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Understanding Google My Business & Local Search

Google Coupons see Large Decline in Major Markets Amongst SMB’s

There is the old marketing rule of thumb (written of course by marketers) that the time to grab market share is in a down market. The other marketing rule of the thumb is that coupon use goes up in down markets. According to a recent NY Times article In Lean Times, Online Coupons Are Catching On.

Neither adage could be proven by Google Coupon’s lack luster performance compared to last year. Compared to last March, Google Coupons use is down by 31%. Given that the ValPak numbers are roughly the same , one can surmise that self provisioning of coupons by SMB’s in the Local Business Center is the reason for the decline. Given Coupons low visibility and lack of value this is a rational response. Google Coupons is the greatest Google Local idea that has never received the exposure or positioning that they so desperately need. 

Coupon
Search
Total Coupons for search “City”
Nov. ’07
Total for “City
+ Valpak” Nov. ’07
Total Coupons for search “City”
Mar. ’08
Total for “City
+ Valpak” Mar. ’08
Total Coupons for search “City”
Jan. ’09
Total for “City
+ Valpak” Jan. ’09
New York City 536 410 631 268 527 332
San Francisco 580 200 605 162 463 149
Chicago. 519 165 694 139 325 81
Olean, NY 12 1 8 0 14 0
Totals 1647 776 1938 569 1329 562

On a related and somewhat ironic note Greg Sterling at Local Mobile noted that  Top Google Android Engineer Goes to Coupons Inc., where Coupons.com is hiring 40 new employees before the end of February.