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Google AdPlanner

June 23, 2008

What is Google AdPlanner? Some are calling it the ‘ad agency killer’.

This will be fully integrated into adwords, something that already looks like a death star to Ad Agencies.

Perhaps the best way for one to phrase it is that 1 creative individual can now do what a 300 man agency did in 2005… just upload your creative to Google Adwords.. find the right media suggestions using Google AdPlanner… make the purchases though Adwords and measure ROI using Google Analytics. Don’t believe us? check it out yourself.

Google AdPlanner should be called Google Agency… because in short that is what they just created.

Google AdPlanner is a new New Audience Measurement Initiative that will give advertisers a better way to measure their media audience and help measure ROI. (thanks to Jake) at B|Net / C|Net for leaking this to us.

Some agencies however are literally flipping out at this saying that the media planners position is being eliminated by a Google program, and honestly that’s the point. When WPP head Martin Sorrell went bonkers saying that Google is bypassing him and going directly to clients… he only understood part of the problem. He thought Google wanted to be an advertising agency… that isn’t the case… Google doesn’t want to be an advertising agency.. Google wants to remove them from the picture altogether.

Google is the car industry in the beginning of the auto revolution dominated by horse and buggy manufacturers. Initially the industry coined the new cars ‘horseless carriages’. It’s where we are today. Ad Agencies are trying to define Google by their definition of what an Agency is. The problem is that Google doesn’t share your opinion of what an agency is.. they want to redefine the entire concept.

Google’s latest initiative in internet audience measurement is far more robust than what is currently available using a single tool and should be a boon to internet marketers overall to measure results, mostly because it follows the users. Using metrics from their own search engine, Google Toolbar, data from Google Analytics, and a few third party sources. In short the chances are if you are online, Google knows where you went and who you visited. They can now take that data and know that Digg Users generally also like Engadget and to boot they even know about how many go from one of the sites to another.

Let’s say for example that you are marketing a product that advertising agencies use, and you have been putting money into Media Bistro’s Agency Spy. The tool would also suggest that resources be spent on Tribble Ad Agency, B|Net , George Parker’s Adscam and Madison Avenue. Google AdPlanner won’t stop at just a suggestion… it will give you approximate levels of traffic and other related information to help you (or agency) to see if the site makes sense to spend there. In short, this can, and might possibly eliminate a big part of media buyers jobs. As the program matures so will it’s spread to cover more than online. As it stands now you can use Google Adwords to buy Media Spots on TV and Print on top of online. AdPlanner is expected to expand into these media areas as well in a very short time frame. It is expected to be fully integrated into Google Adwords (like Google Analytics is) so from one page you have access to everything needed to run an effective campaign.

From Print, TV and Online media purchases to suggestions on where to purchase to tracking… from one screen…

We use Google almost exclusively for our media purchases, and the resources we have buying media is roughly equal to what we have seen with our partners… the difference? We need 1 person logged into Google Adwords to make the purchases… they have 30 people doing it via phone. In this new reality we are happy we choose the direction we did.. because we are way ahead of them with this new reality.

Written by TheFounder · Filed Under Advertising Agency News 


Comments

  • Agency Guy
    This may be all well and good, but does it take its clients out for lunch?
  • dbm
    You've missed the mark completely on this one. Google Ad Planner has NOTHING to traditional media or ad agencies. While AdWords does have Print, TV, Audio, etc., the AdPlanner tool is for online media buys only. It provides insight and research into websites, not traditional media outlets.
  • But dbm wouldn't an evolved combination of Google Ad Planner and Adwords for Print TV Audio and ahem Cinema (that's going digital too isn't it?) be an automated hybrid of the 'distractive' advertising process. Sounds good to me. Still room for good work and automation of the creatively dull but contextually relevant.

    (Think Dell ads for a perfect potential client)

    The ad industry still doesn't acknowledge that Adwords is a $10 Billion + industry and is quite happy to spend a week in Cannes enjoying a selection of creative that always includes scam ads. Without mentioning that brands are not even part of this communication model. They're still selling brand ideas to there clients. Where's the brand idea in Adsense?
  • It has EVERYTHING to do with traditional media... 3 years ago... Adwords was only online as well. adplanner is integrated with Adwords... so what do you think it will do.. just sit there only allowing partial recommendations of only online when you can buy media from other venues on the same program?

