‘Drafting’ and ‘Hijacking’ in Paid Search

A ClickZ article named Paid Search Spawns ‘Drafting’ and ‘Hijacking’ Strategies discusses the differences of ‘drafting’ and ‘hikacking’ tactics and its legal/ethical consequences. The article explains Peter Hershberg’s, from Reprise Media, definition of the two. He defines hijacking “as when a competitor outranks an advertiser’s campaign by outbidding them.” And drafting he defines “as a case where an advertiser conducts a search marketing campaign and a competitor takes advantage of the traffic by bidding on related terms.” The article gets into the ethics of using these tactics, I know I have seen discussion in the SEM world of people bidding on other people’s names and most did not appreciate it (see past Search Engine Watch Thread). But soon after the ” Mazda Taps Into Pontiac TV & Search Ads Again” topic, Yahoo Banned Bidding On Competitor Trademarks. For more on this, read the ClickZ article.