According to an article in the WSJ, “Google Inc. has repeatedly tried, and largely failed, to crack the market for local business advertising.” Despite its many attempts to attract small business owners to its services (i.e. Google+, AdWords, Google Wallet, free Google pages, etc.) Google has not been able to tap into this extremely large and potentially profitable market. In order to further its campaign to attract small business owners to its services, Google has spent about a half a billion dollars since early 2011 purchasing a number of companies that when combined with existing Google products, may cater to the needs of small/local business owners. Additionally, Google has created a dedicated team working specifically on smartphone apps related to local businesses. Perhaps most importantly however, Google has spent millions of dollars on a campaign titled “Get Your Business Online” where multiday workshops are planned to help local businesses establish their own website and business listing on Google’s search engine – free of charge.
Nevertheless, Google continues to struggle to gain any traction in the local business market.
This is problematic for Google; the article cites that digital-ad spending by local businesses last year reached $21.2 billion and is expected to increase by more than 12% annually. It’s obvious then that local marketing has indeed adapted to the digital era. Google however has not been one of the main players in this arena. This is interesting, especially considering the fact that so many small business owners have been using social media sites such as Facebook and even Groupon to promote goods and services.
In my opinion, it seems to make more sense for local business owners to create a free page on Google instead of on Facebook. The advertising on Google allows local business ads to appear in more Google searches (including helpful sites such as Google Maps, etc.) I would argue that a significant portion of the patrons of local/small businesses are, generally speaking, those who do not have Facebook profiles (i.e. my parents) – ironically enough, these are exactly the people who utilize Google to search for local businesses! Why then is Google having such a hard time winning over local businesses? Are Google’s products too complex? Or, are many local/small businesses simply unaware of Google’s capabilities?
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