Google allows AdWords customers to advertise on trademarked terms in the U.S. & research indicates that U.S. courts have so far agreed that it is not illegal to advertise on competitor names, as long as the message is not misleading. However, the rapid adoption of the Internet as a tool to find products and services has resulted in trademark law getting challenged and changed on a regular basis, so there is still uncertainty in this area.

I would like to start out by making it very clear that I am not a lawyer. However, per Jeffrey A. Babener, who is an attorney with Babener & Associates, “Generally, a seller or imitator may use a competitor’s trademark when advertising the seller’s product so long as the competitor’s trademark is used in a truthful way, such that its use is not likely to create confusion in the consumers’ mind as to the source of the product being sold”

“Over the years, many different legal theories have been used by competitors in an attempt to stop the use of their name or product … Actions have been brought for disparagement, trade libel, defamation, trademark infringement, unfair competition and misappropriation of a name. The successful cases have, for the most part, involved false advertising and unfair competition through the misrepresentation of one’s product, causing consumer confusion… A seller may be held liable for unfair competition under federal and state laws where the seller misrepresents either the seller’s, or the competitor’s products. ”

Some U.S. courts have upheld that advertising on a competitor’s name is legal.  For example, In J.G. Wentworth SSC Ltd v. Settlement Funding LLC, 2007 WL 30115 (E.D. Pa. Jan. 4, 2007), the court granted summary judgment to the advertisers based on the lack of evidence of consumer confusion. There are other examples as well.

Businesses can partially protect themselves by trademarking their name so competitors cannot use their name in ad copy, but again, this process does not prevent competitors from using trademarked terms to advertise on. Advertisers can click here to review AdWords Trademark policy detail and access their Trademark Complaint Form.

Interestingly, when it comes to advertising on a competitor name, large companies basically have the ability to bully smaller companies into submission, and here is why. If Business A is upset about Business B’s decision to advertise on Business A’s name, Business A can then have their lawyers issue Business B a Cease & Desist Letter. If Business B decides not to listen, they may then be setting themselves up for potential litigation. I am trying to simplify something rather complex, but the bottom line is that even if Business B has done nothing illegal, they may still find themselves in a position where they have to defend themselves. The cruel reality of litigation is that it can easily cost $100,000 in legal fees. Furthermore, a company cannot defend itself as an individual can, so a lawyer must be hired to defend a business (with certain exceptions that might apply to small claims court). Again, I am not a lawyer, but this is my understanding.

In the end, it appears that advertising on competitor names is legal and usually OK to do. If a competitor is upset, they will usually have their lawyers provide a Cease & Desist Letter, at which time you may want to comply with their request as litigation is incredibly costly. It must be understood that advertising on competitor names has the potential to result in unforeseen grief, litigation & legal fees, so it is important to understand your risk.

At JumpFly, we leave the choice of advertising on competitor names to the client. For those that have done this, it has often proven valuable and provided a very favorable ROI. However, this action can certainly lead to grief if a competitor is infuriated and willing to try and litigate, even if they would likely lose. So if you choose to go down this path, it must be done carefully & without confusing potential customers. Sadly, businesses advertising on competitor names that find themselves in litigation will likely find that even a victory in court still results in defeat in the pocket book.

Twitter has more than 100 million users and adds millions more each month. This experiment is an effort to embrace these users and determine the potential value that Twitter and social media can have for businesses. JumpFly’s objective is to spread the word about their top rated service and the value it provides. JumpFly hopes this promotion will expose their business to thousands of new people and many new potential clients. Please visit http://twitter.com/JumpFly & follow JumpFly for a chance to win a brand new iPad. Winners will be announced live via Twitter on September 15th, October 15th, November 15th and December 15th. 

JumpFly Twitter iPad Giveaway winners will be notified via Twitter and sent their new 16GB Wi-Fi iPad upon confirmation of their retweeting this promotion and receipt of the mailing address to send it. JumpFly staff & family are not eligible for this promotion. All contest participants must follow Twitter guidelines, or they will be disqualified. Anyone found using multiple Twitter accounts in an effort to win are violating Twitter guidelines and will be ineligible to win the iPad.

JumpFly professionally develops, implements, and manages Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter campaigns. JumpFly was selected as TopSEOs Best PPC Management Company and they pride themselves on their unmatched reputation of providing cutting edge knowledge and valuable experience to maximize clients’ PPC investments. JumpFly works month to month without contract and provides a money back guarantee. JumpFly is completely dedicated to customer satisfaction.

