Google buys radio ads company

By Steve Malone

Posted on 19 Jan 2006 at 10:35

Search engine Google is to buy the Californian radio ads placement company dMarc Broadcasting. The company says that it plans to bring the dMarc service to its AdWords customers to offer a new radio ad distribution channel for Google advertisers.

On the face of it, the dMarc service is complementary to AdWords. As with AdWords, dMarc offers a single interface that allows potential advertisers to automatically place ads with a wide number of radio stations. However, advertisers will not be bidding on keywords. Rather, they are more likely to bid on a particular demographic represented within the fragmented US radio franchises or perhaps within a particular show dedicated to travel or business.

The automated system allows small advertisers to deal directly with the radio stations without having to go through a media agency which once again mirrors the AdWords experience, where anyone can bid on a keyword. It will also give Google a way into some of traditional big companies that buy radio slots but are not yet into Internet advertising in a big way.

The move represents another step in Google's march away from being merely a search engine towards becoming a global media company and to a worldwide broker between advertisers and content producers. Recently the company announced the Google Video Marketplace where content producers such as CBS can offer their videos, TV shows and movies at a pay per download price. The company has also introduced Google Base, which takes aim at both the Classified ad market and eBay.

Over the coming months, traditional media buyers will be looking to see whether Google will be acquiring a similar service to dMarc for cable TV.

Google is paying $102 million in cash for the company. If certain performance targets are met over the next three years extra payments will be made up to a total of $1.136 billion.