WARCreports that there's no limit, it seems, to the wheezes dreamed-up by the dudes on Google'sMountain View campus when it comes to squeezing an extra buck from the internet.
In partnership with Valpak Direct Marketing Systems - a major US distributor of discount coupons both on paper and online - the web titan is poised to launch a service offering surfers local store discount coupons they can print at home.
Google says it will make a large number of online coupons available at no charge to consumers via its Google Maps service, while AdWords marketers have the opportunity to pay for a coupon-link alongside their ads.
Now, the key question to me is how will they offer this to advertisers while it's free of charge to customers? Well, they can follow several business models :
- Cost per download model - Pay per coupon downloaded( base level pricing)
- Cost per redemption model - Pay a little premium if the coupon gets redeemed
- Cost per repeat use model - Being google, they can track my usage and hence if the same customer is redeeming the coupons for the same brand, they could charge a higher premium to the brand than the first download
Also, here's a report from NY Times on the same.
Well, let's wait and watch!