Conversion

Google Expands Ad Reach

In another advertising venture offline, Google recently announced an extension of its Print Ads initiative. The program, which Google originally began testing in 2006, now includes more than 225 newspapers, with a circulation of roughly 30 million. It’s what is being promoted as newspaper advertising made easy, and is yet one more new extension of AdWords. If you’re an ecommerce merchant who has considered advertising in other media, here’s a quick checklist of the specifics:

  • The program provides an advertiser with a unique opportunity to contact multiple newspapers and negotiate advertising from a simple web interface.
  • A merchant can either build a campaign based on publication types or handpick the papers the advertisements will run in.
  • Merchants can select specific paper sections in the newspapers. However, demographic information is not available through Google’s interface beyond “publication type.”
  • Advertisers can request a free Google AdWords proposal and receive up to $2,000 for future print ads if $1,000 is spent by December 31, 2007. More information is available here.
  • A merchant can start with as low as $500/week, plus cost of developing an ad (I would highly recommend allocating at least $1,000/week for at least 4-6 weeks to get some meaningful results).
  • For a lower budget ($2,000 – $2,500 for the entire campaign), figure out a target demographic and think smaller, niche markets.
  • Pricing is determined by an offer-based model: Merchants pick the size of the ad(s), dates when it should run, and which section of the paper it will appear. A bid is then submitted to a newspaper. The bid is either accepted or rejected. If it is rejected, the bid can be increased until newspaper accepts the terms.
  • Reporting includes digital tear sheets (scanned newspaper pages with your ads).
  • Free call tracking is available through an 800 number that will redirect all calls to a merchant’s number.

Additional information is available here.

Greg Laptevsky
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