Paid-search rules for affiliates: the clauses to writePaid-search rules for affiliates: the clauses to write

Yourbrand's terms say “Publishers may not bid on the Yourbrand brand.” On Saturday 17 October an ad from a voucher site shows on “yourbrand discount code”. Asked about it, the publisher says it never bid on Yourbrand: its keyword was “discount codes”, in broad match, and Google did the rest. On the wording Yourbrand chose, that may be a fair answer.

The paid-search section of your programme terms is the one place you decide what publishers may do on your name. Google's Trademarks policy doesn't restrict trade marks used as keywords, and its Unfair advantage policy points back to your programme's rules. So the wording has to be precise, and it has to have reached the publisher. This guide goes through the clauses, the Google mechanics behind each, and how to roll a new version out.

Why the wording has to fit Google's matching

A keyword isn't a search. Google's match types decide which searches a keyword can show on. Broad match, the default, reaches searches related to the keyword, including ones that don't contain its words. Phrase match reaches searches that include its meaning. Exact match reaches searches with the same meaning or intent. All three reach close variants, such as misspellings, plurals, abbreviations and reordered words, and there's no setting to turn that off.

So a publisher can appear on your name without ever typing it as a keyword. That's why “bid on” on its own leaves a gap and “bid on or appear on” closes it. It's also why the clause needs to describe searches, not keywords: “searches for our brand terms, whatever the keyword or match type that shows the ad”.

Negatives work the other way. Google says negative keywords don't match close variants, though they now account for casing and misspellings. Plurals and synonyms still have to be added by hand, and a spaced or joined form of your name, such as “your brand” for “yourbrand”, is a different search. A clause that requires negatives should say which match types and which forms.

The clauses, one by one

• Our brand terms. A definition used everywhere else: every brand and product name, your web addresses, and any misspelling, abbreviation, spacing, hyphenation or other variant, in any language. Say which search engines it covers, and whether that includes their partner networks.
• Bidding on our brand. Whether publishers may bid on or appear on searches for your brand terms: not at all, only with written permission for named keywords, or freely. This is the clause that settles brand bidding.
• Our brand with other words. The same choice for searches that add words to your name: “discount code”, “voucher code”, “promo code”, “coupon”, “offer”, “deal”, “sale”. Some programmes allow named content and voucher partners here and nowhere else, so say so in the clause.
• Negative keywords. If bidding isn't simply allowed, require your brand terms as negatives in phrase and exact match on every campaign that could show on them, misspellings and spacings included, and the right to see the lists.
• Direct linking. Whether a paid-search ad may send its click straight to your site, as direct linking, or must go to a page of the publisher's own first.
• Our web address in your ads. Whether your domain may be an ad's display URL. Under Google's Destination requirements the display domain comes from the final URL, so this sits close to direct linking but isn't the same clause.
• Our names in your ad text. Headlines, descriptions, sitelinks and every other asset. This is the part a trade mark complaint to Google can also reach, but only for advertisers you name.
• Who the rules cover. Sub-affiliates, sub-networks, agencies and technology partners, with their activity counting as the publisher's own.
• When and where. Every hour, every day, every device and every country your programme runs in, so an evening or a city outside your office isn't a gap.
• Evidence. What you'll act on: a screenshot showing the search, the ad, the date, time, place and device, and records from tools that search on your behalf.
• What happens. Whether commission is payable on sales from paid-search activity outside the rules, and whether a publisher can be removed.
• Questions. Ask in writing before running anything you're not sure of.

How Google's policies connect to your terms

Google's Unfair advantage policy lists affiliates advertising on Google Ads against the rules of the programme they're in. It's the policy to name when you report an affiliate's ad, and it depends entirely on your terms: what they say, and whether the publisher had them. Google's Trademarks policy is narrower. It never restricts keywords or the domain of a display URL, and a complaint only restricts your mark in the text of ads from advertisers you identify. The trade mark complaint guide covers it.

Neither replaces the network. Your network holds the publisher relationship and the commission. A clear clause lets it decide a pending sale before your validation window closes, without a debate about what the words meant.

How to update your terms, step by step

1. Find the current terms and the date of the version each publisher accepted. Your network can tell you which.
2. List your brand terms: every name, product name, the usual misspellings and spacings, and each web address.
3. Decide each permission: bidding on the bare name, the name with other words, direct linking, your web address as a display URL and your names in ad text.
4. Write the clauses. The Paid-search terms builder turns those choices into numbered clauses you can paste.
5. Generate the negative keyword list your clause requires, so publishers who are allowed on code searches can copy it rather than guess.
6. Send the new version through your network, with an effective date at least a few weeks ahead and a request for each publisher to accept it.
7. Put the version date at the top of the terms, and keep a copy of every version with the dates it applied.
8. On the effective date, note which publishers accepted it. Recheck your brand searches after that date, not before.

The ordinary explanations

When a publisher's ad shows where you thought your terms didn't allow it, the terms are often the explanation.

• The terms said “bid on” and the ad came from a broad or phrase match keyword that doesn't contain your name.
• The publisher joined, or last accepted the terms, before the version that added the clause.
• A permission was given in writing by someone before you, for a campaign nobody remembers.
• The search was a misspelling, a spacing or your web address, and the definition didn't list them.
• The ad ran on a search engine or a partner site the terms didn't mention.
• A sub-network's publisher never received your rules, because the clause on who they bind was missing.

What you can do sets out the whole order of work, and Round the edges shows how match types reach code searches. The guide to negative keywords covers the list to require.