Google Ad Planner spells trouble for media planners
It seems the latest free, online product from Google is going to make a big impact in the online ad area ā both positive and negative.
Unfortunately Iām still waiting for my granted invitation from Google, but basically Ad Planner is a free online tool that allows online advertisers to find and target sites that match certain demographic criteria. The sites listed are (thankfully) not restricted to the content network, meaning that Google are clearly using some form of data collection method apart from AdSense subscriptions to generate lists of viable, revenue-generating sites for online advertisers.
So whereās the data coming from? SearchEnglineLand & TechCrunch are pretty sure itās the ubiquitous Google toolbar, whereas Google themselves reveal that the data comes from a mixture of sources including aggregated Google search data, opt-in anonymous Google Analytics data (I recall about 2 months ago opting-in to this from within my GA account) and other third-party market research.
Where ever the data is from, it looks like Google are going after the ad planning and selling business, with this new tool set to become a free and easy-to-use media planner at your disposal.
By selecting from a filter of sites, you can see the age, sex, education and household income of that siteās visitors, allowing an advertiser to make an educated decision on whether or not to advertise on that site. Whatās more, the tool does offer a dedicated media planning facility, allowing the user to export a list of the sites researched for use with another 3rd-party ad server. Itās worth nothing at this point that Googleās Ad Planner in no way acts as the ad broker ā at this time it looks to be a research tool only, but I donāt think anyone will be surprised when Google announce you can now buy ad space directly from Ad Planner.
Further to that, it seems pretty obvious that Google are looking to really nail the āone-stop-shopā title down; this tool will eventually allow an online marketer/advertiser to publish PPC and image/video/mobile/text ads to sites on and off the content network after researching the viability of doing so, then report and gauge reaction using Google Analytics. Who knows, a landing page could be optimized with Googleās Website optimizer, and that entire site could be built using Googleās App Engine, fulfil orders with Google Checkout, and monetize further page views using Google AdSense.
Further reading here:
Wall Street Journal @ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121425232721997689.html
SearchEngineLand @ http://searchengineland.com/080624-104519.php
TechCrunch @ http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/24/is-google-ad-planner-getting-its-data-from-the-google-toolbar/
June 30th, 2008