Google Has An Achiles Heal - Will
Their Competitors Notice?
Even though Google Revenues continue to soar, the hidden problem that
may stifle growth and may even allow Yahoo or MSN to overtake the paid
search market in the future lies in two critical phrases: Customer Support,
and Customer Training
Approximately 40% of the small businesses we have surveyed have tried
Adwords in the past and failed, and some of them have tried multiple times.
In some markets the percentage is closer to 60%. Why? because the program
was designed by Google engineers, and heavily favors companies with the
type of resources that most small businesses do not have. Unlike MSN and
Yahoo who have programs that are much simpler in terms of use for small
businesspeople, Google favors a technology driven solution that relies
less on customer support, and expects users of their system to become more
sophisticated.
The problem with this is that it is working quite well for professional
internet marketers and search engine marketing companies employed by big
corporations, but many small business people who are not web-savvy are
by and large left out of the mix. This is unfortunate because this is a
huge segment of potential income that is left "up for grabs" and may be
scooped up by MSN and Yahoo who are developing simpler, easier systems
with better customer support.
All the major search engines recognize this problem, and getting those
"offline" advertisers online is a high priority for all of them, but so
far there has not been great success. It is a knowledge and training gap,
and neither Yahoo, MSN, or Google has so far been able to address it adequately.
Google's recent acquisition of urchin, a web analytics program illustrates
the problem Google is trying to solve. Big Companies getting involved in
paid search will still continue to drive big revenues, but the new internet
is about verticals and niches, and Google simply isn't making the grade
in terms of training their customers well enough.
Where do small business customers go after they "churn"? Many of them
go back to what they were doing successfully before; email marketing, direct
marketing, and call centers according to our study.
The next growth area will be hundreds of thousands of verticals, driven
by small businesses exploiting areas and needs that the fortune 500 companies
can not fill efficiently. The search engine company that gets the most
advertisers on its side will win market share, and winning will require
the ability to service everybody, not just the super sophisticated internet
super geeks.
However, many private companies not sanctioned by Google, have sprung
up in order to try to bridge the gap between the Google Adwords program
and the ability to advertise efficiently on Google and achieve a high ROI.
One such company is http://adwordstraining.org that offers free video training
and free frequently updated information at http://marketingnewsblog.adwordstraining.org
Simple training videos are available on the site, as well as an advertiser
self study course to get non-technical people up to speed with Google Adwords
advertising.
Between Google's extensive training program of Google Professionals
and private training by private companies, this knowledge gap may be bridged,
and in the process a whole new industry of Google Adwords Marketing companies
may be created, to facilitate the knowledge gap between Google and the
advertisers that want to take advantage of the enormous advertising reach
afforded by paid search.
But, this might not be enough for Google to keep its lead, as advertisers
often follow the path of least resistance in getting their messages out,
and they are the ones funding the growth of the search engine industry.
Where those advertisers ultimately go will determine the ultimate victor
in the ever growing search engine wars, and the winner is by no means secure
at this point.
About The Author: Steve Blom is a founding partner of InTouch Media
Group, a publicly traded company specializing in the online marketing field.
http://www.intouchmediagroup.com
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