Should brand and direct marketers buy their own trademarks as keywords? Should you buy other competitive trademarks in your Google, Yahoo!, or other search campaigns? There are no simple answers, but recent news has put trademarks as keywords back in the limelight.

GEICO and Google may hate each other right now, but GEICO does itself a disservice by not advertising with Google, particularly on keywords with a poor organic rank or for phrases for which a competitor has a top paid spot. For example, “geico commercial” and “geico insurance quote” would have huge ROI for GEICO if it chose to run advertising. Just as important, it could reduce the chances it will lose the sale to a competitor.

Even when GEICO has a top organic position, it could double its screen real estate, reducing the likelihood that a competitive or price comparison site buying its phrases and keywords will get the business.

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