industries during the period of September 2013 until February 2014, and exclusively considers results using Google search in Germany. The brand protection company assumes that advertisers with a mixture of tool and process management could keep up to 80% of the brandbidders off their own brand keywords.

BrandWatch

With BrandWatch, AdPolice offers a product that combines reliable monitoring of brand protection and complete affiliate fraud detection with a user-friendly interface and meaningful reporting. The highly specialized tool is perfectly tailored to the requirements of trademark protection in SEM (Search Engine Marketing). It provides the vital information on your SEM campaign and significantly relieves your marketing budget with the permanent monitoring of trademark infringement. In addition, it offers numerous reporting options to the keyword and competition analysis, which supports you optimally in your daily work.

IndustryWatch

With AdPolice IndustryWatch you can even get further details about your most important competitors’ search engine behavior. On the basis of the relevant keywords of each sector, you will receive detailed insights and analysis that you can use immediately to improve your own campaigns. AdPolice's complete solution for campaign monitoring and competitive analysis provides you with the crucial information around your SEM campaign. This market analysis tool helps you to better asses markets, potentials, companies and competitors, as well as opportunities and risks, in order to to get the most out of your marketing budget.

ComparisonWatch

Although brand monitoring on search engines receives a lot attention as of late, many brand owners do not consider that affiliates and brandbidders are not only active via the classical search engines. Product searches in particular offer enormous potential to take advantage of the power of the brand names of others, by referring to a brand product and undermining the pricing policy of the trade mark owner with their own offers.

AdPolice clearly points out that the control of product placement in the internet lies solely in the hands of the trademark holder. Oversights in this area can lead to order losses, loss of sales, rising marketing costs and image damage. This is where AdPolice ComparisonWatch offers professional support to prevent this kind of damage and to bring transparency to product and price comparison portals.

As you can see, with the three products offered by AdPolice, sales can be optimized, CPC costs drastically reduced, and ultimately the keyword pirates kept at bay.

By Roger Stadler