The promotional tweet is: @JumpFly is giving away a free #iPad every month! Just follow JumpFly & retweet this message. http://bit.ly/cycAjL #giveaway #free

In my humble opinion, one of Twitters best features is the fact that it helps businesses connect with their customers on a personal level.  Customers can use Twitter as a platform to inform a company about their experiences with that company’s products or services, whether good or bad.  This one-on-one customer interaction should ultimately help businesses provide a better customer experience to the people who have to power to make their companies successful.  Twitter also allows businesses to keep people informed on industry happenings, tips, tricks and so much more.

So, JumpFly has bitten the bullet and has joined the Twitterverse!  We may not have gathered as many followers as Kanye West (@KanyeWest), but we hope to be able to provide interesting and relevant content to our Twitter followers.  JumpFly has been ranked as TopSEO’s #1 PPC Management Company for the last two years and now it is time to share our wealth of information with our tweeps.  We hope to build our twibe of followers by providing useful, inspirational, interesting and compelling information about Pay-Per-Click Advertising on Google, Yahoo and MSN’s Bing.

If you are on Twitter, please take a moment to follow @JumpFly – we are confident that you will find our content relevant and informational.  Hopefully we will become Twitter’s PPC Management Authority.  Stay tuned to see what we have to offer!

When working on Microsoft adCenter Desktop, have you ever attempted to “Sync” your account after adding new keywords to a campaign, only to receive an error that there are duplicates in the account?

I receive this error quite often, but in my case, it is not a matter of adding two of the exact same keyword. Often times, it is because I am trying to enter two forms of the same keyword that the Microsoft system has “Normalized”.

Normalization is the process by which Microsoft adCenter removes extraneous characters from user queries. An automatic scan finds and removes duplicate forms from the search query to help minimize redundant content.

For example, let’s say you are trying to add the following keywords in your account:

“jump fly”

jump & fly

jump fly/

jump-fly

jump’s fly

the jump fly

Each form of the keyword ‘jump fly’ above will be normalized to be read by the system as ‘jump fly’.

After attempting to sync your account with these new keywords, you will get an error message telling you that you are trying to create duplicate keywords, even though visually the keywords are very different.

Don’t get frustrated, here’s the explanation from MSN.  If you are looking for the latest release notes on what changes have been made to the adCenter Desktop tool, you can find that here.

As always, if you need assistance with Bing PPC Campaign Management, contact a qualified professional at JumpFly.

How can I show my Google AdWords ads with Seller Ratings Extensions?

Here is what we found out: Only certain ads are eligible to appear with the new Seller Ratings Extensions and none of the current account settings need to be changed in order to be eligible.  Once a Google AdWords advertiser meets the criteria listed below, the distribution of their ads with the Seller Ratings Extensions is automatic.  This means that the ads are automatically opted in to showing seller ratings with the ads on Google Product Search.

Here are the criteria:

* Advertiser’s campaign must be opted in to Google search.

* Advertiser’s campaign must be targeted to the United States ONLY.

* Advertiser’s business must have at least 30 unique reviews and a rating of four stars or higher on Google Product Search.

* Advertisers do NOT have to have a Google Merchant Center account to be eligible to have their ads shown with the Seller Ratings Extensions.

* Advertisers will only be charged if the headline of the ad is clicked on.  Clicks on the review link are free.

While this is a wonderful extension to Google’s ever growing list of product extensions designed to help merchants provide their potential customers with highly targeted and relevant information when searching, some merchants may not be too keen on the idea.  To opt out of this extension, the merchant will need to complete a form requesting that Google disable the Seller Rating Extensions in their ads.  Google does not recommend this as the Seller Rating Extensions “is likely to increase the amount of qualified traffic” to their website from their ads.

Personally, I think this is a marvelous addition to Google arsenal of Ad Extensions.  With the internet FULL of sites like Yelp, Ripoff Report, Consumer Reports, Trip Advisor, Epinions, etc. it’s blatantly obvious that reviews and ratings matter to the average consumer.  This is Google’s way of inching one step closer to the ideal, perfectly targeted and extremely relevant PPC ad. If you think that your business could benefit from a professional PPC Management Company, please feel free to contact Jumpfly.  PPC is all we do.

