{"id":10261,"date":"2011-06-19T22:24:43","date_gmt":"2011-06-20T02:24:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/?p=10261"},"modified":"2011-06-20T09:18:57","modified_gmt":"2011-06-20T13:18:57","slug":"google-adding-coupons-offers-to-adwords","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/2011\/06\/19\/google-adding-coupons-offers-to-adwords\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Testing Coupons in Adwords"},"content":{"rendered":"

@Webmanagementus<\/a> of Web Management<\/a> pointed out this Tracfone Adwords ad<\/a> that includes a Coupon attached to the ad. I had not seen this previously although Greg Sterling had reported<\/a> on seeing them in the wild on SEL last week. It clearly indicates Google’s desire to expand the roll of coupons as a revenue generator. It is an obvious fit for local for both Boost and Adwords with location extensions although this current test is obviously neither:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Coupons have had a long a tortuous life at Google. They were introduced<\/a> in late 2006 and but left to languish<\/a> for a number of years before seeing some<\/a> activity<\/a> in late 2009 and through 2010 with<\/a> the Tags Beta. 2010 culminated with the failed effort to purchase Groupon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

2011 on the other hand has seen lots of other activity on the coupon front for Google.\u00a0Besides the new Adwords coupon test first seen<\/a> last week, rumors of Google Offers, their Groupon competitor, first surfaced<\/a> in January, with a full blown Offers beta rolling out<\/a> June 1 in Portland. Google also first rolled out<\/a> Latitude Check-In Offers at SXSW in March with a\u00a0limited national test<\/a> in April. They cancelled<\/a> the Tags product in April as well. Roll out early, iterate often and shit can anything that doesn’t generate enough profit seems to be the coupon approach.<\/p>\n

Here is a chart of Google’s current free, paid and cancelled products…<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Type<\/strong><\/td>\nCoupon<\/strong><\/td>\nFirst Seen In Wild<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Places – Free<\/td>\nPlaces Offers<\/td>\n07\/2006<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
7-Pack Tags Coupon<\/td>\nTags Test Cancelled<\/td>\n2\/2010 –\u00a04\/2011<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Latitude -Location Based<\/td>\nCheck In Offers – Test<\/td>\n3\/2011<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Adwords -Ad Based<\/td>\nPay Per Coupon – Test<\/td>\n6\/13\/2011<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Daily Deal<\/td>\nDeal Offers – Portland Beta<\/td>\n6\/1\/2011<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Much like the trend on Places for links on Google to head off to other Google properties, this new product takes you to a Google page.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

When the\u00a0View Offer button <\/a>is selected in the newest Adwords coupon test, it takes you to\u00a0Google.com\/Coupons<\/a> that either prints or saves the coupon for later use to your\u00a0My Offers area<\/a>, the same UI used to save Google daily deal Offers and (I assume ) for Latitude Check-Ins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

@Webmanagementus of Web Management pointed out this Tracfone Adwords ad that includes a Coupon attached to the ad. I had not seen this previously although Greg Sterling had reported on seeing them in the wild on SEL last week. It clearly indicates Google’s desire to expand the roll of coupons as a revenue generator. It …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-google-coupons","category-google-maps-google-local"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t