It’s time to break up Google’s monopoly

When Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) are on the same side of an issue, you know it must be something worthy of attention.

The issue is Google’s monopoly on search and advertising. Cruz, Warren and a bunch of other legislators are sponsoring a new bill called the AMERICA Act, which, in effect, wants to force Google — and a few other tech giants — to divest major parts of its business. 

Will this bill succeed? I hope so. Because the more I advertise on Google, the more I don’t trust Google.

In my opinion, Google is using its monopoly power to trick small-business owners like me into believing that spending money on Google Ads will provide tangible results. It doesn’t.

Over the past 10 years, I’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars advertising on both Google and YouTube (which is owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet). I’ve employed and contracted with individual “Google Certified” consultants and larger advertising firms. I’ve attended conferences, read books, watched videos and talked to Google “experts.” I’ve tested countless ads in countless ways over countless periods of time. I created fast-loading landing pages and SEO optimized my website. I’ve run multiple campaigns that offer free services, white papers and book downloads, among other “calls to action.”

The results? Not great.

My best performing ads draw mostly bots to my website. Thanks to AI, my efforts to limit these fraud accounts from filling out my forms with “CAPTCHA” and other controls fail to stop the fake people with fake names from fake galaxies. When I run Google Ad campaigns, I see an increase in spam emails and robo-calls to our main office number.

The internet is the internet, but what troubles me more is that Google’s numbers never seem to add up. I’m told that my ads get hundreds of thousands of “impressions,” which is not only irrelevant (I care only about leads) but a dubious metric at best, because who’s coming up with that number? Why Google, of course!

Google, without any supervision or oversight, charges me every time someone clicks on my ad, and yet the views on my landing page don’t come anywhere near the number of those clicks. Where are these clicks going? Shouldn’t these numbers be the same? Add that to the many mysteries that go unanswered by the Google Gods.

This is what really sows doubt in my mind — and I know I’m not alone. All of the metrics — the views, the clicks, the impressions, the whatever — are generated by Google, which charges me based on those numbers.

I have absolutely no way to prove that these numbers are real or fake, accurate or misleading. Even the numbers on Google Analytics, which measures activity on my site, don’t correlate to my Google Ad results. Imagine taking someone’s money up front by promising future services and then drawing it down at your own will and whenever you determine that the service has been performed, without ever having to be accountable. That’s what Google does.

Small businesses like mine stand no chance advertising on Google. All the best keywords are taken by corporate giants who have the money and resources to pay Google so that their products dominate the first two search results pages. They, like any big brand, make a lethargic effort to show their support of small business with the obligatory web page and the occasional funding campaigns. But to me, these are empty gestures.

The one, small ray of hope lies with local listings on Google Business Profiles, which may attract potential customers to a small restaurant or retail shop that’s nearby. But my Google Business Profile generates nothing for my B2B company.

What’s even worse is that I’m convinced that there are no humans working at Google. I’m told that the company employs about 140,000 people, but go ahead — try to get someone from customer service on the phone, let alone someone who speaks English. Google has “small business consultants” who frequently reach out to me with advice on — surprise! — how to spend more money advertising on Google.

And God forbid if you reference anything in your ads that comes near to a political topic or controversial current event, or mentions any one of the company’s ever-changing list of forbidden topics. Your campaign is immediately suspended. You’re now in advertising purgatory while you try to figure out what’s wrong.

The support provided here is literally non-existent. I know this. I live this.

Is this hopeless for small businesses? Not entirely. Some do succeed on Google. That’s because they’ve dedicated full-time people to run and test campaigns and spent up to tens of thousands of dollars on their efforts; even then they have to pray to the Google Gods that they’ll be miraculously noticed by the company’s unfathomable algorithms and given a brief moment of glory for which to grab an eyeball or two, and perhaps even a few clicks.

This is not an impossible feat. But it’s out of reach for most small businesses.

Google is clearly a monopoly and without competition. According to the most recent data I could find, Google search commands a 93 percent market share. (For comparison, YouTube commands a 75 percent market share of all online video platforms.) Its web browser (Chrome), email (Gmail), operating system (Android) and popular applications like Maps, Voice, Docs, Drive and Sheets work together to ensure that only those who are paying enough get noticed by their search audience. 

The fix is in. Small business with small budgets are out.

If you’re a small-business owner and still don’t believe me that Google is a monopolistic scam, then go ahead: give Google Ads a shot. Maybe you’ll have better success than me. But I’m betting you won’t.

Which is why I’m rooting for Cruz and Warren — and I can’t believe I’m writing those names in the same sentence. Breaking the company up would increase competition and force its new individual entities to fight harder for its revenues. Only then would smaller businesses stand a chance.

Gene Marks is founder of The Marks Group, a small-business consulting firm. He frequently appears on CNBC, Fox Business and MSNBC.