Report affiliates who buy Google ads on your brand

An affiliate who buys Google ads on your brand name catches shoppers who were already looking for you, and your affiliate network then pays that affiliate a commission on the sale. Lift finds these orders in your store and shows them on a card in Recommendations. This article explains how to act on that card: send the order list to the network, report the ad to Google, and file a Google trademark complaint yourself.

How Lift finds these orders

An order counts when it came through an affiliate network's link and also carries a Google click id (see Click IDs: GCLID, WBRAID and GBRAID). Lift then looks for that click id among the clicks of your connected Google Ads accounts in the 90 days before the order. When it matches none of them, the order began on someone else's Google ad.

• Lift shows the card only when at least half of your own Google orders match a click in your connected accounts, so an unmatched click is not simply one from an account Tapper does not see.
• Some click ids reach the store cut short, or do not name a click, so they cannot be checked. The card says how many orders could be checked and how many could not. When some could not, it says the orders began on Google ads "not traced to you".
• When any order of a network matched a click in your accounts, Lift counts only that network's orders that could be checked, and says how many it left out.
• An order whose link carries no network mark also counts when it came from a Google campaign whose other orders carry only that network's mark, and no order of that campaign matched a click in your accounts. The card says how many orders were found this way.
• The publisher bought the ad in its own Google Ads account, so only Google and the publisher see the search term. The card says "most likely your brand name" and never claims the keyword.
• The value on the card is what those orders were worth, credited to affiliates, in the ad account's currency. It is not counted as savings.

The card covers the last 30 days. It lists the networks, most orders first, and for each one its orders, their value and the stores they were placed on.

Download the order list

1. Open Competitors in the Lift section of the sidebar. Owners, Admins and Managers see its Affiliates section.
2. In the By network table, find the network's row and press Download. A network with orders on more than one store opens a list: choose the store.
3. The file holds the orders the card counts, from the last 30 days. It lists each order's number, date and value, and the network's references where the link carries them. It holds no customer names, emails or addresses.

Before you send it: check your programme's terms

A network acts on the rules written in your programme. Check that your terms forbid affiliates from bidding on your brand name in search ads, and that the rule was in place when the orders took place. If it was not, add it now, so the next orders can be declined.

Send the list early. Most networks let you decline an order only until its validation period ends.

Send the evidence to your network

Admitad

1. In your Admitad programme, check that the Brand bidding traffic type is forbidden. Admitad does not forbid it unless you do.
2. Decline the orders on the list, each with a comment that names the rule it broke. Admitad lets an advertiser decline actions that break the programme's rules even after they were confirmed.
3. Send the list to your Admitad manager, so Admitad can act on the publisher.

Admitad's sanctions for brand bidding run from a warning to declining the commission and removing the publisher from the programme. Publishers can ask Admitad to review an advertiser who declines without sound reason, so decline only the orders on the list and give your reason.

Rakuten Advertising

Send the list to your Rakuten Advertising account manager. Ask them to take back the commission on these orders and to act on the publisher.

Optimise

Reject the orders on the list in your Optimise validation, each with a reason, before the agreed validation period ends. Send the list to your Optimise account manager as well, so they can act on the publisher.

Other networks

Send the list to your account manager and ask them to decline the orders. On ArabClicks and Boostiny, declines go through your account manager.

Report the ad to Google

Google's Unfair advantage policy does not allow "affiliates that advertise on Google Ads against the applicable affiliate program rules". Google can act on this only when your programme's rules forbid brand bidding, so check the terms first.

1. Search your brand name on Google in the country the orders came from (the ad may show only there), and find the affiliate's ad.
2. Do not click the ad. Right-click it and choose Copy link.
3. Open Google's Report an ad form, choose Something else, and paste the ad's link.
4. In the comments, say that the advertiser is an affiliate in your programme on the network, that your programme forbids bidding on your brand name, and how many orders it sent in the period, from the order list.

Enter your email in the form to get updates on the report. Google needs it if you want to appeal the outcome.

File a Google trademark complaint yourself

Google's Trademarks policy does not restrict a trademark used as a keyword, so a trademark complaint does not stop an affiliate from bidding on your brand name. It reaches the ad itself: Google can restrict your trademark in the text of an ad that uses it in a confusing, deceptive or misleading way. File one when the affiliate's ad shows your brand name in its headline or description.

1. Open Google's Trademark Troubleshooter.
2. Choose Trademark owner or authorized representative of the trademark owner.
3. Choose I'm concerned about an ad showing in live search that is using my trademark, and follow the steps to the complaint.
4. Name the advertiser by its web address, and the countries where you hold the trademark.

Google accepts complaints only against specific advertisers, named by their web addresses, in the countries and industries where you have shown trademark rights. When it restricts a trademark, the restriction generally carries on to every ad that leads to the same domain. The same troubleshooter also lets you authorise an advertiser, such as a reseller, to use your trademark in its ads.

Frequently asked questions

Why does a card say "not traced to you"?

Some of its orders could not be checked: their Google click id reached the store cut short or does not name a click, so Lift could not look for it among your clicks. The card says how many orders were checked and how many were not.

Does Tapper decline the orders or file the reports for me?

No. Tapper finds the orders and gives you the list. You decline the orders with your network and file the reports with Google, from your own accounts.

How to read the rest of a card: Read a Lift card: money, priority and evidence.