When something looks off, here's how to look.
Eighteen guides for affiliate, partnership and paid-search managers, each a job done step by step: the report to open, the setting to check, what the numbers mean, and the tool that does it.
Start with who's biddingThe glossary- Guides
- 18
- Glossary terms
- 54
- Sources cited
- 100
- Sign-up
- Not needed
The guides
Grouped by the job.Each guide lists its sources, Google's own help and policy pages first, and ends with the tool that does the job.
- 01
See what's happening
Who is on your brand's searches, whose ads show your address, and what a link or a report is telling you, without clicking an ad or skewing your own.
11 guides- 01
Who is bidding on your brand? How to find out
Six places to see which advertisers show ads on searches for your name, what each can and can't tell you, and how to look without skewing your own ads.
8 min readSources: 11 - 02
Why “your brand + discount code” searches matter
Why searches for your name with “discount code”, “voucher code” or “promo code” are their own auctions, who advertises on them, and how to count them.
6 min readSources: 9 - 03
How to find which partner is behind an ad on your brand
Match an ad on your brand's searches to a partner in your programme without clicking it: the four clues an ad carries, the record each meets and what to ask.
6 min readSources: 7 - 04
How to read Google's “About this advertiser”
What each line of Google's About this advertiser panel means: verified and unverified names, the name paying for the ads, what not to press, what to do next.
6 min readSources: 7 - 05
How to use Google's Ads Transparency Center for your brand
Search Google's Ads Transparency Center for your name and web address, read an advertiser's page and each ad's dates, and know what it never shows.
7 min readSources: 8 - 06
Auction insights for brand campaigns: what each column means
How to read Auction insights on your brand campaign: each column, the segments worth using, a worked example, and the auctions it can never show you.
6 min readSources: 7 - 07
How to read your brand campaign's impression share when others bid
Your brand campaign's own impression share columns, from Search impr. share to Search lost abs. top IS (rank): what each says when others bid on your name.
7 min readSources: 7 - 08
How to watch your brand's searches at night and at weekends
For the hours your checks miss: map your week from your own Ad schedule page, close your own gaps, put each report on one clock and record what you see.
7 min readSources: 11 - 09
How to check your brand search without skewing your ads
Why searching your own brand again and again changes what you see, how to use Ad Preview and Diagnosis instead, and what it still can't show you.
5 min readSources: 8 - 10
How to read an affiliate link: redirects, IDs and cookies
Take an affiliate link apart: its address and the IDs in it, the redirects it passes through, the cookies they set, and what each browser keeps.
6 min readSources: 12 - 11
What is ad hijacking? How a brand's ad gets copied
What people mean by ad hijacking: an ad that reads like a brand's own and leads to its shop, run from another account. How it works and how to look into it.
7 min readSources: 11
- 01
- 02
Act on it
Google's own routes: reporting an ad from its menu, and what a trade mark complaint can and can't change.
2 guides- 01
How to report an ad to Google, without clicking it
Four routes to report a search ad to Google, the policy to name for an affiliate outside your terms, what to write in the form, and what happens after.
6 min readSources: 10 - 02
Google Ads trade mark complaints: what they can and can't change
What a Google Ads trademark complaint can restrict, what it never touches, how to file one against named advertisers, and how to authorise a partner.
5 min readSources: 9
- 01
- 03
Set the rules
What your programme's terms say about paid search, the negatives to ask for, what the studies found about bidding on your own name, and what others' ads on it cost you.
4 guides- 01
Paid-search rules for affiliates: the clauses to write
The paid-search clauses a programme's terms need, why “bid on or appear on” matters, how Google's matching shapes the wording, and how to roll it out.
6 min readSources: 7 - 02
Negative keywords for affiliates: the list to ask for
Which brand negatives to ask affiliates for, how each negative match type works, where they sit in Google Ads, and the gaps they leave that you have to cover.
6 min readSources: 11 - 03
Should you bid on your own brand? What the studies found
What the field experiments on brand search ads found, why their answers differ, and how to run a fair test on your own name before you switch anything off.
8 min readSources: 10 - 04
How to work out what others' ads on your brand cost you
What others' ads on your brand's searches cost you in commission and click prices, line by line, with the range if some orders would have come anyway.
10 min readSources: 11
- 01
- 04
Your codes
Where your discount codes are listed, how they got there, and what to ask.
1 guide