The broad match modifier is a new keyword targeting option. (The existing match types are broad, exact and phrase.) I’m a firm believer in using exact and phrase match terms in an account, but am very leery of using broad match. Broad match allows Google to show on searches that they think are related to your keywords. I use this example when I’m explaining broad match to clients: you are a fruit seller and all you sell is apples, so you advertise on the keyword apples. Google decides that an apple is a fruit, therefore they could show you on searches for oranges or bananas. Not a good use of your advertising dollars.

A couple other examples from my clients at JumpFly: how about finding out one of your clients ads is showing on the term “nudist camp?” (My client runs a kids summer camp.) Or how about a moving company spending thousands of dollars on what turned out to be the term “movie” because Google was mapping to the word “moving.”

So broad match has not been my favorite match type, unless a client has a large budget and wants huge amounts of traffic.

But with the new broad match modifier, I can try more broad match terms for my clients because it gives me more control. Basically, when I put a plus sign in front of a keyword, Google will know that that particular term has to be in the search or will match on close variants. (Close variants include misspellings, singular/plural forms, abbreviations and acronyms, and rood words, like “floor” and “flooring”.) Here’s an example: if the term is +golf +shoes, your ad will show for “gulf shoes” or “golf sport shoes”.

Broad match modifier just came out of beta testing in the UK and Canada. I’m looking forward to seeing how it works for my clients, as I’m doing my own beta testing for a few clients. If it works, I’ll start adding it to more of my clients accounts. If you are interested in seeing how the broad match modifier might be able to work for your business, contact a professional PPC Management Company.

Google Docs allows me to create and upload documents, spreadsheets, drawings and forms from my desktop, then share them with others, who can also update them. (Go to www.docs.google.com to get started.)
I’ve used it with clients to collaborate on ideas, or to send keywords or ad text. But lately I’ve been using it with my PPC clients to stay current with stock levels. They can update the file when something goes out of stock or comes back into stock and I can make the corresponding changes to their accounts.

Here’s some of the top reasons I like Google Docs so much:

* I can protect it so only the people I invite to access the document can see it. And I can also make it read only.
* It’s real-time.  I can actual see changes being made if I’m in the document at the same time someone is changing something.  No syncing necessary!  No emailing.  No updating the file to make sure you have the most current information.
* I can change my notification settings, so that if someone makes a change, I’ll get an email. Even nicer is that I can be notified for any change, or just changes to a specific sheet, and I can have them emailed immediately or in a daily digest. (This is my favorite)
* It automatically saves. I love the fact that I don’t lose my changes.
* It’s free!

Google Docs is making my job faster and easier, saves my clients money because they are not advertising on something that’s out of stock, gets them more business by making sure I’m advertising something they want to sell, and doesn’t cost me or JumpFly a cent.

“AdWords Editor is unable to check or post some of your changes, because doing so would cause you to  exceed AdWords account limits. In order to complete your request, please revert some of your  unposted changes or delete some items, then retry your request. For more information about AdWords account limits, please contact AdWords Support. (Error number: 17)”

Typically this error only appears after working long and hard in your account adding new keywords, ad groups and ads, so seeing it is especially frustrating.  If you have received this error, check your campaigns, ad groups, keywords and ads to make sure you are within the Google AdWords Account limits:

Standard AdWords Account

* 25 campaigns
* 2,000 ad groups per campaign
* 2,000 keywords per ad group
* 50 ads per ad group (any format)
* Approximately 50,000 total keywords per account

If you find that you need more space in your account and you anticipate exceeding the Standard AdWords Account size limits, you can e-mail AdWords support and request your account be expanded:

Expanded AdWords Account

* 100 campaigns
* 10,000 ad groups per campaign
* 5,000 keywords per ad group
* 50 ads per ad group (any format)
* Approximately 100,000 keywords per account

Hopefully this information will help the next time you run into the dreaded AdWords Editor “Error number: 17”

JumpFly, Inc. – www.JumpFly.com
Elgin, IL – Randall Rd. Just North of I-90
No Off-site Work Opportunities – Must Work from Our Office

We are not seeking just anyone. We are seeking the best. By working with us, you will be surrounded by the most knowledgeable and experienced PPC team in the industry, and we hope you are no exception. We fully understand that our business is only as good as our team, and therefore we take care of our valued staff like family, and expect the same in return. We are looking for someone with a long term, career oriented mindset, and a love for Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter.

