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Supermarket pledges not to bid on rival's search terms

Supermarket chain Tesco has become the first major UK advertiser to confirm that it will not bid on its rivals' search terms when Google alters its rules in May.

From May 5th, Google will let online advertisers in the UK bid on trademarked terms on the Adwords system.

The implication of the change is that firms that do not hold trademarks will be able to place paid search ads in Google's UK search results pages when users look for branded goods.

However, Tesco has now said it will not bid on rival search terms and added that it hoped other major online advertisers would follow suit and stop the cost of marketing increasing.

Website brandrepublic.com reported that in the past UK online markets have been able to generate significant profits due to the fact it was cheap to purchase trademarked terms.

"The changes are likely to result in a rise in the price of branded paid-search listings. Advertisers have traditionally been able to buy trademarked keywords at a low cost, enabling them to generate significant profits from their sponsored search activity," the site explained. ADNFCR-1536-ID-18573851-ADNFCR