Friday, March 28, 2008
Google No Longer Inevitable?
First Hillary, now Google? Senator Clinton was described by the media as the "inevitable" candidate but then fell behind Barack Obama. Now, Google, which many advertisers view as the inevitable choice for search marketing, is showing signs of slumping.Google's number of paid clicks decreased by 3 percent in February after showing growth of 30-40 percent for much of last year.
You can question the survey data provided by ComScore, but even a 10 percent margin of error shows that the rapid growth of before is over.
Google tried to explain the stock-diminishing slump thusly:
The Mountain View-based company said in January that the drop in click-through rates is a result of its efforts to boost the usefulness of each click to its advertisers' sales performance. For instance, the company decreased the space around a word that would result in a click, so more clicks would be intentional.
So more accurate clicks is the culprit? That sounds like a permanent shift, so while maybe correct, it means that the growth that pushed the stock over $600 isn't returning.
Then there's the recurring problem of click fraud, which unlike Yahoo, Google continues to largely avoid rather than address.
Despite Google's massive reach, the slumping economy has encouraged search marketers to take a closer look at Google's effectiveness. While Google will remain the leader in search marketing for the foreseeable future, it's position as the inevitable choice for advertisers is no longer guaranteed.
Posted By John Gartner at 08:24 AM
Permanent Link: Google No Longer Inevitable?
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