Google Wants to Make Online Display Ads ‘Sexy’
Google has long dominated Web search, and the advertising it generates. But the company has vowed to build a major business in the parallel market of online display ads, and on Tuesday laid out some predictions about how that business will evolve.
Context & Ripple Effects
Google’s display-ad push has been building for years, from plans to place display ads on Google.com in 2008 to a campaign to expand its display-ad business a week earlier. Its separate search for better ad formats shows the effort is not simply about selling more inventory, but about improving how display creative is presented and bought.
First-order effects
- Google gives its sales, product, and advertising partners a clearer signal that display advertising is a strategic business alongside the search advertising franchise.
- Advertisers evaluating Google’s display products face a company explicitly investing in the market’s formats and future direction, rather than treating banners as a peripheral offering.
Second-order effects
- Display-ad rivals must compete not only for advertiser budgets but also on the quality and suitability of ad formats, an area Google had already identified as a product problem.
- Publishers and advertising buyers have greater reason to track Google’s display tools and proposals because Google’s scale in search advertising can carry its display priorities into campaign planning.
Third-order effects
- If Google can translate search-ad relationships into display adoption, the boundary between search-led advertising platforms and display-media buying will narrow around integrated buying and measurement systems.
The trend: Google is extending its advertising business from search into display by pairing market ambition with investment in ad formats and buyer adoption.