Under the arrangement, sales representatives from Verizon will be able to offer potential advertisers not only print ads, but AdWords campaigns too.
If you’re reading Murdok, you probably know search advertising a little bit. But if you’re new to the site, first, welcome; second, would you buy a Google ad from your Verizon sales rep?; and third, comment about that at WebProWorld.
Google’s latest push into local search embraces a very old-school concept – the salesperson. With Verizon signing on with Google as an AdWords Reseller, Google gets a valuable ally in reaching small businesses it may not reach otherwise.
Call it the Wal-Marting of AdWords. If Google can extend its healthy search advertising business to scores of small businesses with tightly focused campaigns, the volume could cushion drops in large-advertiser revenue.
A Verizon executive illustrated how the new program will work for its advertisers:
“We may have a local advertiser today that has said, ‘I want to spend $200 a month with you with your PPC program,'” explained Eric Chandler, president of the Internet division of Verizon Information Services. “When we look at our inventory, we can only spend $100 a month. This deal will allow us to take that excess budget that we have and plug that advertiser into the Google environment.”
“We know our environment drives the best inventory,” said Chandler. “We’re able to maximize the distribution in our environment. Our interests are aligned with our advertisers.”
CNet reported the deal, which was announced at The Kelsey Group Drilling Down on Local conference. Kelsey Group’s Greg Sterling noted in the article how important the deal is for Google:
Deals like this “are critical to move the local search market forward because these businesses would not go on their own to Google or Yahoo,” said Greg Sterling, managing editor at The Kelsey Group.
“There is a lot of inertia in the small-business market, which relies on sales representatives to call them or visit,” Sterling said.
The report also noted how the Verizon-Google hookup extends to AOL and Ask.com. Both sites display Google’s search advertising.
Google has made other moves that appear to focus on the small-business market. Recently they introduced AdWords Starter, a simplified one-page process for signing up for a Google AdWords campaign.
The deal also helps Google keep pace with Yahoo, which signed a deal with Verizon rival YellowPages.com in January to place its listings on Yahoo’s local search.
Online advertising, particularly in the local search arena, stands to increase greatly in its competitiveness. Yahoo’s Overture unit has been battling Google for some time. MSN ditches Overture in favor of its adCenter service that debuts this summer. Even Amazon.com has been quietly testing an ad publishing service as well, though its intentions toward local advertising are not known.
Why so much eagerness to play in the online advertising game? Money, money, money. Local search may hit close to a billion dollars in 2006. By 2010, that figure could be worth four billion dollars.
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David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
