Google Print Ads Now Available
Google has launched their print ads, where you can bid on the amount you are willing to pay for an ad. You can select publication, ad size, and submit your max bid.
More info on the FAQ page and at the Inside AdWords blog.
- Y! MyWeb
Mostly useless
The primary benefit of adwords is finely targetted traffic. The primary drawback of print ads is that there is no real ability to target. Throwing Google's name behind it doesn't change the dynamics of that.
No targetting, no measurable ROI, no tracking, all the standard print media drawbacks. This is good only for branding, and if you're that far into 'branding', you likely already have the budget to run your own ads.
The only benefit I see to this is during the initial hysteria stage where everyone reads the ads because they're new. Kind of like the million dollar homepage. Once the initial fervor has died down, Google won't be doing any better of a job than the rest of the print media world - which won't wash with most savvy adwords advertisers.
I threw this past my adwords accounts, none of them were interested, nor am I.
well yeah
but the excitement probably is on the print publisher end, where they are all crapping their pants about Google, Craigslist, MySpace etc. The reason this deal makes enough money for G to be interested is those publishers are undoubtedly selling those pages to google at insane discounts, to look "relevant" to the world at large.
It will be interesting to see these pages when they come out.