Google changes from Search Company to Media Company
Search marketers manage search advertising. But since last year we've been encouraged by Google to use their system to also manage other types of adverts. Mobile adverts, video adverts and especially banner adverts. A few days ago, Google finalized a long standing takeover of Double-Click - the world's largest banner ad exchange. Now they have given Google's content partners an immensely easy tool for them to bring the Double-click inventory into their site advertising space.
On the advertiser's end (the bit we manage for our clients), Google have created an open market structure that - like their PPC adverts - builds quality control into the algorithm. The better managed your advertising campaign, the further you can make your ad-money go. The combination looks incredibly powerful from where I sit and Receptional are in a very good place to help clients to exploit the system, since we are already significantly more adept at using the Adwords platform than most. In our experience, the traditional agencies have been arrogant to the point of ineptitude when trying to manage PPC in general and Google's brand of quality controls in particular. By the same token, search management specialists have traditionally been weak on the banner side because they did not have the relationships with the publishers or the scale of the traditional agencies. The ad agencies have continually tried to price themselves as taking lower percentage of spend fees rather than developing campaigns and pricing models which augment Google's quality model. On the surface, Receptional earn a slightly larger share of the total ad-spend pie. In truth, the pie itself goes considerably further for the client, because the money spent on our slice makes the rest go way further. Clients either "get it"....or go with the cheap sounding models.
Now, after Google's takeover of Double-Click, the traditional agencies must be quaking in their boots. If they are not, then they better get rid of their arrogance extremely quickly, because we are coming for them. We now have expert users on what is going to be the most prolific ad-exchange system in history. We also have tracking systems that force quality through to the bottom line rather that force increasing ad-volumes and - all of a sudden - we have the ability to scale whilst retaining the ability to target advertising.
Have you been underwhelmed with your ad agency's ability to convince you of the results of their online advertising efforts? Would you like to work with a company that can put your campaign live not on just one or two sites, but thousands, targeted by site or content or theme, without the need to negotiate a thousand separate advertising deals?
We are more than ready. By the end of the year, Google's kickbacks to agencies will totally cease and the agencies that don't add value will be worthless. Those that do add value will continue to go from strength to strength. I say "Bring it on". Give me the challenge and you'll never put another penny of digital advertising with a "full service" advertising agency again. Over the next few years, we'll be able to use the same exchange to:
* Manage PPC adverts
* Manage banners adverts and campaign and optimize spend across sites
* Manage video advertising
* Manage mobile phone and local advertising
* Manage classified adverts in printed media! (being tested in the US at the moment)
* Manage interactive adverts on TV
* Manage overlay adverts on images and pictures
We are tooling up to scale now. Let us know if you want to come on board this exciting journey with us.
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20.03.2008.
