Archives for posts with tag: comparison

Comparison Sites Killing Google?

February 15, 2009 //
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Ill be honest, the thought had never crossed my mind, after all, the financial comparison sites are some of the biggest spenders with Google and so contribute a large chunk to Google’s Adwords revenues each year.  But it was mentioned in a conversation the other day with Richard Gregory, Latitude’s Chief Operations Officer, and it actually adds up.

Car Insurance is one of Google’s biggest markets with the number 1 PPC position commanding CPC’s in excess of £10 and thousands of searches each month.  So you would think that these comparison sites, who at the time of writing hold 2 of the top 3 PPC positions, would be adding to, not taking away from, Google’s revenue growth targets.  But when you look at the trend for car insurance searches on Google over the past few years you will see a steady decline since mid 2006.

car-insurance-comparison-killing-google

And if you plot that against searches for the brand names of the major insurance comparison sites you can see that the growth in their search volume could be the cause of this.

car-insurance-comparison-sites-adwords

Prior to the emergence of comparison sites, if you wanted a quick an easy list of insurers online, what did you do?  You searched for car insurance on Google.  But with the amount of branding activity these sites do offline and the awareness it has generated, people are fully aware of the places they need ot go to compare car insurance offers and providers.  So they are now going direct to their site of choice, or performing a brand search for that site instead.  Therefore whilst the comparison sites are spending a large amount on Google Adwords, they are taking away a large chunk of its revenues from this market through their very presence.  And you have to say, as people look to save every penny in difficult times, this trend is only going to continue, and car insurance will become a less and less lucrative market for Google and they will have to find a replacement cash cow for the future.

Maybe this trend was a contributing factor to the decision to allow gambling advertiser on Adwords?  And this is their replacement revenue source, that is of course until someone finds an effective way of comparing odds on the leading gambling sites and we are back where we started!

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Categories Google

Kelkoo Acquired by Venture Capitalist Company

November 25, 2008 //
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Kelkoo has today emailed all its advertisers to inform them that they have been acquired by newly formed venture capitalist company Jamplant.  In a slightly surprising move Yahoo! has relinquished the comparison site but will maintain Kelkoo as the comparison engine behind Yahoo shopping, cars, finance and travel.

This is a strange move by Yahoo! who purchased Kelkoo for $576 M just 4 years ago.  With comparison engines a key element of unviersal search and Google placing more and more emphasis on the product search with the introduction of plus box functionality in PPC the sense of this move by Yahoo could be questioned.

Whilst they may maintain they still have access to the functionality and you would hope this is part of the deal.  I do worry what happens in the future if the relationship sours.  In the current economic climate Yahoo will be happy to relinquish the overhead but it may come back to bite them in the future if they go down the same route as Google has.  What do you think?  Shrewd move to cut costs, or mistake they will regret in the future?

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Categories Digital Marketing

Google Pauses Merchant Beta Test

November 13, 2008 //
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Google has announced it is pausing its foray into the world of the financial comparison market to make some necessary amends to the programme.  The Google merchant programme was first spotted by the digital lookout in June of this year and caused a stir in the financial markets by replacing the top 3 sponsored listings with the merchant tool, annoying some of Google’s higher spending clients.

But it has now decided it needs to go back to the drawing board with the programme and has put it on hold while it makes some changes.  These changes are thought to be around the way in which applicant information is provided to advertisers and moving from a situation where Google held the information to one where it is sent directly to the service provider.  It is also believed there will be some slight tweeks to the commission structure and on what basis Google receives remuneration for leads.

So moneysupermarket, go compare and confused dont have anything to worry about for now.  But by the sounds of it Google will be back, and once they get their model worked out and decide to occupy top spot on key results consistently, there probably isnt much which can stop them.

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Categories Google

Google Enters the Comparison Market

June 4, 2008 //
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The finance comparison market has been a very lucrative and successful one over the past 5 years and it seems that Google has finally decided that it wants a piece of the pie! The screenshot below is taken from a Google UK search for secured loan (interestingly it only worked in IE and not in Firefox) and shows the Google Merchant Search function appearing above all PPC listings with drop down functionality allowing the user to select their desired loan amount before they even leave the SERP. Once an option is selected the user is taken to the Google Merchant page with their options shown based on the original selection, much like with all the other comparison sites in the market.

At the moment it appears this is just in Beta on the secured loan keyword but surely if successful this will be rolled out onto all other financial products. I couldn’t see where Google was getting these results from, and so I am not even sure if the providers know they are being compared (although I assume they are aware) and there is not indication of how a company would get its products listed, although this could just be a closed beta for now.

This could have massive implications for the comparison market, above and beyond the fact that there is another competitor in the market. In the first instance they have knocked moneysupermarket off the top PPC listing which will impact their volume, I am assuming they are not paying themselves a premium CPC for this position! They are also allowing themselves much more prominence on the page than a standard listing. 49 characters for a title and drop down functionality make it stand out on the page. Users could also see this as an easier option than clicking through a link and going through the whole process on a separate engine.

On top of this, if the beta is successful, what is to stop them adding in a variable to quality score which penalises other comparison sites? In one fell swoop generating themselves both more revenue from the sites willing to pay more and reducing the prominence of these sites and so driving more volume through their own tool. I may be a cynic but I can see it happening. Moneysupermarket spend a lot of money with Google but if they see a bigger opportunity in doing it themselves then they will surely pursue this avenue instead.

Is this the end of independent comparison sites? No, I doubt it, but if/when the beta is expanded it could be a big dent in their revenues and they will have to think of other ways to differentiate themselves. Some insurers (direct line to name one) are already boycotting the comparison sites and if Google is to offer this service for free, which they may well do in the name of stickiness and keeping people within the Google realm, more could follow suit.

google merchant search

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Categories Google