Big Online Advertisers Blast Google/Yahoo Deal: Hello, Justice? Get me Anti-Trust.
It is one thing for small entrepreneurial fish in the search marketing ocean to fret about expensive pay-per-click charges at Google (keywords that cost $15–$22 per click). No surprise to hear vertical search engines — sites that refine results and tailor online ads to an industry – use words like “haystacks” to describe results from a big, general search engine like Yahoo. Or, “find needles in the haystacks” to describe professionally useful results from a trade-based vertical search site.But when a Big Fish like Association of National Advertisers (400 companies that spend over $100 Billion a year on advertising and MarCom) goes into fight mode, wouldn’t you “cut bait” and pull up hooks, lines and sinkers??
ANA wants the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate (and block) a Google/Yahoo search advertising partnership that advertisers claim will give Big G and Big Y dominance over 70-to-90 percent of ALL search advertising inventory. The national advertising association also cites concentration of market power, less competition and higher priced search advertising (from the combined market share muscle to force higher bids from advertisers) if the Google/Yahoo deal floats.
Are search marketers mere shark chum? Mark Kahn, CEO of Traffiq online advertising exchange, told E-Commerce Times that the deal does not offer any added value to advertisers. “Google has long abandoned the open bidding environment,” said Kahn. So, the partnership only drives more revenue to Google and Yahoo, not to their paying customers.
Google and Yahoo expected some squalls. But, the only ping back from the two highest-revenue search engines is the promise to delay their deal to give the Department of Justice time to look it over. Only until October. Even though they don’t really have to wait. If they don’t want to.
Maybe that’s why the term “user rebellion” has been rumbling through search marketing waters lately. Association of National Advertisers — commanding a collective $100 Billion in ad budgets OR a lot of clams — also represents the biggest brands in Marketing World. And, it complained to Justice.
Further down the food chain: Not only will smaller advertisers and local merchants have to compete with large, national advertisers to bid on product categories and keywords; but every marketer will likely be forced to spend more on campaigns through a less competitive Google/Yahoo combo.
If we see any explanation of how less competition in search marketing makes for a stronger “free market,” we’ll let you know. Now might be time to go off the big reservations. Or, to finish this fish story: It might be more cost effective to move some of your search advertising away from big seine net trawlers … who pick up lots of bottom feeders and junk fish. And set lures specific to your targets with advertising and search marketing campaigns that plumb the depths of a trade or industry segment, with Vertical Search Engines.
Remember Jaws? I think Google + Yahoo are gonna need a smaller boat.
