Monday, Google (GOOG) begins testing a new program that lets Google’s customers buy ads in more than 50 top newspapers, including The New York Times(NYT), Philadelphia Inquirer, San Jose Mercury News and seven papers owned by Gannett (GCI), the publisher of USA TODAY.
Google tried doing this once already and they’re at it again. Google is trying to get into the newspaper ad selling business to be integrated with their already established AdWords platform.
How it works: Google sells search advertising at its AdWords.google.com site, where businesses bid on the search term (”Florida insurance” “Detroit lawyer”) they want. The more people interested in the term, the more expensive it is. Google will add a “newspaper advertising” tab in AdWords that will let businesses bid on buying advertising space in newspapers, in a variety of sizes. Customers will get tools to upload photos and type in information to create an ad on the spot, then they can send it directly to the newspaper.
The newspapers have veto power over the ads and set the prices they will accept. “For us, this opens up a new level of advertisers,” says Denise Warren, the Times chief advertising officer.
In short, that’s how it will work right now. I’m sure there is much perfecting left to go through before it’s a stable product for anyone to use, but this is the start of the next generation of advertising for Google.
