Google to Sell Newspaper Ads - Google's Advertising Adventures
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This isn't Google's first foray into offline advertising, or even the search engine's first attempt to bring its advertising model to the print medium. Sharp-eyed analysts knew something was afoot when Google bought dMarc Broadcasting back in January. That company is involved in radio advertising, and Google recently announced that it would be testing radio ads. Even before Google's announcement, it was anticipated that an AdWords-based program that would allow advertisers to bid on air time for radio commercials would increase the efficiency of the field.
In May of this year, Google revealed plans to distribute video ads from advertisers. At the time, some observers speculated that these video ads could eventually be extended to television, thus giving advertisers with small budgets access to a medium that has historically required far more money. Google's recent purchase of YouTube, however, hints that the search engine may have something else in mind; with video taking off all over the Internet, a vast audience can be reached online before turning to TV. (Besides, there's always TiVo to take into account; why would a viewer be less likely to zap an ad received at the station via Google than any other ad?).
But the program that most strongly parallels the recent launch into newspaper advertising was Google's venture into magazine advertising. It let advertisers bid to have small ads placed in magazines at a discount from the publications' traditional rates. The program was supposed to be helpful to small advertisers, who could place their ads in relevant publications, and to "esoteric" publications who may find ad placement a challenge. "They don't tend to have as large a sales force, [and] if we make the ads really useful, then their publications become better," explained Jonathan Rosenberg, Google's senior vice president of product management, when discussing the initiative in a conference call. But offline print advertising "hasn't taken off as fast as we would like," he confessed.
So how is this different? For one thing, Google didn't buy up space in lots of newspapers. The newspapers themselves control whether or not they're going to use the ads, not Google. In fact, in a letter inviting advertisers to participate in the program, Google plainly states that it "cannot guarantee that your ad will run." The program also gives advertisers more control than they normally have with AdWords. With the standard AdWords program, advertisers often can't control the ultimate placement of their ads; with this program, they pick the paper and even the specific section. This helps with targeting ads to a particular demographic.
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