Hitwise, the leading online competitive intelligence service, today revealed that the top online brands in the UK have significantly increased their spending on paid brand search marketing following the recent changes to Google's trademark policy. Before Google's changes took effect on May 5 2008, 9.2% of the search traffic that the top 100 online brands in the UK received from their top brand term came via a paid listing on a search engine such as Google, Yahoo!, Ask or Microsoft. According to Hitwise's new report, The Impact of Google's Trademark Changes In The UK, this figure went up to 11.2% - equivalent to an increase of 22% - during the first four weeks after the changes took effect.

Retail and travel industries hit hardest by Google changes

Hitwise Search Intelligence data reveals that the top travel brands in the UK have increased their paid brand search rate from 18.4% to 26.6% following the Google trademark changes, the largest increase of any sector. The retail industry also saw a significant increase in paid brand search activity from 11.3% to 16.2%, despite a number of high profile 'gentleman's agreements' amongst some of the largest names in the industry who had agreed not to bid on each other's brands terms. The telecoms industry also experienced an increase, although there was a moderate decrease from 4.8% to 4.7% amongst the UK's major banks.

"When Google announced that anyone would be able to bid on branded terms in the UK, many assumed the amount of Internet search traffic that brand owners receive from searches for their own trademarked brand terms would decrease, because competitors and affiliates could now bid on these terms," commented Robin Goad, Director of Research at Hitwise. "In fact, there was only a tiny decrease in traffic to brand owners' websites following the changes. UK Internet users have stayed loyal to their favourite brands, but at what price? It seems that the top brands in the UK have chosen to increase paid search activity on their own brand terms rather than lose traffic to competitors or affiliates."