Some Chicago Sun-Times readers were surprised when they saw Google-like ads in their newspaper earlier this year. Those were Google-placed ads, displayed in the same format as AdWords ads are online. In a limited test with the Sun-Times and certain advertisers, Google made placements for its AdSense advertisers in the newspaper.
Then, Google said this month that advertisers could bid on ads in certain magazines, including Martha Stewart Living and Car and Driver, via an auction system just like its AdWords keywords bidding program.

One AdWords advertiser who worked with Google on the Sun-Times test said it paid off. MPI Home Video saw a 30 percent to 40 percent increase in response on its Web site during the week its ad for the video game Super Bowl Shuffle ran, said Mike Zuccato, director of consumer marketing at MPI Home Video, Orland Park, IL.

“I would look at any kind of program they would make available,” he said. “I would test it out. If the numbers worked, I would do anything.”

Though some media planners and agencies say buying offline ad inventory via Google is a great new tool, others are cautious and say it may not work as well for advertisers trying to target certain markets. Print advertising is less about selling inventory — as Google’s AdWords program is — than other forms of media such as radio and TV, media buyers note.

“What Google has been good at is organizing inventory, like radio” with its purchase of radio ad network dMarc, said Greg Smith, executive vice president, media insights, planning & analysis, at interactive agency Carat Fusion, New York. “That works for some elements of the inventory but doesn’t work for everything.”

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