Google’s recent earnings announcement might seem very rosy to a normal company. To online advertising analysts the slow down in Europe is an ominous sign of an impending recession. While recessions and advertising downturns are well established, cohabiting partners maybe we expected Google to be the Rock of Gibraltar. The truth is Google has had a strangle-hold on the online advertising industry. Like moths to a light we flock there to have more and more of our advertising budgets consumed as we flutter around the light expecting miracles. Yes, this sounds cynical but we need to fight back against this moth-to-the-light model and actually outsmart Google. The reason why you have far more control than you think is that no matter how well Google can track results it cannot do the following and the following matters: