Part of Groupon’s growth strategy has been through acquisitions. But even outside of that, they still push into new cities and markets. Before they can offer a unique selling proposition to small businesses they first need to build an email list.
How do they get past the chicken vs egg issue? AdWords.
Here is an example ad
And here is a landing page that consists of little more than branding and a lead generation form.
In 2007 one of the types of websites that Google claimed might merit a low landing page quality score was “Data collection sites that offer free gifts, subscription services etc., in order to collect private information.”
Perhaps asking for email address only allows Groupon to get around that issue. More likely, being a well known brand in one market gives a merchant more leeway in other markets. And since Google tried to acquire Groupon, it is not likely that they can come down on Groupon without looking like it was done because the deal didn’t go through.
What makes the above “website” so hysterical is most affiliates wouldn’t even dare try it at this point for fear of burning their AdWords accounts. Adding to the absurdity is the footer links to terms & conditions & data privacy link to pages in GERMAN even though the URL has en_ in it. Of course they are growing like a weed and will do some things sloppy as part of that, but at least they get the benefit of the doubt from Google – something most affiliates won’t be getting much of anytime soon, as Google moves in to become the affiliate channel with offerings like Boutiques.com.
When you think about it, what is Groupon but a branded affiliate play? With scale, new opportunities appear. 😉
