Google is now rolling out Offer Extensions, their latest ad extension that lets AdWords advertisers post deal offers underneath a normal Google Search ad. If your AdWords account has been upgraded to Enhanced Campaigns, then you’ll see the new Offer Extension in your account right now, in the “extensions” tab. If not, you’ll have to wait until your account gets upgraded, which is supposed to happen by the end of the month. Previously, they were only available to a select few number of beta customers. Here’s what an Offer Extension looks like: Users who click on the View Off [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | Google: Offers | Top News

When Larry Page took over the CEO role at Google last year the company was doing well. Now it's doing better and so Investor's Business Daily has named him "CEO of the Year." The publication summed up its rationale as follows: [Page] reorganized the company's management structure, redesigned the face of the company's products and pushed forward with a multibillion dollar deal to acquire a cellphone manufacturing outfit. He also launched two other products aiming at Groupon, the leader of online coupons, and Facebook, the top social networking site. Google (GOOG) in the past two quarters [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Acquisitions | Google: Antitrust | Google: Business Issues | Google: Employees | Google: Legal | Google: Maps & Local | Google: Marketing | Google: Mobile | Google: Offers | Top News

Thinking about being found the old-fashioned yet high-tech way, a coupon through a daily deals service? Stats say these may bring in new business but not necessarily repeat customers. Consumers do like them, nearly half online use the sites and of those, 60% get emailed offers from two or more per day. The people at BuySellAds have assembled these and other stats from a variety of resources into the infographic below: Want this infographic for yourself? You'll find it here: The Daily Deal Divide. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Google: Offers | Groupon | Infographics | Search Engines: Deals & Coupon Search Engines

This morning Google is announcing that its Offers product is coming to five more US cities: Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and Brooklyn (NY). That brings to 24 the number of live Offers locations (although New York City is divided into three distinct areas). Google recently incorporated a broad range of other inventory sources and deal partners into its own distribution, including Dealfind, DoodleDeals, Gilt City, GolfNow, HomeRun, Juice in the City, kgbdeals, Mamapedia, Plum District, PopSugar Shop, ReachDeals, Active.com Schwaggle, TIPPR and zozi. Google also recently intro [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Maps & Local | Google: Mobile | Google: Offers

Google Offers has recently begun offering personalization options that include selecting Offers that are based on interests and/or geography. It gives consumers the chance to avoid getting offers that don't interest them, and offers advertisers a better chance at sending their offers only to people who are more likely to redeem the deal/coupon. On signing up for Google Offers, a new subscriber is immediately put into a three-step process to complete the personalization process. It begins with telling Google your interests. There are 24 total options (sporting events, arts & cultu [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Google: Offers | Top News

Bing has put considerable effort in the past several months into building out its deals content. First Bing introduced third party deals via its mobile website. It then created a retail-centric deals portal within Bing Shopping. More recently Microsoft added self-service group buying deals to the Bing Business Portal. And now there's a new product in Microsoft's deals mix: Bing Deals. (It was first noticed by TechCrunch.) It's a more "traditional," email-based daily deal offering vs. the company's earlier deal products and efforts (which are still ongoing). The new daily deals email capabil [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Offers | Groupon | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Microsoft: Bing Mobile | Top News

As you may have seen last week, Groupon COO Margo Georgiadis, who replaced former COO Rob Solomon only a few short months ago, is leaving to rejoin her former employer Google in a new, more senior role. She will become Google’s president for the Americas. In leaving Groupon Georgiadis gave up a $500,000 annual salary and stock options worth more than $25 million, according to BusinessWeek. Either she got a great deal at Google or things are not going well at Groupon, which has restated revenues in its IPO-filing documents now twice. There may have been other issues that we're not aware [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Google: Offers