ABOUT JUMPFLY

JumpFly is independently ranked #1 in the USA for PPC account management, and proudly maintaining this title since January 2008. Our rapidly growing company is solely focused on making sure our clients earn the best results available for their advertising budget for as long as they choose to work with us. We pride ourselves on maintaining the highest level of knowledge, professionalism, and integrity available to serve our clients the best we can at all times.

JumpFly maintains a casual, relaxed and fun working environment. Hats, jeans and t-shirts are the norm. However, JumpFly is also filled with very proud, highly intelligent professionals who work very hard and enjoy reaping the benefits of their efforts. We keep very busy, and always have a “get it done” attitude each and every day. JumpFly does not allow personal calls, personal email, or casually surfing the net while at your desk. We are focused on productivity and efficiency which in turn affords the benefits associated with this environment. We treat our team with great care and respect, allow flexible working hours, and offer endless opportunity to grow and earn based on performance.

ABOUT THE POSITION

We are currently seeking a highly motivated, intelligent, hard-working individual with high level PPC Advertising management experience to fill a PPC Account Executive role. If you are new to PPC, please do not apply for this position. We are now adding to a very tight knit team of professionals looking to lead a booming industry for years to come. After evaluation and proper training, this position is responsible for all aspects of the client relationship, and will serve as the direct contact at JumpFly for assigned clients. As the client’s direct point of contact the account manager is expected to professionally represent JumpFly and be responsible to quickly resolve any issues, concerns or changes that become necessary over time. Daily activities will include new client evaluations and setup, dealing with ongoing client issues, managing client expectations, ongoing keyword research and analysis, writing, analyzing and updating effective ad copy, maintaining desired budgets, strategic account analysis to determine appropriate changes to achieve better results, staying on the cutting edge of industry knowledge and much more.

This is a high level position, and is unmatched in terms of potential for the right go-getter looking to constantly learn and improve. Your contributions to JumpFly will be recognized and you will be compensated accordingly throughout your career. If you desire to get in early with a rapidly growing company on the cutting edge of the advertising industry, we may be looking for you.

REQUIRED SKILLS / QUALIFICATIONS

- Friendly, Personable, and Positive

- Experience with Business Consulting in Relation to Advertising and PPC

- A Bachelors Degree

- Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter Account Management Experience

- High Working Knowledge of MS Excel, MS Word, MS Outlook and the Internet

- Excellent Business Communication Skills, Both Verbal and Written

- Detail Oriented, Problem Solver with the Ability to Multi-Task

- Hard Working, Keep Busy Attitude

BENEFITS

- Starting Salary Appropriate with Experience

- High Value, Performance Based Raises – We Offer Huge Raises if Earned

- 401k with 3% Company Match

- $350/mo. Paid to Health Insurance

- Two Weeks Paid Vacation to Start

- Flexible 40 Hour Work Week Between 6:30am and 6:30pm Monday – Friday

- Career / Personal Life Balance – Work Stays at the Office

If you are interested in the above career with JumpFly, please send your resume and unique cover letter letting us know why you want to work with us to Careers@JumpFly.com. We will review your qualifications and contact you if there is a fit.

We Appreciate Your Interest,

The Team at JumpFly

According to Google (via Nielsen), the average American spends five hours per day watching TV.  However, while doing their market research, Intel discovered that two BILLION hours of Internet video was downloaded worldwide in February, 2010 alone.  This on top of the fact that 10-15 MILLION U.S. households already stream video to their televisions makes Google TV sound like a fabulous idea.

But wait a minute…doesn’t this technology already exist?  I can already link my PC to my television using an HDMI cable and control it with a wireless keyboard and mouse.  I can use my Chrome browser to search for what I want to watch on Hulu or YouTube.  I can even pay between $27 and $100 to download software from countless providers that allows me access to all the satellite TV I could ever need or want.  So why is Google TV being heralded as such innovative technology?

The answer, in my opinion, will lie in the content and the user interface experience.  If Google TV allows a typical family easy-to-use access to both the internet AND television channels in one seamless experience – Hallelujah!  According to Google, Google TV will do just that.  Google TV “opens up your TV from a few hundred channels to millions of channels of entertainment across TV and the web.”  This allows our televisions to become more than just fancy high definition video players, it turns them into photo slideshow viewers, gaming consoles, music players, entertainment centers, social media hubs and so much more!  Next step is to develop a Google tablet device that has an app that would allow it to be used as a remote.

