Google Searches for Success in Local Ads
As Geo-targeting Drives Hypergrowth at Facebook, Groupon, Search Giant Supplements Science With Salespeople — After years of fits and starts, Google's latest push into local online advertising suddenly looks serious — and even professed internet novices like Barbara Oliver are noticing.
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the third act of a long arc: Google tested local ads on Maps back in 2006, spent late 2010 courting small advertisers directly — including a December push to woo local advertisers — and reportedly weighed buying its way into local deals via a bid for Groupon. What changed by March 2011 is method: the company that built self-serve ad automation is hiring humans.
The urgency is competitive, not cosmetic. Geo-targeting is driving what AdAge calls hypergrowth at both Facebook and Groupon, meaning the highest-intent local dollars are migrating to platforms with feet on the street — forcing Google to supplement its algorithms with salespeople.
First-order effects
- Small businesses like the Barbara Olivers AdAge profiles become callable accounts: Google's sales force now reaches advertisers who would never navigate AdWords on their own.
- Facebook and Groupon lose their near-monopoly on hand-sold local ad relationships, as the largest search platform enters the same channel.
Second-order effects
- Local incumbents selling to the same merchants — Yellow Pages-style directories, newspapers, daily-deal reps — now compete against Google's cost structure and data on advertiser ROI.
- If Google bundles local inventory with its existing search campaigns, pricing pressure flows down to standalone local ad sellers who cannot match the cross-product pitch.
Third-order effects
- A working science-plus-salespeople template would validate a hybrid go-to-market for local advertising industry-wide, accelerating the shift of small-business budgets from print and directory sellers to platforms that combine automation with human account management.
The trend: Local online advertising is consolidating around platforms that pair automated targeting with direct sales forces, as geo-targeted players Facebook and Groupon pull small-business budgets away from legacy channels.