The practice of affiliate publishers purchasing paid search ads on a brand's trademark keywords, causing their affiliate links to appear in search results for the brand's own name. Trademark bidding redirects organic brand-seeking traffic through an affiliate publisher's link, earning commission on customers who were already seeking the brand and would have converted directly. How it works: publisher registers as an affiliate for Brand X; publisher creates Google Ads campaigns bidding on 'Brand X', 'Brand X reviews', 'Brand X discount'; searchers who type the brand name see the publisher's paid ad appear alongside or above the brand's own ads; searchers who click the publisher ad land on the brand's site through the publisher's affiliate link; the publisher earns commission on the resulting conversion; brand harm: trademark bidding increases the brand's own paid search costs (competing with affiliates for brand keywords); redirects searchers who were already brand-intending through an affiliate link, converting what would have been a free organic or paid search conversion into an affiliate commission. Policy and enforcement: most affiliate program agreements explicitly prohibit publisher bidding on the brand's exact trademark and close variations; detection: brands can monitor for trademark bidding by searching their brand name in Google and watching for affiliate redirect URLs in the results; many affiliate networks (Impact) offer automated trademark bidding monitoring. Allowable variations: some programs allow bidding on brand name + category keywords ('Brand X running shoes') while prohibiting exact brand-name bidding; the specific permitted and prohibited search terms should be explicit in the publisher agreement.
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