Shortly after Google made changes to the display of their local results, they made another big move, indicating just how much weight it really does place in local advertising: it made a bid to buy Groupon. Groupon ended up turning down the $6 billion offer, perhaps because they recognize they could be worth several times that amount in the coming years, or because they are already competing with Google for the same dollars.
Google and Groupon are both after local businesses’ marketing budgets, and are successfully taking a lot of that money away from traditional methods such as yellow pages, billboards, and print publications. Google’s plan seems to be replacing any need for yellow pages or billboards, while Groupon has proven to be a worthwhile marketing expense as far as word of mouth is concerned. Countless new customers, most of which might not have even heard of the business before, could take part in the deal meaning that any loss in sales due to the discount could be compensated for in return business.
One thing is clear: online local marketing will be getting even bigger in 2011.
