Google: Formally Launches US Radio Beta Test

Announcing the completion of the dMarc platform integration into AdWords and a small US beta test of audio ads, Google released more details of the program:

• “Audio Ads offers detailed reporting, targeting by demographic, location, and station type, and provides easy access to the huge market reached by radio programming.”
• “Generally, you may expect to pay between $100 and $1000 to create an ad for this test.”
• “Audio Ads should be an MP3 file, 30 seconds in length (there are additional format guidelines). Because many AdWords advertisers are new to radio advertising, we’ve created a directory of ad creation talent to help with the creation of your ads. These specialists can help with each step of the process, from writing a script based on your requirements and preferences, to recording and delivering the final audio file.”
• “The Audio Ads network includes hundreds of radio stations across the United States. We’ll display the number of stations that meet your criteria when you complete the targeting section of your campaign setup, and will break that number down into radio station types (the type of music or talk that the radio station focuses on).”

Audio Ads combined with the Google newspaper deal and the acquisition of YouTube (now on Verizon handsets) signal an across-the-board push beyond the boundaries of search and the Internet more generally. There’s also the rumor of the “secret display network.”

Taken together these efforts seek to expand the distribution that Google is able to offer to advertisers as well as attract a broader range of advertisers (read: brand marketers). Partly this is about maintaining growth and momentum and partly about diversifying and tapping into the brand marketing budget, which is much (read: MUCH) larger than paid search budgets for national advertisers.

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Related: Google offering Web services-like services in deal (via MarketingVox) with UK-based BSkyB, a satellite TV and broadband provider. Only having read about the deal it would appear to be not unlike the Yahoo!-AT&T or Yahoo! Verizon deals with a couple of wrinkles.