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Surprised no one is talking about it on here: Search advertising antitrust trial vs Google – DOJ closing argument is a SLAM DUNK
Deck can be found here and Search Engine Land has published an article with 20 slides that highlight how Google has been manipulating the auction price for years.
The Google performance has been so bad this year, with all-time high CPCs despite no "price war" with competitors and all we've been hearing from reps is some PR friendly crap… Between this and the very talked about upcoming OpenAI search engine, I hope Google feels the pressure and stops being so manipulative and evil but this might be a very naive hope given how SEM is their cash cow.
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1 Reply
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Google has sold the entire market space on ‘max conversion’ bidding. The lunacy of Google arbitrarily setting the CPC is absurd, not to mention restricting ‘search term tool’, performance max –
Not all websites are Ecom selling to the mass of humanity. Most B2B are very niche’ – but yeah Broad Match, Performance Max, what a winning proposition.
We have decades of data in which manual bid generated untold volumes of conversions. But yeah, paying $31.76 for a keyword that only cost $4.01 on manual bidding sounds like such a legit platform.
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Would love to see the DOJ force Google to revert the numerous price fixing and data obfuscations that have been implemented over the last decade. Would feel like a breath of fresh air to everyone working in Google ads.
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I would say the argument is incredibly weak. I don’t expect anything to happen. This seems like a show put on more than anything. Google can charge as much as they want and show as little or as a lot of data as they want. Max CPC or TCPA or whatever. It doesn’t matter. Just like the landscaping business next door can charge whatever they want.
Maybe the DOJ should instead focus on how much of an anti competitive and economic burden it is for advertisers to pay billions of dollars for traffic that’s already searching for their brand name on the internet. Where is the value add for the economy there? It’s like Google charging Target for every person that wants to enter a physical store. “Oh you want these users to come inside? That’ll be 30% of their purchase please. It’s for your own protection. So they don’t accidentally walk into Walmart.”
I’ve run at least 6 major geo based incrementality tests for mid to large enterprises, and in every single one, if you turn off brand, you get 80-100% of the conversions still. There’s millions of companies there just throwing money away to Google.
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Thanks for posting this! Lots of great quotes. I loved this one:
>Q. So, yes, ads quality sometimes does try and raise prices.
>A. I would describe it less as raising prices and more **coming up with better prices or more fair prices, where those new prices are higher than the previous ones**. Dr. Adam Juda VP, Product Management
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I love this content and agree that Google uses its market share to drive up costs. But I don’t think this is evidence of a monopoly. They are just a business who can charge more and still grow revenues similar to any company.
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When answering a phone call from a Google representative I always say I can’t trust you as there is an on going case.
Google Rep: What are you talking about?
Me: United States v. Google LLC (2023)
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District Judge Amit P. Mehta … worked for Zuckerman Spaeder LLP which is an IP practice with major clients.
Remember, it is a revolving door.
He will get a nice job after doing his time on the bench.
[https://www.dcd.uscourts.gov/content/district-judge-amit-p-mehta](https://www.dcd.uscourts.gov/content/district-judge-amit-p-mehta)
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As with any shitty criminal, the thing that will burn Google in this will be the cover up, not the crime.
Internal communications about using default search agreements to stifle competition.
Auto-deleting of key documents in order to thwart antitrust investigations.
Yet, we will all log in tomorrow and check our results, hoping the Goog has blessed us with clicks and conversions.
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1) Ads generated over 80% of Google’s revenue. It’s unsurprising that major players leverage their power to gain advantages. This is quite common in all less competitive markets.
2) I am also using other paid search advertising platforms as well. It’s highly unlikely that major players will regulate themselves.
3) In the foreseeable future, I don’t see anyone capable of challenging Google Ads.
4) If you think Google is more conversion-driven than profit/margin-driven, you need to think again.
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& their motto is like “don’t be bad”
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The problem is the Google has no reason or incentive to decrease the CPCs they manipulate
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