Affiliate Policy

PPC & Trademark Bidding: Many merchants restrict the ability of affiliates to use "Pay-Per-Click Search" on Google AdWords and elsewhere to promote the merchants' products or services.

Direct-to-Merchant PPC: Some merchants prohibit affiliates from engaging in "direct-to-merchant PPC" bidding, in which the affiliate creates text ads that send traffic directly to the merchant site (using an affiliate link). Since the affiliate's ad has the same destination domain as the merchant's ads, But this is allowed.

Trademark Bidding: Nearly all merchants identify specific "trademark" keywords and phrases which affiliates are prohibited from bidding on; this information can be used in eBay Secure Downloads affiliate program.

I would recommend that in addition to identifying specific trademark terms that can be bid on, you should also engaged in PPC bidding add the keywords as "negative keywords" for all applicable campaigns.

Some merchants choose not to prohibit affiliate trademark bidding, because otherwise the merchant's competitors can more easily and cheaply bid on those terms. Most merchants would prefer to have an affiliate site appear, instead of a competitor's site. So this is allowed

We also allow affiliates to bid on trademark keywords when promoting their own site, but not in "direct-to-merchant" PPC. Other merchants may have the opposite policy (allowing "direct-to-merchant PPC" trademark bidding, but no trademark bidding if traffic is sent to the affiliate site).

Affiliates With No Web Sites: Some "direct-to-merchant PPC" affiliates don't have any active web sites; affiliates with no website are welcome.