Google Ad Planner Archive

Editor’s note: The following column was provided by Darren Herman who is a digital media enthusiast and serial entrepreneur.

I haven’t blogged about Google’s new Ad Planner so thought that I’d start my week talking about it and sharing a sexy and hot observation I made totally randomly.

What is the purpose of Ad Planner? Media Planners spend quite a bit of time trying to figure out where their brands or clients’ audiences are so that the brand can buy media to reach them. For digital media, many agencies use either Comscore or @Plan; both aren’t perfect, but they certainly help us organize thousands of potential sites for media planning.

Google is entering the world of Ad Planning. Why? I suspect it’s because they make it easy for anyone to purchase media on any site as they come into the Google Network. If you’re on the Google Network as a publisher, then ad dollars should follow as buying media for the small tire shop in Boise or a Fortune 100 brand can now reach you for display based online media.

I took a spin around the interface tonight and looked for Males, Ages 35-44, $150k+ in HHI, and have a Graduate Degree. It’s very intuitive, no frills – and gives a nice site list. If you use DoubleClick’s MediaVisor, you can export this and can finish planning in your preferred tool.

A funny thing happened however as I dug deeper. If you look closely at which sites come up first, you’ll see that the #1 site for this search is BDJGirls (Link Warning: ADULT CONTENT), an escort service. I’m all for beautiful women (and there are some on their site), but I don’t think I’m going to be spending my brand’s money on an escort service’s website. After reviewing their site, they don’t even accept advertising.

To add a bit of humor to this, BDJGirls is listed in the Weddings category. Does this mean that these males are looking for dates to weddings?

Maybe Ad Planner needs some refinement?  What’s evident however is that DoubleClick is very important to Google’s future strategy.

Darren Herman is a digital media enthusiast and serial entrepreneur. Herman writes about technology, entrepreneurship and digital media at his blog, http://www.darrenherman.com.