Does Google Have A Secret?

If the rumors are true, online giant Google may be introducing a stealth weapon for companies interested in building brand. According to reports, the search advertising giant is testing a secret CPM online advertising network. Reports say the Google Display Advertising Network has been in beta testing since October 1.

by Kristina Knight

John Chow writes on his blog that the invitation only network is targeting Fortune 1000 companies – those interested in building brand rather than selling product. He says he has been participating in the pilot program and writes, “Google has been hand-selecting sites. . .that they want to put in front of Fortune 1000 companies. The goal being to sell these big companies display and video ads at a very high CPM – unlike the AdSense network, the display network is 100% CPM based.”

The invited publishers negotiate a flat CPM rate for one year with the program. Publishers also guarantee a minimum monthly inventory, according to Chow. "Publishers can serve more than the minimum amount and still receive the same CPM rate for the overage," he writes (via MarketingVOX).

Google updates participants in a weekly email, though with very limited information, according to Chow. They include weekly ad impressions and page views, publishers can then multiply the impression figure by CPM to find out what they made.

Tags: Google, online advertising, online display advertising

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Google is a technology company. This is a brokerage model, which requires very little technology in comparison to search. There have been many companies for many years implementing this, so their "stealth weapon" is years behind the rest of the space. Unless they have some sort of secret new targeting or optimization capabilities, it's going to be just another ad network.... except smaller and by the sound of it overpriced.

Posted by: matt on November 30, 2006 02:05