[brianwawok]

Well, I can relate as I just got an email that Shopify changed their partner TOS today because of me.

They had demanded that I add a negative keyword "Shopify" to all of my Google ads.

I declined, because - it wasn't in our partnership agreement and I in fact DID want clients who used Shopify to find my business. (I am in the e-commerce space selling a product that works for many marketplaces including Shopify).

Just got an email today about a partnership TOS change. Now I need to put a negative keyword in any Google ad campaign they deem it necessary, despite like I said, Shopify users being great product fits for me.

I am just a little dude. What power do I have? Not really anything, the biggies get to tell me what to do. I either follow the rules of the game or get banned from the platform. Rather frustrating to say the least.

[CPLX]

So you have to exclude the word Shopify, or just not use it?

Like if you bid on the phrase "Checkout Software" and people searching for "Shopify Checkout Software" were reaching you that would be against the TOS? You'd have to tell Google to suppress your ad from reaching people in that way?

Or you're just not allowed to bid on the word "Shopify" if you're a partner or whatever?

The latter seems inappropriate but at least arguable to some extent.

But the former, where you're actually required to suppress the results, seems anti-competitive to the point of being actionable, and is certainly not an ethical business practice.

Curious which one it is.

[brianwawok]

EXCLUDE Shopify. I did not bid on Shopify. I bid on "e-commerce sales"

Shopify is insisting, and in the new terms mandating, I add a "Negative search term" of Shopify to my bid for "e-commerce sales" So it would be + "e-commerce sales" - "Shopify"

> But the former, where you're actually required to suppress the results, seems anti-competitive to the point of being actionable, and is certainly not an ethical business practice.

That's fine to say, but is a small fry like me to actually do?

The actual wording in the memo is

> In order to promote a fair ecosystem and maintain competitiveness, partners may need to include ‘Shopify’ as a negative keyword in advertising campaigns that utilize pay-per-click keywords or are promoted through a search engine.

[CPLX]

I mean I do totally understand why someone would choose not to try to battle a big tech company, for sure.

But it strikes me at first glance as obviously anti-competitive, and reaching out or filing a complaint with the FTC and its international equivalents would be one starting point.

The FTC has been paying attention these days, you might actually get something moving.

[jacquesm]

He will get something moving alright: Shopify will nix his partner agreement in a heartbeat and it will never ever be re-instated.

These things are next to impossible to win for the smaller party unless you have all the time in the world and extremely deep pockets.

[CPLX]

It seems unlikely to me that simply contacting a federal regulator (while not actually breaking the TOS) would result in that kind of retaliation.

Presumably Shopify has at least one person in their general counsel’s office that’s not a complete fucking moron.

[withinboredom]

Can you hire a few friends of yours to write a blog post and advertise instead of you? Blog-spam is a thing, now I know why.

Thanks Shopify.

[shopify_throw]

This has been the case for years. You weren’t allowed to bid on any search terms related to Shopify on Google Ads. Lots of Partners did though.

[brianwawok]

You did not read my post.

I did not bid on Shopify. I bid on "e-commerce sales"

Shopify is insisting, and in the new terms mandating, I add a "Negative search term" of Shopify to my bid for "e-commerce sales"

Go look up negative search terms if you aren't familiar.

[ed]

You didn’t specify but I assume you are only required to add [shopify] (exact match) as a negative KW, which is very different from shopify (broad match).

[brianwawok]

It doesn’t say.

[appplication]

Pretty scummy practice. Not only does it drive out competition/innovation, it effectively reduces the cost of Shopify’s ad buy.

[brianwawok]

Yah it increases my ad cost and decreases their ad cost. Partners eh?

[ed]

Atlassian has this policy for 3rd-party developers too. It feels pretty reasonable, to be honest. Developers still get to advertise against phrases relevant to their niche (and I have to imagine the keyword “shopify” would be a poor performer anyway unless you’re building a shopify competitor).

[brianwawok]

I’m advertising on the word ecommerce. Which is literally what I do. You have a negative keyword on Jira?