    Give it 90 days...
  • Tantivy
    Though I believe Google has a grudge against Ad Agencies this product isn't going to change anything. They've integrated a rating's program into their systems. There are dozens of competing products. Neilson didn't destroy the industry, it helped it. Knowing Google Adplanner will be light on features. Expect it to be unused and after a year hidden wherever they stashed Google office.
  • Hopefully it's not in the same palace they stashed Google Search, GMail, Google Talk, Google Maps... or gulp Google Adwords ... wait.. that is where they are stashing it...
  • dbm
    My point was that this isn't specifically targeted at traditional agencies...it will also affect interactive agencies (specifically those that provide research as a profit center) and potentially even companies like Nielson, comScore and Hitwise should the data prove reliable.
  • I think Google could eventually do it. They can fundamentally change an industry just by trying, we all know that. But it is really going to come down to how well the traditional world's walls come down. Right now, many traditional media outlets are denying advertisers' bids that come from Google, because they already have a long standing relationship, and frankly are not ready to walk away from the income. Anyone who's "negotiated" with a newspaper in the last 5 years knows how shortsighted they can be.
  • Huh
    Replace "Google" with "Microsoft" and no one in their right mind would use this tool. Instead the blogosphere would be screaming that MS was trying yet again to corner every inch of the known universe.

    What no one talks about at all in the many posts I've seen is that there's an inherent flaw in this product. Namely Google has a vested interest in using their planning tool since it recommends...spending more money with or through Google.

    Interactive media planning is more than pointing out a list of relevant sites and quoting costs. Anyone with half a brain knows you don't invest money with parties who have a direct interest in getting you to spend it with them.

    It's why agencies were created in the first place, the whole 3rd disinterested party thing. BDA's have screwed the pooch on that and are running away in fear but savvy agency folks will figure out what comes next either with or without Google. Or they'll get creamed. It's way too early to call an audible on the entire advertising industry.
  • Nick F
    From an agency perspective this is no NEW threat to our offerings. Ad Agencies that only offer a list of sites for their online buys don't deserve the business they have. This is a stupid system by an amazing company thats over extending its offerings to take over media. It doesn't replace the human interaction, the big idea, the integrated campaign. Its giving everyone a chance to have the tools we have with @plan and NetRatings. Ask any media person how much those tools play into their online plans, MAYBE 15% of their plans are off that data. Its a ground to jump off of, not a solution. Besides, like analytics and ad words, its all skewed to Google and Google partners....spend with Google Google Google...

    Transactional traditional media is dead, the argument is moot. I'd like to see this tool put together an integrated media mix working with multi platform media between sites/stations/publishers.
    I love Google, I helped them do advertising launching one of their and they had NO CLUE how display worked, that was less than 2 years ago. Hard to believe they have cracked the code.
    Everyone should just relax and understand Google is trying to take over the media world.
    Do TV sales people feel like their days are numbered due to Google TV selling the Dish? Do radio people feel threatened that Google Audio will replace them selling local radio. Google Video Sucked so they bought YouTube...Google brought in creative directors, i don't see them winning any AOR pieces with big clients...
    My CFO is worried about this tool...I say, bring it on Google...Imagine a world where all advertising was produced and placed by Google...yeah, your right...thats ridiculous.
  • Here's Sorrell's Take on Google:

    Sorrell: Google Going From ‘Frenemy’ To ‘Froe’; WPP CEO Grills GOOG, YHOO, MSFT At Cannes

    By David Kaplan - Fri 20 Jun 2008 04:04 PM PST

    - Frenemy to ‘froe’?: The perception that Google has deeply encroached upon ad agency territory is what first led Sorrell to dub the search giant a “frenemy.” Maybe he’s gotten tired of that appellation. He’s now saying the relationship between the two are “froes.” As he said in an interview with Reuters a few weeks ago, Sorrell pointed that out that he’s spending $850 million with Google, so there is some need there on his and other agencies’ part. But Sorrell and others are increasingly worried that Google is doing end-runs around the ad shops and going directly to clients—despite repeated assurances from Google that this was not the case.

    Two of our clients were directly contacted by Google. But, Yahoo also contacted our clients directly.

    best,
    bonnie
  • No it doesn't take the client to lunch... that in itself is a positive..because generally the client themselves are paying to take the themselves out to lunch after the first monthly bill comes in.
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