A noticeable trend in ecommerce over the past year or two is sites adding a "Why not use our app?" popup modal or banner when you hit the site or you add something to a cart. This is directly related to search ad costs. Companies are trying to reduce their reliance on search engines to drive traffic because customer acquisition costs are crazy high while the average customer spend is falling. At some point it stops being worth capturing the customer with a search ad.
This is especially true for brand adverts where the customer would have reached the site organically but you have to outbid a rival because they're trying to bid on your brand keywords. It's a "Google tax" for having a popular brand name. It really sucks.
This is especially true for brand adverts where the customer would have reached the site organically but you have to outbid a rival because they're trying to bid on your brand keywords. It's a "Google tax" for having a popular brand name. It really sucks.
When my business was new in 2003, and Google Ads too, we had a competitor bid on our name as a search term. We were outraged and found that Google had a page on, I think abusive search terms or something? But to action anything you had to write a letter to Mountain View. So we did that, citing deceptive practices or some pseudo-legal rubbish. And they actioned it! For years afterwards we saw no ads on our little UK company's name.
I wonder if they actioned it globally or just to UK IP addresses? The UK has the ASA, so adverts aren't totally unregulated here and it's not a fraud free-for-all.
This is especially true for brand adverts where the customer would have reached the site organically but you have to outbid a rival because they're trying to bid on your brand keywords. It's a "Google tax" for having a popular brand name. It really sucks.