Google: Coupons in Adwords

@Webmanagementus of Web Management pointed out this Tracfone Adwords ad that includes a Coupon attached to the ad. I had not seen this previously although Greg Sterling had reported on seeing them in the wild on SEL last week. It clearly indicates Google’s desire to expand the roll of coupons as a revenue generator. It is an obvious fit for local for both Boost and Adwords with location extensions although this current test is obviously neither:


 


 
Coupons have had a long a tortuous life at Google. They were introduced in late 2006 and but left to languish for a number of years before seeing some activity in late 2009 and through 2010 with the Tags Beta. 2010 culminated with the failed effort to purchase Groupon.

2011 on the other hand has seen lots of other activity on the coupon front for Google. Besides the new Adwords coupon test first seen last week, rumors of Google Offers, their Groupon competitor, first surfaced in January, with a full blown Offers beta rolling out June 1 in Portland. Google also first rolled out Latitude Check-In Offers at SXSW in March with a limited national test in April. They cancelled the Tags product in April as well. Roll out early, iterate often and shit can anything that doesn’t generate enough profit seems to be the coupon approach.

Here is a chart of Google’s current free, paid and cancelled products…

Type Coupon First Seen In Wild
Places – Free Places Offers 07/2006
7-Pack Tags Coupon Tags Test Cancelled 2/2010 – 4/2011
Latitude -Location Based Check In Offers – Test 3/2011
Adwords -Ad Based Pay Per Coupon – Test 6/13/2011
Daily Deal Deal Offers – Portland Beta 6/1/2011

Much like the trend on Places for links on Google to head off to other Google properties, this new product takes you to a Google page.

When the View Offer button is selected in the newest Adwords coupon test, it takes you to Google.com/Coupons that either prints or saves the coupon for later use to your My Offers area, the same UI used to save Google daily deal Offers and (I assume ) for Latitude Check-Ins.

Van Gogh on The Details

“Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.”

–Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890)

Dutch painter

Are you holding yourself accountable as a leader (with a title or not)?

As leaders, we enjoy the responsibility of helping people develop in a way that encourages them to hold themselves accountable for their attitudes, their work, and their results.

We need to be as disciplined, resourceful, and resilient in our efforts as we ask our people to be in theirs.

Relentless leadership is embracing the fact that the need for solid & ongoing reinforcement never ends and uncomfortable conversations are a necessity. This is how we create something special.

Managers: How much development attention are you giving to your team? (20% of your week would be a full day of nothing but development time… 40% would be two full days, beginning to end)

Download JustSell’s Sales Management Checklist and be sure you’re on top of what’s most important.

Professionals: Don’t have a coaching manager? Consider finding a development partner. Here are some ideas on getting started.

_____

Another disaster looming for Oz

After devastating floods in January 2011 Queensland is now bracing for the impact of category 5 cyclone Yasi. It is expected to hit Australian coast somewhere between Innisfail and Cardwell at about 11pm EST this evening, with winds over 200km/h. Emergency Management Queensland issued warnings that Yasi can cause “extensive damage and result in death or injury caused by flooding, buildings collapsing or flying debris.” The wind has already picked up to 93 km/h at Hamilton Island airport (6 pm AEDT).

Australian Bureau of Meteorology warns about “EXTREMELY DANGEROUS SEA LEVEL RISE [i.e. storm tide]… EXTREMELY DAMAGING WAVES, STRONG CURRENTS and FLOODING” as the cyclone approaches. Between Port Douglas and Ayr the winds will become DESTRUCTIVE with gusts in excess of 125 km/hr. Cyclone Yasi is expected to reach inland as far as Mt Isa.

The latest satellite image of the approaching cyclone and wind speed information for the impact area can be monitored live on aus-emaps.com’s Hazards Monitor pages (courtesy of free Bureau of Meteorology web services):

[turn on Clouds overlay to view the image, other layers are switched off]

[click wind icon in the top left corner of the map to add wind speed information layer and click/ move your mouse over the markers for details]

Updates:
[02/02/2011 at 8pm AEDT] Latest BOM update on tropical cyclone Yasi: just a crude “translation” of predicted path into kmz format for easy sharing on a map .

[03/02/2011] It is not totally over yet but media reports indicate there was no major disaster: no lives were lost and although there are many damaged houses and almost 190,000 people without electricity, overall impact of Cyclone Yasi will most likely not be as devastating as was initially anticipated. Below some pictures documenting the event, as captured by various aus-emaps.com tools.

[Yasi crossing over to land – 3am AEDT]

[Yasi location at 9pm AEDT on 02/02/20011]

[Yasi location at 11pm 02/02/2011]

[Yasi crossing over to land at about 3am AEDT 03/02/2011]

[Place of impact – very faint background but visible]

[Weather station reading near Halifax/ Ingham at the time of impact showing wind speed of 137 km/h and gusts up to 165 km/h – very high but half of what was anticipated and may explain why the damage to infrastructure was not so extensive.]