Well Google may not be the largest advertising platform in the world, but they are definitely a huge contender with not only Adwords on their Search Engine and with their toolbar plug in, (non parasitic, there is parasitic toolbar plugins, BHOs and firefox extensions, but the regular search usually is not, unless it is forcing clicks or only showing Affiliate links over other sites or normal ads and redirecting traffic, but that is a whole different post) the Google Content Network, Their properties like YouTube and now with AdMob, Google Print, Google TV, Ads on Target.com and major retailers, etc…
However, even with being a seriously huge Advertising Platform, they sort of missed the mark on an ad I saw them running in the Chicago Ohare G Terminal this week. They also ran the same exact ad side by side, but in their defense, it did make it easier to read the whole thing when I walked by the first time.
Anyways, The ad talks about 60 percent of the Fortune 500 going with Google, but it doesn’t actually say what Going Google is?
This is completely a B2B ad and they gave a url (Not a really easy one to remember and one that if you glance is hard to make out, it looked like google.com/google, not the google.com/gogoogle when I went back to take the picture of the ad) and for me it just misses the mark.
They could be targeting a consumer by saying find the top brands on Google, but chances are it is for Advertisers to learn how to Advertise on Google and what is available. Where I think these ads missed the mark though is that it doesn’t really say anything about what they are doing on Google, What Google does with the Brands, Which Google advertising platform are they using, etc…
I think that Google would have been better off saying that these Major Brands and companies advertise on Google Search, Advertise on Google’s Family of Sites, are showing in Google’s Paid Placements, because in all honesty, chances are Google isn’t spending a ton of money advertising Google Base which is free (They do get adsense clicks from it though), probably not Caffeine since it isn’t 100% launched yet, more than likely not their new shopping comparison program since it is very niched and only doing one type of industry so a general ad wouldn’t make sense.
Anyways, I loved the ad and it completely got my attention, but that is also probably because I am in this industry and regularly look for these, but then again, maybe it really is just a good ad and I am not giving it enough credit, it did get me to ramble and blog about it. =0).
Here is a copy of the ad for you to look over and let me know what you think….and if you aren’t trying the different Google Ad Platforms, I highly recommend giving it a shot,,,,and if you need help, you know you can always leave a message here and I will reach out to you, all messages get approved manually so your contact information will not be made public.
