The Google+ Promise for Marketers

It’s been a couple weeks since the launch of Google+ and virtually every friend, colleague and client is asking each other’s opinions of the site. Most the these “personal reviews” seem to follow the same theme – they like having an alternative to Facebook, think Google is a better shepherd of their personal information and feel the site excels at segmenting their contacts the same way they do in real life.

I tend to agree that Google+ immediately makes you comfortable with the circles metaphor and much simpler (for now anyway) privacy management. What makes me the most curious as a marketer, however, is the potential for hyper-targeting using Google+ segmentation.

To date, Google has not had a formidable opponent in the battle for digital advertising supremacy. Facebook and other social networks are beginning to pose a threat, albeit a very small threat. In the long run, Google’s ability to hyper-target users promises to be very valuable for marketers and the brands they represent.

Search-based ads have been, and will continue to be, a very important part of the overall mix, but the one thing they have always lacked is context. Just because a user searches on a term does not mean they are “shopping” or otherwise involved in a decision that might benefit the advertiser. Let’s look at an example. Searching on Google for “VoIP Service” brings up a plethora of results. Both paid and organic results include consumer services, business solutions and even software to create your own service. A user may likely click on several of these items attempting to learn about VoIP services rather than shopping for a service. Since the search engine only knows what I am searching for, and potentially, my geographic location, it can’t tailor the results for me any further.

Now consider what social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn can do with their ad solutions by incorporating hyper-targeting. By using filters when setting up the ads, I can choose to only present ads to users that fit a specific profile. In this example, I could create a profile on LinkedIn to target owners and senior executives of companies with 100-500 employees, who have IT or operations in their titles or job descriptions and more. I now know every user that clicks on my ad fits the target customer, reducing waste and poor “leads” for sales.

Google+ has the potential to evolve into the best of both worlds. Since many people “stay logged in” on Google when they do searches, Google may over time blend the profile from Google+ and search. Now take another look at the power of segmentation. By also knowing the profiles of the people in my circle, Google could ascertain that a visitor fits the demographic profile of a marketer and their social influence in their networks. Imagine knowing that you have served the same ad to a user, plus fellow employees and other professional contacts. Understanding buyer’s intent and other lead-scoring attributes begins much sooner in the process.

Google is not so much trying to “out-Facebook Facebook” as they are attempting to create more comprehensive targeting solutions, enabling their customers to better reach audiences. This, of course, opens a different dialogue around privacy. At some point, Google will have to begin overtly using the combination of personal data to deliver on this targeting; potentially creating some of the same backlash Facebook now faces.

My bet is that Google will take the time to evaluate and test these dynamics carefully. Additionally, as more people use Google+ and other Google properties simultaneously, they may begin to be less sensitive to Google’s use of their data if their perception is that it makes their digital life richer and more useful. All the while, the ad engine at Google will continue to increase its dominance by adding hyper-targeting.