Google is a digital marketing powerhouse and digital marketers are subject to its needs, desires, whims and never ending appetite to make money. Understanding Google and what it wants helps you be a stronger marketer by using those valuable insights to get results. A clear understanding of Google will help you improve SEO results and be successful with Google Ads.
Let’s take a look at some of the motivations driving Google and tips to help you benefit.
The Google Monopoly
Google has a monopoly for search engine ads. There are no significant competitive options for displaying ads in search. This lack of options hurts advertisers because Google can charge whatever it wants. In fact, they can tweak their Google Ads algorithm as needed to meet their revenue targets. Google is being challenged by the feds, but our government does not know how to manage this monopoly and does not have the ability of working together to break up Google Ads into several competing companies.
As of this writing, Google’s monopoly has grown and ads are more expensive than ever. Their customer service is at an all-time low, think call centers in India, and it could be years before anything changes at Google.
Monopolies don’t have to compete, so marketers don’t have options to go elsewhere and no search engine is coming any time soon to compete with Google. People should have options and a free market helps buyers motivate companies to make decisions in their customer’s best interests. This drives quality of results and value for consumers, which is not happening currently at Google.
What Does Google Want? A Constant Drive for Increased Profits
Google’s leadership wants to make money. In fact, they want to make more money every year and find ways to increase profits. The CEO of Google makes over $200 million a year!
Much of Google’s bad behavior comes from a constant desire to increase profits at a time when ad revenue may be dropping and as online researchers look to other digital channels for their buying research.
What’s sad about this is Google is not adding additional value, but still taking their profits. Here is what one Google advertiser, Uri Thatcher the CEO of TouchUpDirect reported:
“Over the years Google has continually raised our cost of advertising. We have the same impression share as well as basically the same competitors we always have. We know and understand our competitors and we know and understand our own business. The competitive landscape is a healthy one.
The issue is that the competitive landscape is NOT what is driving our advertising costs. For instance, in Q1 2024 our ad costs with Google alone have risen 48%. Our paid ad revenue has risen 30%. Our impression share has remained flat. Our organic revenue has declined by 7%.
As I mentioned above, our competitors are the same as they have always been. This begs the question, of why are our ad costs increasing so dramatically? Ostensibly, all the cost is driven by competition in the bid cost for each relevant term or keyword. Except that we have the same competition as we always have…soooooo, how can that be? How can it be that when one of our competitors falls out of the bid auction, our costs do not decline? These are questions that Google never answers or lends any transparency to.”
The squeeze on advertisers is happening to thousands of small businesses and Google needs to know people are taking notice.
Maybe Google needs extra cash to pay for their legal fees?
When a company pushes profits at all costs, the specialists who know how to actually run the business and understand customers best tend to be pushed out of key decision making roles. Google is not aligned with customer needs and is looking to maximize corporate returns and make money at all costs.
Zero Click Search
It gets worse. Google does not want people to click on organic search links, why would they? They want people to stay on Google until they are motivated to click on an ad. It’s hard to believe, but Google does not want you to leave Google. They want you to stay on the search results page until an ad gets your attention. This is called “zero-click” marketing. It requires you to craft an SEO strategy for the actual search results page of Google to best market your company. This is positive for your company because your brand can be seen by thousands or even millions of Google searches even if people don’t click to visit your website.
This means titles tags and meta descriptions are more important than ever, along with local search for Google My Business and Google Maps. Make sure your Google My Business listing is accurate and updated. Check your Google Maps listing and write title tags and meta descriptions for each web page that attracts people to your brand. Use AI tools like ChatGPT to help draft meta descriptions and write effective title tags.
Google’s Greatest Fear
Google is scared to death. They are scared people will one day stop using Google. No one has a contract to use Google and people don’t pay for many of their services. If people don’t use Google, they don’t click on ads.
The amount of money Google can make from giving away free services, like Gmail and Google Docs, and then using our personal data is limited. Google makes money when people click on ads.
Google’s homepage is very easy to use and has not changed in over 20 years. Google also works hard to remove spam websites and make sure their search results are relevant to the user’s intent. Google’s AI is a big part of driving quality search results. They do these things to keep users going back to Google. Make sure to keep your website fresh with regular content updates that your users want to read and never, ever spam Google!
Focus on quality website content your users what to read and that positions you as a thought leader. Have a well structured and designed website using AI content for first drafts, outlines and content ideas, and do not post 100% AI generated content on your website.
Running Google Ads
If you must run Google Ads, focus on quality and measuring your direct return from the ads in the form of leads or sales. Act like Google and invest wisely in Google Ads and if possible, start in local areas where your customers can be found on Google.
Don’t go it alone with Google. Work with experts on your Google Ads campaigns or get ready to be taken to the cleaners by Google.
And, of course, in many cases a monopoly like Google will not provide refunds for mistakes in your ad campaigns.
Use AI Tools to Deal with Google
AI is a huge threat to the cash cow that is Google Ads as people use AI to research products and services. Why will people need the Google search engine when they can use a personal AI assistant to find what they want?
Ironically for Google, AI is the key to dealing with Google and driving results for your website and your brand.
Here are action items you can start doing today to leverage AI and market effectively on Google.
- Use AI to create marketing personas for your product and services and write content they want to read.
- Get targeted benefits for these personas from ChatGPT and build your SEO strategy around those key benefits.
- Get access to the Google Search Console and Google Analytics 4 and learn how they work.
- Know your sales funnel and what drives conversions in the funnel.
- Develop web pages that move people to action.
- Follow the principles of E.E.A.T. (Google it) and be a content thought leader.
Summary
Stay informed about what is happening at Google. Knowing what motivates and drives the world’s most popular search engine will improve your digital marketing skills and AI is a part of this. AI is causing disruptions and how people research will change over time. The best marketers are thinking about their future customers and how they will be researching products and services online in the years to come.
We will see how Google’s role changes and if it can avoid the fate of AOL, Lycos, Yahoo and others who ignored the needs of their target market and lost out to Google. What goes around comes around!
Reach out to a specialist at Intuitive Websites for a free consultation on Google Ads and growing your company’s sales with digital marketing.
