I am not doing too bad buying the company names of some merchants as keywords. Then my ads displays right next to their website listings (which usually are in the first places). Do you think there is anything wrong with this morally? If my ad didn't show the user would most likely click on the search result listing and the merchant would say the commission. Of course I only advertise merchants that allow pay per click advertising and do not make any restrictions in this regard. But I figure many may not be aware of this practice and may not appreciate it. Any opinions?
Morally not, legally yes. If they will sue you or press google, your bids for their name will be forbidden. Most companies with affiliate programs even forbid this behaviour directly in their affiliate rules.
I don't think there is anything wrong with it legally. If I have the company's (=trademark owners) explicit consent for ppc advertising (I email all companies if in doubt) and they do not mention and restrictions, it's only sensible to assume I can use their own trademark/company name in my ads. Of course it's something else if you bid on other trademarks. There has been an interesting article regarding this: http://news.com.com/Google+loses+trademark+dispute+in+France/2100-1030_3-5543827.html
Bid on all the company names you want. But if you don't maintain the minimum required CTR, you wont be showing for long.
This is a good way to get cheap traffic, however you will annoy the competition and could cost you in the long run
LOL. . don't upset the competition? Or they might what. . . compete with me? I buy keywords for every competitor I can find. I've had a few get disabled but it's usually the big firms that have sued G or spend a lot on advertising. It's safer and cheaper than building a page/site that infringes on a trademark and getting the C&D nasty graham
I know a guy that manages a PPC campaigns for a large firm in a sector that is very competitive on the web. One of his roles is sending out cease and disist orders to companies buying Adwords and Overture keywords using his companies name. It is based on trademark violations. They all comply or hear from the corporate lawyers.
I've gotten a few of those (but not through the use of adwords) because of my advertisers and I always comply - whether I'm right or wrong. The legal costs are too high and its not worth fighting. I used to get indignant about it but now I just delete the ad(s), document that I've complied, get a verification from the company and move on.
The issue is definitely whether you mention the competitor (ie company/product name), particularly if its a trademark. I think the rules here may vary by country. In some european countries there are laws that forbid an advertisement from mentioning a competing manufacturer (Germany has this, if memory serves, so you'll never see a BMW company talking about how they beat Mercedes, etc.) I think reasonable advise, particularly for U.S., is to "be prepared" if you're going to mention a competitor in your PPC adverts. I've seen other people do this and before long the other company does likewise, and it just gets messy. Check to see how well those PPC's are converting anyways - if I'm looking for "Company A" and I click on (Company B's) PPC with "Company A" headline, then I'm probably going to bail after the click-thru. Not a good use of money. But aside from mentioning the competitor by name, absolutely do BID on the keyword. If I'm looking for Company A, there's no problem at all finding Company B in the PPC listings! LC