Google TV is also built on open platforms like Android and Google Chrome which means that developers will be able to create web and Android apps to make the Google TV experience even more robust.  This open-source development means that the sky is the limit and I cannot WAIT to see what Google TV has in store for us.  As Google says:  “This is an incredibly exciting time — for TV watchers, for developers and for the entire TV ecosystem. By giving people the power to experience what they love on TV and on the web on a single screen, Google TV turns the living room into a new platform for innovation. We’re excited about what’s coming. We hope you are too.”

I AM excited Google – THANK YOU!

The revolutionary iPad is great for surfing the web, gaming, reading, navigation with live traffic, sports updates, real-time stock quotes, or just about anything you can imagine. At home, the kids love it and often fight over a chance to play on it. On that note, the apps for kids are absolutely incredible. They are engaging, educational and usually very cheap or even free. In fact, it is so intuitive that my 2-year old, pictured above, can use it. She walks around the house looking for it, saying “iPad… iPad”. It is crazy. She just loves the app that lets her click on an animal and then hear what it is and the sound it makes. Simple, but amazing. There is truly something for everyone. Plus optional 3G makes it totally mobile, which can certainly come in handy. I still can’t get over the fact that I can search for a game, or app, find it, download it, and be using it within a minute. Apple has really hit the nail on the head with this device. Sure it has some limitations, like not being able to view flash, and the glare that is sometimes caused on the reflective glass, but overall, this thing ranks right up there among the most amazing things I have ever seen. Plus it is just 1 1/2 pounds. This is not something that people “need” to have, but this is certainly something I suspect everyone will want to have.

On a side note, I recently saw Amazon’s Kindle. This device is pretty nice for reading books, but I suspect will likely become obsolete if not completely updated. Kindle’s technology is superior for reading a book outside, where the glare might be annoying on an iPad, but otherwise, no comparison in my opinion. The Kindle books offer simple text and an occasional black and white image. iPad’s books provide full color images and often the ability to modify font type and size. Furthermore, there are book related apps, like the one for Toy Story, that bring books to life, offering the story, along with color animations and video inserts. Plus there is also the option to play Toy Story games, listen to Toy Story music, or color Toy Story pictures. Quite simply, the iPad blows the Kindle out of the water, as well as any other device for that matter. People seeking a new home PC, laptop, e-reader, DS2 or gaming system should first at least consider an iPad.

Apple is gearing up to launch its iAd interface to enable advertisers to reach app users via interactive ads. However, current buzz suggests that a $1 million budget will be required to be included, so this keeps out the small and medium sized players for now. However, in time, I suspect that iAd will go the route of Google AdWords and open up advertising to the masses. Time will tell as the mobile and app markets continue to explode.

For example, let’s assume that you own Randall To Go, a local restaurant delivery service. Let’s also assume that through various forms of advertising, you attract hundreds of visitors per day to learn about your service. If you have setup Google Remarketing, you can now re-reach these visitors when they are searching websites that are part of Google’s Content Network, which is an incredibly large number of websites. In fact, according to Google, the Google Content Network reaches 80% of global Internet users. So after potential new clients visit Randall To Go, they can now be re-targeted with a new set of ads if desired when they are visiting any number of websites, including Gmail. So a potential visitor can visit Randall To Go, and then be targeted in their Gmail account for a remarketing ad. This remarketing ad can then offer coupons of incentives if desired. The potential for this technology seems rather staggering as it benefits both advertisers and website publishers as well.

You can also run a number of remarketing campaigns at the same time. This can be especially powerful. For example, back to the Randall To Go example, this business can use Google AdWords Remarketing to effectively place unique ads in front of visitors that were potential customers, and can place a totally different set of remarketing ads to appear to visitors who visit the “Become a Partner” page. Previous visitors looking to dine may see a remarketing ad with a coupon while visitors who had previously looked to partner can be exposed to ads explaining the benefits of partnering.

Google states that, “Remarketing is a great way for businesses to reach users who are likely to be highly receptive to their ads and special offers… It helps advertisers and websites get higher returns. It also means more relevant and useful ads for users, and more opportunities for your customers to receive special offers and discounts that may be of interest to them.” I tend to agree. Here at JumpFly, we recently implemented Google Remarketing for various clients, but it is still too early to determine the direct impact from these efforts. Time will tell how powerful this new feature really is, but if used properly, it sure seems to make a lot of sense for everyone involved: advertisers, publishers & users. Thanks Google for providing yet another great tool for your advertisers. Contact a qualified PPC Management Expert to learn more.

