A Marketwatch report highlights advertisers’ dwindling satisfaction over Google and sounds an alarm for the giant search engine! A few questions that come to mind –
– Companies cutting back on search (read Google) must turn to other avenues to target online audiences. How successful is any online advertising medium vs search on Google?
– Some companies have attributed their poor conversion rate to click fraud. However, companies that are happy with their success on Google rarely complain of click fraud!
– Direct travel suppliers have made remarkable gains at the expense of big travel portals. It would be interesting to know the search strategies employed by direct sites on Google.
– Are rising keyword costs endemic only to Google?
– Video, contextual advertising, banners, blogs, email, podcasts, movies – are other media gaining ground but a study last year proved that paid search still trumped the others when it came to results!
The problem is that Google is still perceived as a search engine and advertising with it is still considered as buying keywords! In reality, the advertiser is paying to compete on online primetime!