Thomas Reeh, chief executive of Midland-based brokerage The Black & White Group, has recently noted spiralling costs being charged by well-known search engines.
He claimed that major firms with strong financial backing are throwing massive amounts of money at internet promotions. In order to be placed at the top of the first search page a firm would have to pay a fee in the region of £40 every time someone clicked on its link.
He explained that the major search engines have created a monopoly that had forced the larger lenders or brokers into a bidding war for the top slot on a page which has resulted in smaller players being forced further down the list and unable to compete.
Reeh said: “I read with interest the article in Mortgage Introducer last week reporting that brokers were losing thousands of pounds of potential revenue by ignoring the internet.
“While I agree that the internet is a good comparative and strong resource tool, it is also forcing smaller firms to lose out on advertising and marketing. Massive players like Google and Yahoo are forcing prices higher and higher, making advertising for small to medium firms out of reach.”
Paul Hearnden, managing director at My Mortgage Direct, said it was unsurprising that a monopoly has developed. “It’s a natural progression as the market becomes more and more competitive but the amounts being talked about are huge and of course the smaller guys will suffer from lack of exposure.
“The internet is a great tool for research and information but for end-to-end delivery we still believe that customers will want to pick up the phone and hear a voice.
