Last week Google released
its Q2 earning report. The search giant made a handsome $14.11B, pushing its earning by 19%.
Yet the results also revealed a continuing softening in the cost-per-click
metrics that is at the core of its revenue (more about the report here).
AdWords is a wonderful uber tool that is of enormous help to
businesses in acquiring, targeting and converting prospects. Its success
comes from the fact that the ads appear when the searcher's intent is very high. The platform gives
controls, dials and knobs if you will, that a marketers needs to tweak and develop a
predictive marketing model.
It is also very generic!
The tool itself is agnostic to the industry/vertical/domain. It does not care whether the person wielding the knife is targeting
businesses, or wish to reach directly to consumers. That flexibility in targeting are left to the advertisers.
While this model has worked well, it also throws up
challenges for small businesses including mom-and-pop shops. The flat
auction based model does require significant budgets and a healthy dose of
perseverance to attain attractive ROI.
A custom AdWords model for SMB?
How about an auction platform specifically tailored for
small businesses/around-the-block diners/massasuse/spa services, who would love to get more business
when they need it, and in the manner they want it?
Let me explain this a bit more. An owner of a small restaurant
should be able to participate in the bidding process, to get patrons at the time
when the business is likely to be slow, and should be able to control the volume!
You would argue that Groupon was banking exactly on
this need when they launched their “daily coupon deals” using social networking effect. However, as noted, they went astray and focused on getting users that demanded almost bank-breaking discounts from
the business owners. The incremental traffic was usually a short lived spike,
which never converted into stream of loyal returning visitors.
A business should be able to select time-windows when they
know that business will be slack, the additional numbers they are looking they
are looking, the deal they are offering and the value they put on the
table.
Such an offer will essentially be time sensitive and would capture the
essence of “now”.
It is not very hard to see that this can tie in very nicely
with voice based search agents (aka Siri). Imagine you are driving through a
new locality and ask your voice assistance to search for the top 3 restaurants in
the area offering Chateaubriand at a great price. Siri can respond back with the names of the
joints, number of seats still available and their deals, and can book a seat at the place that also throws in your favorite dessert!
Firmly in control!
Such a platform will put the small business owner firmly in
control of the marketing budget, the
deals they can afford (with the ability to tie the deal with time-of-the-day,
day-of-the-week…..you get the picture!) and restrict the numbers they want.
Additionally, they will not be competing against other out of town bidders who are not part
of the locality.
And since search volumes are rising on smartphones, promise of
a robust ROI will bring in healthy competition and move the needle on the CPC
metric.
Fantasy? Not really! All the bits and pieces, that that need to go into, already exist. Everything that was described above is well within
the realm of possibility.
Just last week, Quartz reported
an article, euphemistically titled, High Frequency Dining. Now hungry
hackers in San Fran are writing bots to
grab the favorite seats in restaurants! I am not
suggesting that eating joints should follow the much deride practice by some
airlines to price the middle seat differently. But the news points out that it
is very well possible to count and bid for seats algorithmically.
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