The Google Road-Block

By Matt Harty

There is no doubt that Google has revolutionized marketing for millions of small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) around the world. Many of them businesses that would not exist otherwise. These companies have been able to grow through an easy and action-related access to consumers searching for goods and services.

There is a downside to the dominance Google has taken in the search market. Google has formed an effective road-block for marketers. This is not because of a sinister plot by Google but rather some simple forces beyond Google’s control.

The first factor is that Google has become a default destination for many people to make inquires about goods and services on the internet. Marketers know this and they also know that the bulk of the results from search marketing for their company will also likely come from Google.

The next factor is time. Many of these marketers are only marketing part-time and the bulk of their time is otherwise spent on other crucial parts of the business. In fact, many of these marketers aren’t marketers at all but budding CEOs and Directors.

With all of the time they have spent setting up their Google Adwords account and the time they spend on it checking the spends and results pretty much rules out starting accounts and campaigns with the other search engines let alone using the other great options out there like Affiliate networks and Ad-exchanges.

For the marketers with limited time on their hands Google is the only thing that they have time for.

The result of this dominance by Google is a stifling of online marketing. The nature of the road-block is that Google becomes the only place marketers can turn to to get their results. Only marketers with a lot of time on their hands can enjoy the better rates on less contested keywords on some of the other search engines. Only people with time and online advertising savvy can take advantage of the Pay Per Action nature of the Affiliate networks. Leaving most SME marketer stuck with Google alone.

There has to be a better way forward. There has to be some kind of change so that SME marketers can get the time saving tools they need to market like the big boys and expand their marketing campaigns beyond Google Adwords.