Screenshots have surfaced detailing Google’s AdWords for TV tests, which appear to be near completion after a year of trials. Next stop: the UK.
We are definitely on the verge of some kind of merger between the Web and TV, and Google may beat everybody to it. We expected more from Yahoo back in the day, especially with all those Hollywood ties.
Entrepreneur Pinny Cohen posted a slide show of how Google plans to integrate TV ads into the AdWords Platform – or vice versa – and those details show that it was a smart move on Nielsen’s part to form a strategic partnership rather than take Google head-on.
Here’s the type of information and control advertisers can expect to get from an AdWords TV ad:
- Access to number of impressions (how many screens)
- Choice of CPM rate for daypart bidding
- Ability to run nationally or locally
- Demographic targeting
- Audience size estimates
- Engagement: how long viewers watched an ad, at what point they change channels
Cohen is pretty expansive about the impact TV AdWords will have on the TV experience and programming:
“We can expect advertisers who never thought of advertising on TV rushing to try this out, while veteran advertisers on TV, such as Pepsi, will likely cut their ad spend, since they have an easier way to discover which ads aren’t working and would be able to turn off those ads or go back to the drawing board and come up with a better ad.”
I’m not sure about the other things: the creative impact it may have on network programming; the possibility of TV spam (wouldn’t it still be cost, or at least Google, prohibitive?); TV show vandalism via wardrobe-malfunction-esque offensive commercials popping up (good luck with the FCC if Google doesn’t control for that!); and an influx of political ads during election seasons (Google’s already pretty vigilant about taking down ads that speak against individuals or organizations).
But the impact will be pretty significant, especially in the way Cohen notes in the passage I selected. Two things at this point are very possible: the TV ad playing field will be effectively leveled; or Google folds to make it more exclusive than it is already.
This is not going to make TV networks or the ad brokers very happy unless Google can show them the money. But I imagine also (light bulb!) that YouTube has a very good chance of getting its very own channel. In fact, I’m surprised it hasn’t already happened. Could you imagine it? You could flip back and forth between G4 and the YouTube channel. Sweet. And guess who’s supplying the advertising for it.
