Google is running a promotion through the end of the year, worth $100 million, to directly acquire small business advertisers:
What’s significant here beyond the aggregate amount of the incentive is the ability to have a rep set up the campaign (DIFM). This is part of Google’s larger move toward outbound telephone sales and service vs. an almost complete self-service orientation in the past.
What we’re seeing at Google is a significant commitment to the local market and a related internal cultural shift. I met with Google reseller chieftain Todd Rowe the other day and was impressed by the effort he described that the company was making toward SMB advertiser acquisition on multiple fronts. Unlike in the past Google now really seems to understand the SMB market and what it will take to succeed.
Rowe cited data that 70% of companies that enter the SMB market fail. The three success factors he mentioned were: internal organizational alignment (sales and marketing), multiple channel strategy and the right product(s). Google is now good to go on the first two.
The only question in my mind is whether the products offered are aligned with the perceived needs of business owners?
December 16th, 2010 at 8:48 pm
It seems that the last $100 Gift Card promotion in August did not do the trick. Nor did the “Train and Gain” promotion in November. Looks to me that Google is struggling to boost their Adwords service and they are setting up more and more promotions to entice business owners to sign up. Then again, I never know exactly what there up to.
December 16th, 2010 at 8:51 pm
Are you aware of whether the customer support was part of those promotions?
December 16th, 2010 at 9:21 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Greg Sterling, Sebastien Provencher and Mediative, SparkSignals. SparkSignals said: RT @gsterling: Google to Spend $100M on SMB Acquisition http://bit.ly/emJ3Ow [...]
December 16th, 2010 at 9:48 pm
@Greg It seems that the Google Boost ads weren’t as well received as they had thought. I rarely see them in the 2 metro markets where they originally launched them.
December 17th, 2010 at 1:12 pm
That’s interesting. I think that Google is now using telephone sales for Boost as well as Tags.
December 17th, 2010 at 6:11 pm
Would love to see the CPA/LTV calculations that went into this campaign.
December 17th, 2010 at 6:16 pm
[...] reading this piece over at Greg’s blog about how Google is going to spend $100MM to get SMBs to use Adwords and the wording on this image [...]
December 17th, 2010 at 7:19 pm
Even with outbound service they still have service issues and often don’t get what it takes to make SMBs happy.
December 17th, 2010 at 7:26 pm
Greg: I wonder if scope of Boost versus size/volume of market has some impact in seeing boost ads.
By that I mean..the current monthly limit on boost is, I believe around $1400/month. (not sure about that). Suppose attorneys are spending $10k/month thru adwords. The boost ads would be showing at a fraction of overall shows.
In speaking with a boost rep, I got the impression that sales were active in Houston and active with some already active adwords accts.
This is all conjecture at this point with regard to actually seeing boost ads. I’ve checked also and have seen 2 after a lot of searches.
OTH: maybe they just aren’t selling
But…based on my guess above, I’m going to search in the evening when overall searches/clicks/impressions should be less. Maybe they’ll start showing up more often…
December 17th, 2010 at 10:57 pm
Greg, Google is definitely using telephone sales for Boost and Tags. I can confirm this on two fronts. The first is clients being called and the second is being called myself. The pitch is simple and effective. I would love to know the adoption rate. We can only estimate based on manual searches, but tags are starting to show for a lot of searches.
December 18th, 2010 at 12:09 am
Interesting thanks
December 18th, 2010 at 2:56 am
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Anil Podduturi. Anil Podduturi said: Google to Spend $100M on SMB Acquisition: "Part of larger move toward outbound telephone sales/service vs. self-serve" http://bit.ly/e4eNpU [...]
December 18th, 2010 at 4:43 am
Meet you in the heartland behind the school, GOOG. PPC ads are a different value proposition than hyper local directories. $3 per day buys a full page ad in a community directory that is serviced in person by a well trained specialist, professionally designed and typeset ad, printed, bound, mailed (using real postage) in a reference guide that is USED by 15,000 residents of a tight-knit community. The same $3 will buy a single GOOG click regardless if the clicker is the businesses’ competitor, an interloper in a far off land, or the perplexed business owner checking to see if it still works. Game, set, match.
December 22nd, 2010 at 1:17 am
[...] reading this piece over at Greg’s blog about how Google is going to spend $ 100MM to get SMBs to use Adwords and the wording on this image [...]
December 29th, 2010 at 11:16 pm
[...] but that is because local businesses need more hand-holding when it comes to online marketing. As Greg Sterling pointed out when the campaign kicked off in [...]
December 30th, 2010 at 1:07 am
[...] but that is because local businesses need more hand-holding when it comes to online marketing. As Greg Sterling pointed out when the campaign kicked off in mid-December: What we’re seeing at Google is a significant [...]
December 30th, 2010 at 2:34 am
[...] As Greg Sterling pointed out when the campaign kicked off in mid-December: [...]
December 30th, 2010 at 5:17 am
[...] but that is because local businesses need more hand-holding when it comes to online marketing. As Greg Sterling pointed out when the campaign kicked off in mid-December: What we’re seeing at Google is a significant [...]
December 30th, 2010 at 6:05 am
[...] but that is because local businesses need more hand-holding when it comes to online marketing. As Greg Sterling pointed out when the campaign kicked off in mid-December: What we’re seeing at Google is a significant [...]
December 30th, 2010 at 3:51 pm
[...] but that is because local businesses need more hand-holding when it comes to online marketing. As Greg Sterling pointed out when the campaign kicked off in [...]
December 31st, 2010 at 3:49 am
[...] but that is because local businesses need more hand-holding when it comes to online marketing. As Greg Sterling pointed out when the campaign kicked off in mid-December: What we’re seeing at Google is a significant [...]
January 7th, 2011 at 7:40 am
Google products are require self service, adding customer support or sales team will be very convenient for small business customers
June 8th, 2011 at 12:12 pm
What a huge huge change in SEO from the time this article is written. The local focus is the biggest change in ten years.