Today Google has confirmed that ValPak has certain coupon size and layout benefits that are not available to all businesses when they upload their coupons to the Local Business Center.

There are currently three levels of coupons creation that we know about:

1-Local Business Center where a business can create coupons one at a time. This is offers the fewest graphic and content options.

2-The Coupon Feed which allows for more graphics and content.

3-The ValPak Feed which allows for bigger & more graphics and multiple coupons.

When I inquired about the differences Map Guides Jen responded:

== 1 of 1 ==
Date: Tues, Nov 20 2007 9:19 am
From: “Maps Guide Jen”

Hello,

Sure, here’s what insight I can provide. If you upload coupons using a feed (see this page ), you can include enhanced content like images, barcodes, and logos. As you can see, the appearance of Valpak-provided coupons is slightly unique. This helps Valpak merchants recognize their coupons.

Thanks,
Jen

In August of 2006, when Google announced their Coupon feature in Maps they also announced their relationship with ValPak. Obviously, Google benefits from ValPak by being able to quickly populate their coupon inventory. In some markets, ValPak provides as many as 75% of all coupons.(see my previous article on Coupon penetration)

The differences are more than a slightly unique:

• The coupon provider logo should be 100 x21 pixels, Valpak’s logo is 120 pixels by 34
• The image filed is indicated may be up to 120 pixels high and 120 pixels wide and there is no provision for business logo. The Valpak coupons provide a business logo that is 155 x 103
• There appears to no allowance in the upload feed for multiple coupons like ValPak is able to do
• There appears to be no provision for the inclusion of your business logo in list view
As long as coupons have played such a minor role in the real world of Google search, this type of difference in allowing more technical clients (read larger & with more money) access to additional features and allowing one client (ValPak) the most features is a non-issue. However, as soon as Google moves coupons to the surface of the main results page, this discrepancy will become problematic.