Google Moves into Print Advertising
Tuesday, November 7th, 2006
Google’s finally officially announced their leap into print advertising. Google advertisers will be able to bid for placements in more than 50 newspapers, including such highly-read papers as The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Boston Globe. The program will differ from Google Adwords in a few key ways.
Newspapers are able to set a minimum price for the ad space, which Google advertisers will then be able to bid above. This is similar to Adwords’ method, but the minimum prices are not set by keyword popularity, or even related to keywords at all.
This foray into print media will give newspapers more power over the advertisements than Google’s previous attempts at print advertising. Googles’ Tom Phillips says that advertisers will “bid on inventory and then allow [newspapers] to decide on whatever makes sense.”
The alpha test of this new program will launch this week. Google plans to expand into weekly newspapers and magazines before long. We are expecting Google Billboards and Google Skywriters in second quarter 2007.