As promised, Google Offers is continuing to expand. Google has just announced its launch in five new cities: Seattle, Denver, Austin, Washington, DC and Boston. They join six other locations in four cities where Offers is already available: Portland, San Francisco, Oakland and three sections of New York City. But, wait! There's more: As the Google Offers website shows, no less than 27 more cities are in the pipeline. As Greg Sterling wrote a few days ago, Google's expansion of Offers comes at a time when others in the space are cutting back their efforts -- namely, Facebook and Y [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Google: Offers

Facebook and Yelp have both recently expressed doubts about the daily deals phenomenon, with Yelp explicitly raising questions about the sustainability of the large margins that companies such as Groupon and LivingSocial have generally enjoyed. Both sites will continue to offer deals of various kinds, but have scaled back their efforts. But what about late-entrant Google? Does Facebook's decision not to continue distributing daily deals, after only four months, foreshadow a similar decision from Google in the future? After all, it takes a considerable local sales effort to generate the nece [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Maps & Local | Google: Mobile | Google: Offers | Top News

Following a relatively successful launch in Portland last month Google is now rolling out Google Offers in two more markets: San Francisco and New York. Google has also updated its Shopper Android app to include deals. The app is generally focused on products but now contains tabs that allow users to access the featured daily deal "Today's Offer" or "Nearby Offers," which are essentially coupons that offering incentives to visit a nearby business (e.g., "50% off a starter"). However they don't require an up-front purchase. Daily deals and coupons are distinct but both involve saving [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Mobile | Google: Offers | Google: Wallet | Top News

I innocently searched on "webhosting" this afternoon and saw this result, with an ad unit I'd never seen before: a coupon embedded in the ad copy. I knew that Google was testing "Offer Ads," not to be confused with Google Offers, but I'd never seen one myself. If you click "view offer" you get the following screen, which was being shown during the Google Wallet launch demo. If you save the offer, you're whisked away to the "My Offers" dashboard, which is a repository for several deal types that Google appears to have up its sleeve. Click "save to my offers" and here's what shows [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | Google: Maps & Local | Google: Mobile | Google: Offers

[As promised below in our post from late Tuesday night, the first Google Offer just arrived minutes ago in my Gmail inbox. Here's a screenshot, followed by the remainder of Tuesday night's post about it.] Sometime in the next several hours, presumably thousands of Google users in the Portland, Ore., area will get an email from Google offering them $10 worth of products from a local coffee shop for the low price of only $3. And with that, Google Offers will take its first baby step into a very competitive deals/coupon space that includes daily offerings from the likes of Groupon, Livi [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Google: Offers | Top News

Although Google Offers hasn't formally launched yet, the service is already facing its first lawsuit. Walker Digital, a private R&D lab that created and launched Priceline.com in the late 1990s, is suing Google for allegedly violating four of the company's patents. The lawsuit, which asks the court for a jury trial, seeks unspecified damages and a permanent injunction. Google Offers began taking sign-ups yesterday in three U.S. locales and technically hasn't even launched yet. The Walker Digital lawsuit was filed in a US District Court last night. Earlier this month, the company file [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Google: Legal | Google: Offers | Legal: Patents | Top News

Google Offers, the company's not-so-secret coupon program, is taking signups in three areas: New York City, San Francisco/Oakland and Portland, Oregon. Users can subscribe to get discounts via email in any or all of those available cities. After signing up, Google's confirmation promises "regular emails" -- which sounds like not necessarily "daily" -- with discounts of "50% off or more." My guess is that the frequency of emails will depend on how many local businesses join the program. But for now, it sounds like Google Offers is only accepting signups, and the discounts aren't quite r [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Google: Maps & Local | Google: Offers | Top News

Google has confirmed that it is preparing a service called "Google Offers," designed to compete with the popular social buying site Groupon. Google has told Search Engine Land: Google is communicating with small businesses to enlist their support and  participation in a test of a pre-paid offers/vouchers program. This  initiative is part of an ongoing effort at Google to make new products, such as the recent Offer Ads beta, that connect businesses with  customers in new ways. We do not have more details to share at this time, but will keep you posted. Mashable broke the news [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Maps & Local | Google: Mobile | Google: Offers | Groupon | Top News