I have read, heard and seen a great deal regarding Google getting too deep into our information. Often, the article or discussion is focused on a single issue at a time. Today, it happens to be the FTC review of the Google / Double Click acquisition for privacy. But, if you take a look at the tendrils of the Google Machine, and see all the places it touches and wants to touch, even the most open minded would shudder at the potential (and it is just that, potential) abuse.
From ads, to website, to web surfers, Google has its hands in all of it. Consider:
1) Personalized search. By definition, personalized search requires the tracking and recording of individual actions. They know what sites you’re on (if you let them, and many do), what you do on those sites, time spent, when you’re there. They know what you search for, what interests you have and the connections based on search patterns. All the while, the complex algorithms are building a profile of you based on all this information.
2) Analytics. I am often surprised how so many web publishers do not ask, “Why is Google providing such robust analytics for free?” They are collecting a lot of data. What kind of sites are people on and what they are doing there even if the individuals do not give explicit permission; the site did. Google can see what people who searched on a keyword did on a given site, what other sites they came from, and even to what site they go. Pull this data together, and you can have yet another basis for profiling. Combine it with #1, and…wow, you can really build user profiles.Not to mention, Google gets to build extensive business profiles. They can see conversion rates buy product category, referring site, keyword, based on page content, site flow and, oh, user profile.
3) CPA ad model. This is a good model. You don’t pay Google until the user buys from you or take some other defined action. But, that is not all. To participate, you must put Google code on your pages. Google sees who converted form each keyword. But, because Google can view your site as well as all other sites, they can see what leads to conversions in a given industry. And, again, combine it with user profile.
4) Double Click…estimate 80% of ad delivery, users tracked. Take a look at the DART suite of tools. A lot of information is being captured.
5) Google Mobile. Where are you? What are you looking up? With GPS enable phones, you are tagged when you do a search, or access information.
6) Google Check out. On top of all that, they know how much you spend and on what.
7) Gmail – Google scans the content in order to determine what ad to deliver.
8) Google Docs. When do you start working; when do you stop; what type of documents do you use. From where do you access your documents. What is in your documents (yes, the get to look).
9) Google Maps: What are you looking up? Where are you going? What kinds of businesses do you frequent? Through your use of Maps, Google can gain insight into your off-line activities.
10) Google Adsense: Google’s ad delivery code spread across the net. Google sees when these ads (and therefore sites) get delivered, know the content of the site, and can see click through behavior.
Okay, so this is based on a few minutes of thought. There are more touch points, but I am not going to do an exhaustive list. Beyond that, if you read the privacy policy, you know Google will blend your information with third party data to add to its profile of you. While they will not share your PII, they will take information from outside and add it to their information.
Much of the discussion on privacy revolves around personal privacy. We, as Americans usually rail against this kind of overt data collection. However, we seem to have resigned ourselves to the reality of the ‘system.’ And, it can be beneficial. We can save time not weeding through bad search results, ads in email may actually be useful and websites might use this information to improve their web experiences.
But, from a business side, how much information do you really want to provide to any third party? If you take up Google on its offers, you will be giving them more insight into your customers and business than you will ever truly realize. Unfortunately while you are giving Google all this information, and they are marrying it with many other sources, it is difficult to see how much you are getting back in return; especially since your return is being calculated by Google.
Some, don’t see an issue, saying, “Google advertising is a market based program. We bid on the costs, so there is nothing there to negotiate. The market sets the price.” Actually, no, Google is no longer a market based system. The program allows you to bid as high as you like, but the floors, or minimums are set by Google. The minimum bids are not market-based, they are set by parameters established by Google.
Consider this: With all the information gathering technologies at its disposal, Google can know:
1) How much advertisers are paying for ads across a vast number of websites.
2) Inventory availability
3) What the customer conversation rates are for the sources in a vertical
4) Actual sales value
5) All the different sources of traffic for your particular site
6) The conversion rate for all those sources to your site
So, ask yourself, how much negotiation leverage do you have? Do you know how much real ad inventory is on the market? Do you know the value of that inventory to all the other advertisers? Do you know what the best negotiated CPM is? Through its analytics, CPA, adsense, adwords, Double Click / Performics connections, Google does, or can.
And, above all, if you have Google’s code resident on your site, Google also knows the value of all these things for you. How do you improve your ROI when the supplier on the other side knows the lowest and highest price you’ve paid on other properties, the conversion values and what the maximum you can pay and still make money? They hold all the cards. If ‘do no evil’ ever slips from the equation, Google can set it so they make (even) more money while you keep just enough to stay in business.
I am not saying the resource Google provides should not be leveraged. For most small organizations, this may work very well for a long time to come. But, for companies that plan meaningful ad spends online, think long and hard about how much you will reveal today to any third party. Tomorrow you may be wondering why they are always one step ahead of you at the negotiating table.
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