I have to respectfully disagree wholeheartedly to Steve’s last statement.  I use my Droid smartphone WAY more than my desktop or laptop – even when I am at home and the computers are easily accessible.  It’s just more convenient to have the information right there at my fingertips to be able to sift through quickly.  The amount of searches I perform for local restaurants, stores, coupons, song lyrics etc. from my smartphone is staggering (admittedly, I’m probably addicted to my phone more than the average user, but still…).  I truly believe that Apple has no chance in overtaking Google in any advertising arena, even Mobile.

The iAd announcement will, however, hopefully prove to the FTC that Google’s acquisition of AdMob is not the monopoly maker they thought it would be.  Google seems to love healthy competition and barely even flinched when Bing.com was born – they seem to realize that there is plenty of business to go around in the paid search world.

With mobile advertising anticipated to become a HUGE revenue producer in the next few years, who can blame Apple for wanting to capitalize and take their share of the pie?  Industry numbers indicate that over $400 million was spent by mobile advertisers in 2009 and analysts predict that by 2013 that number is expected to nearly QUADRUPLE!  This is definitely enough projected revenue for all the key players to make their fair share of profits and make their shareholders happy.

So, like I said in my last blog post…no one knows who will win this battle OR the raging war between Google AdWords and Apple iAd, but as long as people are using their PCs and mobile devices to search the internet – Google wins.

After Apple bought Quattro, Google posted a Public Policy Blog welcoming Apple into the mobile ad space.  Google stated that Apple’s acquisition of “Quattro Wireless is further proof that the mobile advertising space continues to be competitive. And with more investments and acquisitions in the space, including from established players like Apple and Google, that’s a sign that vigorous growth and competition will continue. That’s ultimately great for users, advertisers and publishers alike.”

Although the gesture is nice and professional, it leaves me wondering whether or not Google will be singing the same welcoming tune once Apple starts implementing their competitive mobile advertising systems.  Sure, Apple buying Quattro looks good to the Feds for now, but we all REALLY know that there is only one true online advertising behemoth.  Google has online advertising on lockdown – it will be interesting to see how this all plays out and to see if Apple manages to squeeze their way into the mobile advertising market and become a true player.

So, the Clash of the Titans continues between Google’s search advertising dominance and Apple’s consumer gadget/application expertise.  Bottom line is this:  Google becomes better and better the more we use the internet (whether leaving Yelp reviews, commenting on blog posts, tweeting, etc…) while Apple is merely helping us to use the internet more with their fancy devices.  So, really it doesn’t matter who wins the Clash of the Titans – no matter what, Google wins. Even though I can already assume the outcome, I am still excited to see who will cash in most on the mobile advertising gold rush that is sure to come in the next few years.

Sitelinks allows advertisers to place additional links underneath their existing text ads.  Instead of sending users to the default landing page, Google Ad Sitelinks will display up to 4 additional Destination URLs which allows potential customers to choose where on your site they would like to visit.  This gives users more control and allows them to get where they want much quicker than having to navigate from the home page to the specific section of your site they wish to visit.

In order to have access to this type of enhancement, your ads must meet a certain high quality threshold.  If your account qualifies, you will find this special feature under your Campaign Settings tab under the “Networks, devices, and extensions” header.  If enabled, you will have an option to click Edit next to the Ad Extensions section.  From there, you will be prompted to add up to 10 specific Destination URLs with custom link text.   Depending on the term searched by users, Google will decide which links are most appropriate to be shown and they will be displayed underneath your current ad copy.

Google Sitelinks are becoming increasingly popular with advertisers interested in both driving sales to their website and branding their company.  According to Google, companies need to have “extremely high” quality scores and top positioning to be considered for Google Sitelinks.  This is Google’s way of assuring that the true cream of the search query will rise to the top and attract the most attention to the Sitelinks feature.

In the days of fierce Internet competition, Google Sitelinks has become increasingly attractive to advertisers who need to protect themselves against retailers or competitor attempting to outbid them for the pay-per-click auction of their brand’s keywords.  The only drawback that I can see is that searchers will more often click on the sponsored link instead of the advertiser’s organic listing.  Good for Google, maybe not so good for the advertiser.

This is yet another reason to have a professional PPC Management Company in place to see whether using Google Sitelinks is profitable for your company.