Google Debuts Ad Planning Tool

Google has unveiled a free web analytics, research and media planning tool to enable media buyers to determine the web sites where their online ads will have most impact, based on demographics and traffic info.

Advertisers can use the new Google Ad Planner system to search for appropriate sites using filters such as gender, age, education and household income. The tool then provides details of the number of unique visitors a site attracts, which other sites these visitors are likely to use, and a site's international reach.

Viewers can drill down further to obtain more detail like demographic interests and related searches for a particular site, or aggregate statistics for the sites they have added to their media plans. Google also provides lists of keywords that visitors use in searches.

The system combines audience measurement data with search engine data and information from third parties, such as Nielsen, to determine which sites attract a certain demographic audience. It then uses this data to help agencies determine where to place ads.

For several months, it has been suggested that Google is moving into the web measurement market to compete against companies like comScore, Nielsen Online, Hitwise and Quantcast. Earlier this month, the search giant fuelled these rumours by announcing that it would be linking the Google Analytics traffic analysis tool and its Google TV Ads program.

Susan Hickey, Head of Marketing for Nielsen Online told the New York Times there is room in the market for both: 'Google's an important company and an important client. We haven't seen the tool in-depth, but feel that clients pay for the breadth and depth of our data.'

Google Ad Planner, which is currently in beta test, is on the web at www.google.com/adplanner .

Yesterday, Quantcast launched an audience measurement solution which combines cookie-based traffic counts with people-based audience estimates.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.