Are you bidding on misspelled keywords?
Aug 7, 2008 Paid Search
I just got my latest newsletter from the fine folks at Practical eCommerce and they featured a great ecommerce tip from Greg Laptevsky:
Did you know that 587 people search for “googles” instead of “goggles” each day? If you don’t mind attracting customers who are not spelling gurus, consider adding misspellings to your search marketing campaigns. Microsoft’s adCenter Labs has an excellent tool to research misspellings. Don’t expect to get thousands of clicks from misspellings however they are often a great way to get some cheap traffic.
I wanted to throw some caveats on this:
Merchants - you should definitely look into pricing on your misspells and see if it’s economically viable to bid on them yourself. If you have savvy competitors, they may already be either buying these words or looking into it. Not being there yourself to capitalize on your brand would be a mistake if the pricing is reasonable. People “fat finger” search queries all the time and who would you rather have them find - you or your competition?
If you are protective of your trademark, you will want to take this into consideration on your affiliate terms as well and not only restrict affiliates from bidding on, or outbidding you for your properly spelled trademarked keywords, but also the common misspells.
Affiliates - before you go thinking that you have uncovered a potential goldmine here, make sure that you read and understand the terms and conditions when it comes to trademark bidding with any merchants you promote. Some allow it and encourage it, and some (like my client C28.com) are very protective. If you have any questions - ask the merchant. I think it’s the right thing to do and it can save you some nasty cease and desist letters.
General terms and ideas are usually okay to bid on unless the merchant over reaches and trys to restrict thouse as well - but please honor any restrictions on trademarked keywords or their misspells and iterations if a merchant requests it.
God Bless,
Wade
Tags: bidding on misspelled keywords, google, Paid Search, paid search marketing, trademark management
