There are strong pro and *** arguments about both sides of the affiliate trademark bidding issue. Much has been written and discussed about all the reasons why merchants and AM's should protect their brand and NOT allow tradmark bidding. Some affiliate programs in my opinion go WAY too far and even restrict bidding on common keywords.
Smart move! Tie your affiliate's hands then call them marketing partners. :-(
I just discovered Craig Alinder's blog in my reader and he has a great article from the affiliate side of the argument and makes some very good points about why affiliate programs SHOULD let affiliates bid on their brand and dominate the paid search results.
Craig's 6 Reasons all merchants should outsource PPC efforts to the affiliate community.
1. You would have less risk in the PPC arena.
2. You (through their affiliates) would dominate the search results page for their own trademarked terms.
3. You would be preventing their competition from bidding on their trademarks, because the affiliates would compete for the top positions.
4. You would only have to pay commissions on actual sales, not potential sales.
5. You would not have to risk spending their whole advertising budget in a few hours because of inexperience.
6. If you have chosen to hire a SEM company, then you would not have to pay enormous fees to a company that is doing something the affiliate community would be happy to do based on their own proven performance. SEM companies are not paid based on a percentage of sales. They are paid whether they increase your sales or not.
Read the rest of Craig's post to get more in-depth about the trademark bidding issue from a super affiliate's viewpoint.
Trademark Bidding Rules - Open Letter to Affiliate Program Managers.