According to the New York Times, Google has ended it Radio Advertising Program. Three years ago, Google entered the radio advertising business with big hopes. On Thursday, those hopes fluttered away.
Google said it was ending its radio project, “Google Audio Ads”, because it had failed to live up to expectations. Up to 40 people are expected to lose their jobs.
This will be a hit for many offline ad companies as well as search marketing firms like my own. As an SEM firm, Google Audio Ads was an low-priced easy way to buy adspace that made it easy for a traditional search engine marketing firm to place ads for customers offline.
It was the 2nd program they’ve cut in the last 2 months (see Google Print), leading to the belief that Google’s automated ad model is in far more trouble than once expected.
The only one of Google’s offline advertising initiatives to survive was Google TV — the more ambitious effort to sell TV ads. While Google has had so-so success so far in TV advertising, they are not likely to give up on the effort any time soon. The market is just so large and the initiative could help Google’s video site YouTube.
Looks like traditional SEM companies will have to find another method of coming full-circle with on-and-offline marketing.
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