Google Shuts Down Self Serve Offers Product

Google announced this afternoon that they will be shutting down their Places Dashboard self-serve Offers product. The product was updated with performance based pricing in the fall of last year and given a new interface in 2012 but like the coupon product upon which it was based, has toiled in obscurity. The product and the output was actually quite …

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Is the Google+ Local Dashboard Moving Towards a Freemium Model?

That Google has finally added some semblance of human support to G+ Local raises a number  of questions that are still unanswered: Is it worldwide or US only? Can agencies call in on behalf of their clients? Will it be extended beyond the verification process to other aspects and problems that occur with Google+Local like …

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Google Acquires Incentive Targeting For Coupon Programs

Mike Dudas of Google just tweeted that Google has acquired Incentive Targeting to power highly targeted manufacturer and private label coupon programs. He noted that “Incentive Targeting..[does] for retail couponing what Google [does] for online advertising: make simple, relevant, measurable, & effective” It would appear that the acquisition is for both talent and IP. And …

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Google Places Rolls Out New Offers Program and Interface

Google Places is now rolling out a new Offers creation program in the Places Dashboard to accompany the new Google Maps for Android. The product is significantly more robust than the current product and offers a range of creation options. There is an overview and FAQ available the Offers introduction page. It is now live …

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Google Places Check-in Offers Now Live

The ability to provide a Google check-in offer is now live. The feature has been added to the Offer coupon creation option in the Google Places dashboard and a detailed help file has been added to Places for Business Help area. Google describes the process as follows: Allowing customers to check-in when they redeem offers …

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Google Confirms Coming Check-in Offers for Plus

Last week I reported out a discovered Google Places Help page (since taken down but visible here) that discussed using the Places Coupons as a Check-in Coupon for Google Plus. This afternoon the folks at VentureBeat received a confirmation from Google that check-in offers from Places will be coming to Google+ next week: “While prepping …

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Google Plus to Gain Check-In Offers Via Places Offers?

While perusing the Google Places Offer Help files I found a page discussing Check-in Offers via Google+. It notes: If your customers have to visit your locations in order to do business with you, you can request that they check-in on Google+ in order to redeem your offers. They can choose to share the check-in publicly …

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Google Places: Non-compliant Offers Being Rejected

Google has started rejecting Offers from Google Places for quality and policy violations. Business owners that have had Offers rejected will receive an email with a clear indication of which guideline was not satisfied. Offers that do not provide actual % discounts or dollar value off will be suspended. Google has upgraded their Google Help …

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