Google Selling Magazine Ads. Say What?

Google is testing the print ad market in an attempt to capture traditional advertising dollars and take a significant step toward becoming a one-stop shop for both online and offline ad sales, writes CNET (via MarketingVox). Google recently bought ad pages in tech magazines, including PC Magazine and Maximum PC, and is reselling those pages, in quarters and fifths, to its AdWords advertisers.

The experiment (the companies buying the ads describe it) is also the first time that Google has gone offline with any of its products. The foray into print ads expands Google’s efforts to be a middleman for advertisers and publishers.

“Google has shown that big media companies don’t have to be part of the mix at all,” said Tim Hanlon, senior vice-president of emerging contacts at Publicis Groupe. “People can just get the content and ads directly from an uber-intermediary. That’s caught a lot of traditional ad types off guard.”

“I would be surprised and somewhat disappointed if they were to spend a lot of money and resources on a print advertising unit,” said Safa Rashtchy, senior Internet analyst at Piper Jaffray. “My guess is it is just an experiment.”

“All the big talk today is how the inventory available for PPC (pay per click) ads is shrinking each day,” Barry Schwartz, editor of Search Engine Roundtable, wrote in an email. “So it does make sense for Google to look for ways to increase that inventory.”