Google Checkout
Some VERY VERY interesting news from Google today. They just announced that today they will be releasing Google Checkout as a new online payment service, very similar to Paypal. However it comes with some huge twists!
To quote the article:
“Google will waive some or all of the transaction fees for companies that buy advertising from it.”
In more detail:
“For every $1 a company spends on search advertising, Google will waive the fees on $10 worth of purchases. Factoring in the 2 percent fee, that represents a rebate of at least 20 percent of advertising spending.”
To help with Google Checkout get higher sales conversions Google will:
“Advertisements on Google.com from companies that accept Google Checkout will display a small image of a shopping cart. Clicking on the ad will take customers to the advertiser’s Web site, as it does now. When customers decide to buy something, they will be offered the option to sign into Google Checkout and use the credit card and address information on file there. Customers that do not have accounts with Google will be encouraged to set them up.”
Considering the amount of money we spend at LandlordMax on advertising with Google Adwords each month, it definitely makes me think of what can and probably will happen. If I ever saw an incentive to use a product or service, this sure is one!
However before we jump on the Google Checkout bandwagon at LandlordMax, we’ll wait a little bit for things to settle down. When Google offered free analytics (which was done by buying a company that charged $500/month for the same package a year earlier), the demand was so great that they had problems with their servers and the metrics were many days late updating in the best of cases.
Anyways, it looks like Google’s jump into another market space is not going to be subtle. It’s going to be very interesting to see how it plays out.
· June 30th, 2006 · 5:02 am · Permalink
“For every $1 a company spends on search advertising, Google will waive the fees on $10 worth of purchases.”
Sounds like a good deal for Google and for advertisers – but (if I understood correctly) this means *poor* deal for ad publishers.
Google Checkout is an excellent strategic move from Google. I bet it will be tremendous success in the coming years.
· June 30th, 2006 · 5:05 am · Permalink
… oh sorry, I might misunderstood it completely 🙂
It says:
“But for merchants, the service comes with a twist: Google will waive some or all of the transaction fees for companies that buy advertising from it. That may give the service a leg up on competitors like PayPal and several smaller companies that help online merchants accept credit cards.”
Now THAT’s good news for everybody!
· June 30th, 2006 · 1:14 pm · Permalink
Exactly! As a merchant, it now comes to my advantage to advertise with Google Adwords because it will reduce my order processing fees if I use Google Checkout!
Or if you look at it a little differently in terms of competition, if I advertise with Google Adwords and use Google Checkout, quoting the article: “Factoring in the 2 percent fee, that represents a rebate of at least 20 percent of advertising spending.” Therefore I can spend an additional 20% per click on advertising, getting a much higher position (assuming the same click through rate) or I can afford a 20% higher monthly spending budget.
So if my competitors use Google Adwords and Google Checkout in combination, I’m pretty much going to have to just to stay competitive. Talk about strong incentives to use this new Google service!