From as far back as I can remember, ads have played an essential part in surfing the web. Because, without ads, communication between websites and their promotion decreases significantly. The vast majority of ads, I must admit, is composed of annoying, blinking, colorful adverts that are meant to catch your eye or trick you into clicking. But are those so profitable that everyone seems to take them into consideration? Read the rest of this entry »

Google already started at the end of the past year, a beta session for its Audio Ads, which later became quite successful. However, today, Google needs more beta-testers for the above mentioned AdWords system.

“The beta has been going well and, in fact, the Audio Ads Team is looking for more testers. In terms of feedback, the Audio Ads team has heard that beta testers like the simple and clean user interface and the targeting and reporting options. Beta testers also find the audio ad creation process easy and fast since it only takes them a few days to create their ads and launch their first campaigns (as compared to potentially weeks for traditional radio ads)”

Vivian, Inside AdWords crew

The system’s procedure is simple enough for anyone to understand. Google collects audio ads from multiple AdWords publishers and redirects them to several radio stations that are part of older partnerships. This way, the advertisers can reach their target customers and attract a certain category of the offline users to their online services.

Google already had several attempts of expanding their advertising solutions towards the offline area. Although the audio tests were very popular, numerous users hearing them at multiple US radio stations, there were more beta tests: newspapers ads or TV ads. Some time ago, Google selected multiple AdWords publishers and sent their adverts to several US newspapers, representing the first Google attempt to become a powerful offline advertising platform.

Shortly you can sign up for beta-testing for Google, by following this link.

Here’s a Firefox extension that is useful to me due its simplicity and ergonomy. The AdSense Notifier is compatible with ALL versions of the browser, above 1.0. Its description is quite simple. The plugin displays your AdSense stats on the status bar and updates them automatically at a set period of time. This is wonderful for anyone with OCD - Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder ( or GAD - General Anxiety Disorder as some have called it ) who needs to check their stats every three seconds to see if they have gotten any more clicks :-P

Overall, the little widget is highly configurable and should be useful for everyone that uses Google’s advertising system.

Use it wisely.

That’s fantastic. Google has recently announced that they will try to breach in the physical advertising market as well as the Internet one, but nothing concluded so far. Now, after revolutionizing web advertising with the AdSense system, which displays adverts for products related to the page being viewed, Google wants to do the same for billboard ads.

They have already filed a patent regarding the innovative idea. The ads are supposed to run on electronic billboards located in shopping malls, and even out on the street. However, there’s a slight disadvantage. All these ads are useless if locals stores don’t have the advertised products in stock anymore. Therefore, Google has come up with a system that only advertises products available nearby.

Stores that buy advertising space on local electronic billboards are able to connect their stock-control computers to the network.
The ads are displayed after a round robin until they’re out of stock. When that happens, the certain ad is being deactivated until the product is restocked.

How’s that for an inventive advertising system?