Michael Cody of ReviewTree pinged me asking if I knew why Groupon ads were showing up on on the GMB Knowledge Panel of his client, a Kennebunk dog groomer:
I did not know but when I checked the Knowledge Panels of some Bay Area businesses that are running Groupons, they all had Groupon Ads:
This seems like a logical deal for both parties – Groupon gets more exposure for its deals and it likely cuts Google a rev share – or perhaps Groupon is even paying per click. But what about the local business?
According to Michael, his client was not aware that the Groupon ad would be appearing like this. I haven’t seen their GMB dashboard so I have no idea whether or not they were notified by Google or Groupon about this, or if the business has any control over this display, which as you can see appears above the contact info for the business.
My first reaction was that this feels like Google and Groupon are standing in the middle of the business’ store and charging them to get access to business’ customers who are walking in the front door.
An optimist might say that the Groupon ad could help pull the customer in, but these Knowledge Panels typically appear for brand queries, so there’s a good chance the business will be buying a lot of customers it already has. I suppose in some industries, this is a strategy that pays off – for example, the place that changes my oil sends coupons all the time. But it still feels like G & G are taking advantage of these businesses.
So go ahead and optimize the crap out of your GMB page. You just might start to get more traffic to your Groupon page.
Groupon Ads Now Appearing In Google My Business Knowledge Panels was originally posted by Internet Marketing
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