Affiliate Program Compliance: Enforcing Trademark Bidding Rules & Non-Compete Invariants
By Performance Marketing & Affiliate Infrastructure Review Board
How affiliate managers protect brand equity: monitoring PPC search engines for negative keywords, brand+coupon bidding bans, and enforcing programmatic compliance.
Maintaining compliance in performance marketing requires strict enforcement of merchant terms of service (TOS) to protect direct advertising ROI and brand reputation.
1. Critical Program Compliance Invariants
Trademark (TM) & TM+ Bidding Bans: Strictly forbidding affiliates from bidding on merchant brand names in Google Ads and Bing Ads to avoid inflating merchant CPC costs.
Mandatory Negative Keyword Lists: Requiring paid search affiliates to add merchant brand terms to exact-match negative keyword campaign filters.
Prohibition on Direct Linking: Forbidding affiliates from using merchant display URLs in PPC search ads to misrepresent themselves as the official brand.
Content & Claim Guidelines: Ensuring affiliate copy does not make unauthorized medical, financial, or performance claims that violate FDA or FTC regulations.
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