A dirty secret in the search wars is that you can basically “buy” enough traffic via Google AdWords and other sources to jump to the top of the usage charts. In a recent ZDNet column, Donna Bogatin implied that CitySearch has done exactly that. “Industry estimates of the cost to Citysearch for its ‘partnership’ with Google have pegged Citysearch’s AdWords annual ‘investment,’ aimed at redirecting Google traffic to Citysearch, in the $100 million dollar range,” she writes.
I read Bogatin religiously because she always has such a tough spin on Google (right or wrong), but $100 million. Wow! That would probably be many times CitySearch’s estimated earnings. I batted this up to CitySearch PR to see how they’d respond. Characteristically, the PR folks wouldn’t say how much the IAC division actually spends, or even give me a ball park figure. But they assured me that the number from Bogatin’s sources is “grossly inflated.”
“We think people may be confused by our partnership with Google and others in our network, which also includes Yahoo, MSN and ASK, because we show up frequently in both organic search results and sponsored ads across many search engines,” says a PR rep. “Currently, we have a relationship with Google that not only sends traffic to Citysearch.com but to our customers’ websites as well. This product directly connects our customers’ websites to consumers searching for their type of business across our partner network. As you know, we offer our customers a broader reach than any other local advertising provider in the market and we are committed to continually expanding that reach.”
Normally love your column, but you’re going to lose a lot of credibility with me for reading Bogatin “religiously”. She grossly misrepresents facts and clearly has some personal bone to pick with Google. This is just another example where her theories are way off.
Mike Orren from a new site named Pegasus News has this to say on the Kelsey Blog, which syndicates Local Onliner.
“Currently, we have a relationship with Google that not only sends traffic to Citysearch.com but to our customers’ websites as well. This product directly connects our customers’ websites to consumers searching for their type of business across our partner network. ”
Err. As someone obsessed with local market media and advertising, I’ve seen lots of the google ads they refer to coming up on our sites. They are ads that purport to take you to a broad category of info and instead take you to a tangentially relevant single-business page on Citysearch.
“As you know, we offer our customers a broader reach than any other local advertising provider in the market and we are committed to continually expanding that reach.”
Heh. Wait until they get a load of us…
Is the how much Google is getting paid for placing adsense on CitySearch pages or how much CitySearch is paying Google for itself and on behalf of its customers ?
If it is how much is being paid, that would either make CS very large or very unprofitable. I don’t think it is that large at all and no way IAC has it that unprofitable.