What will a recession mean for Google?
Sarah Ronald, director of Edinburgh based behavioural research consultancy, Bunnyfoot, shares her thoughts on what the impending recession will spell for companies and their need for search engine behemoth, Google.
In a recession ALL consumers become more value driven, they will look harder and longer for value examining elements that are often ignored in a buyout market.
Companies with the ability to plan and operate strategically will manoeuvre to identify and secure valuable assets in an increasingly competitive market.
I think one of the areas Marketeers will be examining very closely is their online marketing spend. Inevitably this will include one or more Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns. On closer examination many of them will begin to question if they are getting the same value for money that PPC used to provide. Many will find that competition in the market for clicks has driven the price up to a point where ROI has fallen.
At Bunnyfoot we already see this happening in the holiday industry; After an initial project produced a 90% increase in conversion from browsers to buyers Virgin Holidays has secured a 2 year exclusive deal with Bunnyfoot to ensure competitive advantage in the Holiday market.
Google can generate an infinite amount of PPC advertisements to soak up a marketing executive’s budget, but there are only a handful of good usability companies in the UK and the competition to retain the best has already begun.
Conclusion: Recessions ARE good, they expose the areas of a market that are not supplying significant value and kill them off. I predict that Google’s advertising revenue’s will be one of those areas that is exposed.