It is not like parking has not already taken a big hit, but with yesterday’s earnings report out of Google, parking may go even lower. Click volume for Google increased 17 % year over year, that doesn’t sound bad, but it is the lowest since Q3 2010. Ginny Marvin at Search Engine Land quoted an analyst at Macquarie Securities, who said that Facebook and apps may be having an effect on Google.
From the article:
“Paid click growth slowed meaningfully”
Analysts at Macquarie Securities said of Google’s Q3 earnings statement, “Paid click growth slowed meaningfully… The bottom line is that GOOG’s core is slowing.”
“Additionally, while there is limited visibility, we remain concerned that the disintermediation of search by app usage is negatively impacting GOOG’s core search. Also, FB’s momentum is likely pulling dollars from GOOG.”
So paid clicks aren’t growing as fast as they were, app usage may be cutting into Google search on mobile and Facebook is coming on strong are the takeaways from Macquarie.
Refreshingly, Macquarie is one of the few analysts and media outlets not to mention cost-per-click prices dropping. The conventional wisdom is that with the advent of mobile, Google’s ad offerings have failed to appeal to advertisers, proof being that the average CPCs keep falling (for 12 consecutive quarters now). If advertisers wanted mobile ads, then enhanced campaigns would have worked to drive overall CPCs higher, the thinking goes. I wrote this summer that the reported CPCs really can’t tell us much about mobile.
Perhaps the data would show mobile CPCs continue to decline and drag down overall performance. Or maybe they’d show that mobile CPCs are rising marginally but mobile click volume is growing, dragging overall CPCs down every quarter. Or it could be US mobile CPCs are rising (as RKG’s Q3 report showed) but low CPCs in other countries make things look more dire than they are. I don’t know. What’s clear though, is that trying to determine what’s happening by looking at that big number isn’t much more than guessing.
Read the full article on Search Engine Land
I’m not following your logic.
The article had said that the drop in CPC is moderating and the effect of mobile has not been as detrimental as once thought.
Would not not make you think that parking earnings would stop dropping, that is if you take out the possibliity of Google taking a higher rev share from parking?
It is that last part you wrote that I would not put past them, in the past I think many have thought if they were running a little short, take more from the parking channel, not saying they will do that, but I know people who think they have done it for years.
Thanks for the comment.