Google introduced a new tool on June 24th called Ad Planner. Ad Planner is marketed as a research and media planning tool that will give advertisers another method of measuring their media audience and ROI. It seems to be targeted to reach the long-tail or niche consumers. Currently, Ad Planner is in a beta version and is available for use by invitation only. The service will be free and available to all after the initial trial period.

Ad Planner offers several, interesting features. It allows companies to search for attractive Web sites to place their ads on using specific, demographic, and usage criteria. Ad Planner can also provide keywords that can be used as search terms.

In addition, companies are able to determine what other Web sites their target audience visits. Business product manager of Google, Wayne Lin, cited the example of ESPN.com, showing that visitors to this site also tend to visit cnnsi.com and Cubs.com.

There are, however; some concerns with Google Ad Planner. For instance, the service is not equipped with costs or a brokerage system in order to enable buying. Subsequently, companies will need to seek out vendors or professional media buyers. Also, Ad Planner must be used in conjunction with other, often costly services. The service should be seen as a starting point and used in addition to other research tools.

Although Google Ad Planner may be a useful tool, it should be used with carefulness and caution. Google claims to use outside data as well as their own, but they do not disclose any specific sources. Users should also be concerned about the conflicts of interest since Google sells advertising space.

The tool has some potential, but it lacks services that are necessary to media planning.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 at 3:28 pm by Brittany Paxman and is filed under Google, Media Planning, Research. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.