Google’s Ad Planner
Andy Cocker, co-founder and managing partner at Infectious Media, the specialist digital media agency, takes an in-depth look at Google’s new media planning tool, Ad Planner.
On 24th June 2008, at the Advertising Research Foundation annual conference in New York, Google unveiled their new media planning tool, Ad Planner.
To many industry observers this wasn’t much of a surprise. A week earlier, Google had announced improvements to their ‘Trends’ tool which extended its functionality to include website user volume trends, as well as search term ‘buzz’ trends, giving an indication of their intention to make their vast data resource more accessible to marketers (or anyone else interested in having a look). Ad Planner, (currently in an invitation only beta test phase), is a digital media planning tool, that allows media planners to identify sites which may be relevant to a demographic group and build a media plan based on their research.
So, set the dashboard dials to Male, 18-24, Graduate, with an annual Household Income of >$100,000 (full demographic data is currently only available in the US), and Ad Planner will report back with a long list of sites that efficiently deliver that audience, versus an all sites average (the composition index). Alongside each site are its Unique Visitors, Country Reach and Page Views, and a column showing whether or not the site is within the Google Content Network, and if so, which ad formats it accepts.
Users can drill down into any site for richer site specific info such as related search terms and detailed demographic breakdowns (for visitors to that site).
Users can also specify a list of websites which they know their target audience visits, and have the tool return a selection of sites with similar user audience profiles, that may be relevant for a media plan.
Finally users can select the sites they are interested in, add them to a ‘media plan’ and view the aggregated UV, Country Reach and Page Views data for that plan.
The tool appears to cover a broad selection of both large and long tail sites. Cynics may suggest that this is a smart move to get Google’s extensive portfolio of long-tail content network sites under the noses of media planners. It will certainly assist planners in broadening the range of sites they consider for a schedule.
The data behind the service is multi-sourced and in Google’s own (deliberately vague) words,
“includes aggregated Google search data, aggregated opt-in anonymous Google Analytics data, opt-in consumer panel data, and other third-party market research. The data is aggregated over millions of users, powered by computer algorithms, and doesn’t contain personally identifiable information”.
There is speculation that Google’s widely distributed toolbar is one source of user browsing behavioural data.
The one thing it isn’t at present is totally accurate. In the same way the Comscore and Nielsen data use panel data to estimate site traffic, so too does the Google tool, albeit fused with other data.
Interestingly, one of the above systems reports 3.6m daily unique visitors to www.bbc.co.uk, whilst Ad Planner reports c.2.0m. Quite a big difference. We also noticed some inconsistencies in the combined reach calculations across multiple sites, although it’s early days, and no doubt, as Google’s data becomes richer and deeper, the stats and trends it reports will become more accurate.
It’s also interesting that at present there is no transactional functionality within the tool. That is, you cannot buy media through the tool, although you can export your media plan to DoubleClick’s Mediavisor system, which can act as the bridge between Ad Planner, 3rd Party Adserver, and Publishers. We all know that DoubleClick also have a sophisticated media exchange platform – could this become the transactional engine room of the Adplanner system in the future?
The most significant trend here however is not the site stats themselves, but the statement of intent that this move signals. The release of this tool-set sends a clear signal to the market of Google’s intention to further develop (free) tools to aid media planning and buying across the wider web, not just sites within their content network. As these tools become more sophisticated and accurate, and become integrated with DoubleClicks’ ad-exchange and ad-serving platform, it gives Google access to a revenue stream from the wider digital display market, outside of search.
The move could also be of concern for services such as Comscore and Nielsen who amongst others, provide a range of similar subscription based services. Is this the fall of yet another ‘barrier to entry’ in the digital media agency market?
Our view at Infectious is that Ad Planner could develop into a very smart tool indeed. It is also a clear indication of how the market is moving towards increasingly data and technology driven techniques. This highlights the importance of working with agencies that understand and are able to balance these techniques with the art of more ‘creative’ media planning across the entire digital media mix.
Infectious Media: www.infectiousdigital.com