The financial comparison service Google Compare is shutting down after lower than expected user numbers. Search giant Google launched the service in the US and the UK in hopes of providing a profitable vertical lead generation program for services including credit cards, auto insurance, mortgages and travel insurance. However, things haven’t gone quite as Google planned.
Google informed its partners by email saying:
Dear Partner,
Beginning on February 23, 2016, we will start ramping down the Google Compare product, which is currently live in both the US and UK. We plan to terminate the service as of March 23, 2016. As you know, Google Compare (formerly Google Advisor in the U.S.) has been a specialized, standalone service that enables consumers to get quotes from a number of providers for financial products such as car and travel insurance, credit cards and mortgages.
Despite people turning to Google for financial services information, the Google Compare service itself hasn’t driven the success we hoped for. We greatly appreciate your partnership and understand that this decision will be disappointing to some. But after a lot of careful consideration, we’ve decided that focusing more intently on AdWords and future innovations will enable us to provide fresh, comprehensive answers to Google users, and to provide our financial services partners with the best return on investment.
We’re grateful for all the feedback that you have provided over the course of this product’s development, and we are looking forward to partnering with you to achieve greater success in the future.
We will work with you during this transition and beyond. Please reach out to your Google representative if you have any questions and to discuss the next steps.
The Google Compare Team
The Compare service started out as the Advisor programme in the US but that too did not do well and was rebuilt. Google said that the search queries for financial products and comparisons remain high but that there was not sufficient traction to continue with the Compare service.
Google says it will focus its efforts on Adwords and will try to transition its current Compare partners to standard ad products.
