I have a store that is on the first page for all but one of its top selling products. But, I have been watching the changes in free placement on those pages and I am beginning to get concerned. Of course we've all seen Ads go from just showing in the right hand column to taking the three top spots on Google as well and both top and bottom spots on Yahoo. Now, I have one page where the free placements are almost completely dominated by Comparison Shopping sites. For that product, 90% of the 1st page is PPC driven. There's one free placement site on the page. Are others seeing this in some of the more mass product search pages (ours is sheets)? We have unique bedding, but if we end up not being able to get our message across because we are being flat marketed as a commodity (price is the only factor with strong visibility) our business will die. Anyone else watching this and considering the implications to their marketing strategies.
I dont think this trend is anything surprising. In traditional business models, smaller businesses were elbowed out by bigger companies with deeper pockets and larger marketing budgets. The only smaller compaines that can succeed or even survive, are the ones that have a niche that the bigger companies cant duplicate. Whether it be some extension of customer service, the business' ties to their community etc. You must take a similar approach with the internet. If you are being eged out by bigger companies, you must find a way to differentiate your comapny and provide something that they cant. Or, if you are losing you business to comparison shopping sites, perhaps its time for the old adage - if you cant beat 'em...join 'em. It might help me give you a better answer if you give me more specifics about what you are tlaking about...
I think the FCC limits how much space on a page can be devoted to ads. I also think if google/yahoo/MSN puts too many ads up, people will leave. I bet the high # of ads is why yahoo and MSN get less searches - its too cluttered. Google is getting there.
I'm almost sure that the FCC (or another agency) has a say in how much space can be devoted to ads on a search engine. I'll look for that again, but I remember hearing that more than a few times.