no this is different...with your competition you are more or less on a level playing field. With Google, they get to always place their stuff before you.
which means on the back end much lower traffic for the companies, which in turn drives down the rates you can charge for the leads.
Search engine traffic isn't the only source of publicity. Google Flight Search isn't going to be first in a search for 'hipmunk', nor anywhere on the first page.
which means on the back end much lower traffic for the companies, which in turn drives down the rates you can charge for the leads.