Google recently reached an agreement with EchoStar Communications to sell ads through national satellite television in what would be Google's latest effort to expand its profitable ad network beyond the Internet.
By further automating the process of spot selection, Google aims to become more attractive to advertisers, allowing them to bid for airtime on a specific day, time, channel, geographic or demographic groups.
"Today, when I run a 30-second television spot, I would have to be watching TV to know whether it actually ran," complains Steve Jarmon, vice president of brand communications at online florist 1-800-Flowers.com. "I have to wait weeks for data to come back from network operators about how many views saw an ad," he said.
Instead of finding out how any particular ad performed weeks after a holiday, Jarmon said the new system could give him near real-time feedback that will allow him to do far more specific targeting and even change his ad strategy midstream.
Google intends to make waves in the $70 billion yearly TV advertising business in the US, and claims to already have exceeded their expectations on their radio and print advertising experiments.
Live testing of Google's TV advertising system is set for May 2007.