Paperclip Marketing

Let’s face it– things are changing pretty quickly these days, even for hyperkinetic “Internet Time”. Pay per Click marketing (PPC) has grown into a behemoth, right before our very eyes. Consider this– Google’s stated revenue for 1st quarter 2005 (I’m sure there are more recent numbers available, but I wasn’t going to dig them up) was $369.2 million. That’s more than a 400% increase from last year, and most of it comes from PPC advertising.

In PPC, Larry and Sergey have struck gold. Keyword inflation, as competition continues to excert it’s pressure on bid prices, will undoubtedly continue. With little increase in overhead , Google will continue to reap the rewards (as will those lucky investors who bought in early). Due to strong leadership and a head full of steam, Google will keep pushing the online envelope and will likely remain at the forefront of progress and on the frontier of e-capitalism for some time.

So everything at Google is going great, right?

Well, maybe not everything…

Turns out that a growing population within the Internet marketing community have developed some trepidation regarding the company that swore to “do no evil”. In fact, current buzz has Google looking to learn a thing or two from Bill Gates about reputation management (see, Time Magazine ‘Persons of the Year“). Once universally heralded as the biggest, scariest gorilla in the jungle, a quieter-gentler Microsoft is now learning how to play second fiddle to a search engine (that, it is worth mentioning, is single-handedly the largest corporate evangelist of Microsoft Explorer’s biggest competitor, Firefox).

In recent months, it seems that anti-Google sentiment seems to be running high on the Internet marketing message boards. On any given day, several posts announce conspiracy theories (some new, some old) about Google. Most are focused around a few topics, “Google is trying to artificially inflate click prices”, or “Google gives preference to the big companies”.

Well, guess what folks? They are right. But, before you chalk me up as another agent Mulder, hear me out. Google is trying to raise their click prices, it’s called “increasing revenue”. Before you scold them for it, think. Isn’t it the same thing you are trying to do using their system, for yourself or your clients? And, guess what… Google is giving preference to the big companies. Of course they are, don’t you take special care of your best customers?

People seem very willing to forget that Google is, afterall, a business. A big, public, profitable business with Wall Street’s sharp eagle eye focused firmly on it, at that. They have to constantly push forward to make more and more money. That’s what big, public (not to mention profitable) businesses do. Don’t act so surprised, this isn’t conspiracy— it’s capitalism. And, because they are learning while they are growing, there is opportunity for all along the way. Who knows, keywords may be 10x more expensive in years to come. Then, the market will eventually level itself out when keywords reach a point where businesses don’t see positive returns for advertising them anymore. And, yes, Google will do everything they can do until then to see that they reach that point as quickly as possible. Don’t be surprised, don’t be offended, don’t believe all the conspiracies and other nonsense— just work with what you have and watch your own profitability closely enough to get a little something out of it for yourself.