Google Plays AdWords On The Radio

[dutter]

The search advertising company purchased dMarc Broadcasting, a digital solutions provider for the radio industry, for $102 million cash and potentially as much as $1.136 billion over the next three years.

Google announced plans to integrate the dMarc technology into AdWords and create a new radio ad distribution channel for Google's advertisers, the company said in a statement.

"Google is committed to exploring new ways to extend targeted, measurable advertising to other forms of media," Google's Tim Armstrong, vice president of Advertising Sales, said.

"We anticipate that this acquisition will bring new ad dollars and accountability to radio by combining Google's expansive network of advertisers with dMarc's talented team and innovative radio advertising technology."

dMarc brings organization to the radio advertising process. Its technology automates several functions connected with getting advertising to listeners. That includes scheduling commercials and placing them within a broadcast.

Eric Schmidt, Google's CEO, has publicly stated his desire to see more targeted advertising in television. The dMarc acquisition gives them a ground to test the concept on an audio basis first.

Google and dMarc could have another opportunity for delivering audio ads. The popularity of podcasting has yet to be matched by an effective way to monetize the medium.

Presently, Google has the technology to place advertisements in RSS feeds, which are the preferred way to deliver podcasts to subscribers. It's reasonable to believe the talented folks in the Googleplex can adapt dMarc and provide podcasters an AdSense service similar to that used by websites and bloggers today.

[dburdon]

Hmmm. I see Google is burning cash on speculative investments.

Sell soon.

[pemburung]

I just checked Google and Yahoo for various terms relative to our main site; Google puts one of these at #1, but the others are nowhere to be seen. Half of our pages are PR4, home is PR5, and of the rest most are PR3. So they aren't irrelevant in G's eyes, and the terms aren't really very competitive. On the other hand Yahoo puts most of them on the first page or two, and the other entries are usually closely relevant; Googles are often not. We don't have many links, so it's to be expected, but Yahoo is relying much more on content.

All this is preamble to my on-topic point; Google seems to be looking at new industry ways of developing advertising, while allowing their SE to become pretty ordinary. GM went downhill in part due to its focus on making money from financing, not cars, other US car companies also forgot their main task, making good cars that people will buy. (The "we're #1, we're entrenched, they will keep buying" attitude was pretty strong in that industry as well.) The main task of a SE is finding relevant pages. Do this, as Google did originally, and the money follows. Google, it seems, is taking its eye off the ball. Yes, (Dr Tandem), this has been said before, but I think this news just emphasizes it.