For the next few quarters, Amazon avoided buying Google ads in Mexico and tried to compensate with billboards, radio, and TV ads, and shipping discounts. As Garcia had feared, it hobbled the site. The offline ads were more expensive and less effective. Google brought in $70 billion in annual advertising revenues because search ads worked and were a relatively inexpensive way for websites to attract visitors. “I wanted to see if we could get traction in a country launch without using Google,” Wilke later said, “and it turned out, the answer was no…. We weren’t reaching enough customers.”
