Posted on August 4, 2008
3 Reasons Google's Ad Planner Can't Compete With Nielsen/ComScore
BY WENDY RICCI
Rumors of Google's free media planner have been buzzing around the interactive community for at least a year. When Google announced the beta version, I immediately signed up to be a beta tester for the product. My initial reaction? It can't compete with Nielsen's @plan or ComScore's Media Metrix. At least not yet.
Most interactive media planners would agree that having a free planning tool would benefit our industry tremendously. Google has already released updates for Ad Planner, so I have hope that they will continue to improve the product to compete with larger, subscription-based tools. Until then, below are three reasons Ad Planner will not put Nielsen or ComScore out of business any time soon.
Why Google Ad Planner Can't Compete
1. Target audience definition is limited.
Media planners love to define niche audiences for their targeted marketing messages. These target definitions usually contain a mix of both demographic and psychographic qualities (such as age and specific purchasing behavior/interests).
Currently, Google's Ad Planner only allows you to define a target based on a very limited number of demographics. Both @plan and Media Metrix allow planners to mix and match hundreds of characteristics to create a targeted audience, and thus a more targeted list of sites.
2. Sites can only be filtered by inclusion in Google's content network.
When I am planning an online campaign for a client, I am only interested in reviewing sites that accept advertising. Ad planner does not have a good way to filter these sites out of the master list. The current filter does allow you to exclude sites that are not included in their content network, but this filter gets rid of sites that may be a good fit for sponsorship or banner ad placement.
@plan and Media Metrix offer filters that show any site that accepts advertising, whether or not they are included in a specific network. This type of filter is more ideal than sifting through hundreds of site names to determine which ones accept advertising.
3. Site metrics are not target specific.
With the exception of Comp Index, all of the site metrics shown are based on total traffic, not the specific target audience defined in Ad Planner. While Comp Index gives planners a general comparison of which sites have a higher composition of the defined target, I am more interested in the actual percentage of site visitors that meet the target audience I defined.
@plan and Media Metrix both provide these target specific numbers, such as composition. Hopefully by now you get my drift. These two tools provide a more detailed analysis of which sites are best for a specific target audience.
Despite being somewhat disappointed by the initial beta of Google Ad Planner, the tool does provide an easy way for any online marketers to compare traffic for multiple sites. Hopefully, with enough feedback, Google will turn Ad Planner into a more competitive interactive planning tool.
The product might be half-baked now, but I wouldn't underestimate Google's ability to innovate and attract people who "get it" and can seriously improve the Ad Planner. They are currently on a roll. For a long time, Google Trends wasn't that great but they just recently released Google Insights and it is so much better.
that was a good review about the program, but i think google will make a way not to spoil the event. a long term plan and some advertisement can twist the view.
Hi Wendy,
I enjoyed your "measured" commentary on Battelle's SearchBlog ( http://battellemedia.com/archives/004574.php#comment_133069 :)
I acknowledge your interest in targeting (this is also the raison d'être for MWJV's E-Z.Name project -- namely: increasingly a specific language ["dot"] is becoming the standard for users to *find* the information they are searching for [see the "wisdom of the language": http://gaggle.info/miscellaneous/articles/wisdom-of-the-language ]).
I don't understand your point #2. AFAIK: there is no such thing as a site that does not accept advertising: Every site has a price. Note that MWJV sites do not carry cheap listings from inferior automated advertising agency services (such as Google).
I have never heard of CTC before today (at least not that I can recall) -- and I like your analysis. I look forward to hearing what you think about how language and conversation rely on each other, and how that might be useful to you for your interest in ad targeting.
:) nmw
Wendy, this is really insightful. As we have discussed, it is interesting to consider ad targeting in terms of demographics and psychographics vs. targeting based on the identification and engagement of online key influencers. Do you think it is fair to say we (Room 214) have a new approach to media planning - or do you believe our influencer methodology needs more time to bake... before it is unveiled to the masses ;-) ?