Google's Ad-Sales Reporting Is the Real Newspaper Killer

I got a handsome newsletter from Google (GOOG) a few weeks ago.

It was a four-page 80-pound-paper stock mailing, printed just for me, in a crisp envelope, entitled Adwords Newsletter. It was to tell me about my recent ad campaign with Google. A report worthy of the old Price Waterhouse, it was as useful an explanation of Google advertising as could be devised in four pages. Typographically, it was very good.

Mind you, I had spent a less than $10 with Google. I had been hooked by a $50 Google trial offer that had been part of a promotional package sent out to users of Hostgator, my web hosting company.

The page had a summary of the Google advertising I had done, and a repeat of the most effective ad.

The custom report also had keywords that worked to lure my 11 clicks, total impressions (over 70,000) and a 0.03% click-through-rate. On the back, it had explanations of how to figure ROI. I compare it to newspapers, who often just expect small retail merchants to understand lingo like CPM. The lead sentence was:

You probably already review the number of clicks and impressions your ads receive, but are you tracking your ROI too?

I write of this not to tell you whether I think the results are good, or bad. They are neither. They just are, and they help me look at marketing.

The reason I mention it is that in my years working for newspapers or magazines, they NEVER sent out anything as useful as this Adwords Newsletter after the sale. In most cases when you advertise with print, what you get as an advertiser is a big fat bill. If you spend a lot, one might get a golf outing with the publisher. With magazines, sometimes the bill even arrives BEFORE the actual magazine. Of course if you spend lots, you might get some audited circulation numbers, but often these are not customized to your ad schedule.

But I, as an advertiser, had spent less that $10, and I got the sort of attention lavished on a premium customer. I have to say, I was impressed. But my other thought was to be a bit embarrassed that print doesn’t do a better job of reporting its advertising results to customers in customized ways. Now perhaps I am missing something; maybe some publishers are doing it but obviously not enough.

What if I got exact tracking information for how my classified was displayed across the Internet? What if newspapers told me how many copies they sold the day that the ad ran?

Still in Monopoly Mode

In the old days, when daily newspapers were a monopoly, you ran a classified ad in the Sunday paper, and the phone rang off the hook. You didn’t have to have this sort of reporting. But now, you do, and newspapers and magazines better figure out some sort of sophisticated automated reporting system that can give small advertisers something this good.

I ran a second series of ads for another web client with Google the same week. We spent less than $10 for a few clicks and about 60,000 impressions. Her phone rang off the hook, quite different than the last time she advertised in the newspaper, when nothing happened, and she got that big bill.

For me, a lover of newspapers, it’s a sobering reality. But I say this not to point fingers but to instead urge them to do better.

As a person who publishes a website with Adwords, it’s a bit disappointing to know some folks get lots of exposure on your site but you only get paid if someone clicks. There are folks trying to deal with the issue, with new formats, including David Payne of Short Tail Media. But it’s a wake up call to daily newspapers, where you can hardly buy a classified for $10 bucks.

Comments

[The Lost Ag...:]

Great article, im wondering if that is just limited to particular geographic or industry verticals. I agree that customers love to see any promotional or advertising material from Google but is this a one off promotion?

It could be useful as part of an quarterly or yearly review, but does this add another layer of cost to what is a very efficient and effective online only model?

Aug 02 09:19 AM

[User 323675:]

I am certain this is totally automated, so I would guess it cost the amount of the postage and the printing once system is set up.

Aug 02 11:53 AM

[Crocodilian:]

Great article, and yes, its exactly as you say: Google's metrics are the "killer distinction" between them and other kinds of media. The metrics are important to you, the content provider-- but they're a revolution for the advertising buyer.

Long ago, John Wanamaker once said "Half of what I spend on advertising is wasted-- trouble is, I don't know which half". He'd have _loved_ Google.

Google has done what Arbitron and Neilson tried for many years to do -- at great expense and not all that successfully-- link advertising directly to behavior.

There's an interesting implication to this: if advertising on Google is more efficient, then long term, advertisers should allocate more money to advertising than they did previously.

Aug 02 12:32 PM

[Paul Camp:]

You make great points and newspapers are trying to do better. for example, many now offer unique 800-numbers that create accurate tracking of response rates to various types of advertising.

On the other hand, metrics aren't everything. The Web and newspapers (print or online) are different. We go to the web seeking information that we know we want. We invite the newspaper into our home (a very intimate relationship from the start) and brush against information we never knew might interest us.

Our relation to the advertising in both media is also different. Online we might click and buy based on the information we seek. In print we may be moved to go to a local retail establishment because of an offer. For example, I am vaguely in the market for a high def TV. Today's newspaper brought with it an insert with a great price on a large format LCD TV by an major manufacturer. The low price in the ad moved me to set it aside to remind me to check out this TV this week.

Most Web advertising simply does not move people to think outside of the areas of particular interest they are searching in when they go online. Now if newspapers figure out how to communicate their power and measure their effectiveness, look out!

Aug 02 05:25 PM

[MSimon:]

I get similar types of reports EVERY DAY from Amazon.

They tell me the number of impressions re: links. The number of clicks. What was looked at and what sold.

BTW my most popular bit (still getting clicks) was my July 4th Bikini Edition.

Aug 02 08:26 PM

[Leftfield:]

The best new successes are, like Google and Apple, able to present you intelligently with information and great choices that you may be very willing to spend money on. You can clearly see benefit without hype or coercion.
Old-line ways of thinking are to coerce, cheat or force you to spend. The monopoly cable company. The annoying scam ads on the internet or anywhere else. The government.
The government is the worst example of old-line thinking that I hope gets brought down to an intelligent size as it's only been able to grow so unreasonably at the point of a gun.
Free association and minimal coercion with lower overhead is the web at it's best and is an example of where future prosperity can grow from.

Aug 02 08:30 PM

[Relayer10:]

The big difference is "Active" vs "Passive" buyers or shoppers. Google Adwords is designed to reach an active buyer at the point where either active research or active local buying choice is happening right NOW. Newpapers reach passive buyers who happen to pass the ad information while reading information or news.

The big transformation is with traditional classified advertising and free standing inserts. In the not to distant past, consumers turned to newspaper at the moment of buy decision for cars, houses, and supermarkets etc. That market was by far the most single lucrative. Auto and Real Estate were at one time 30% of the revenue. Employment grew to replace Real Estate as that moved online. Then Employment began to shrink, and nothing emerged to replace it. Newspapers tried to squeeze Auto, so they also began to seek alternatives online. Now, even supermarkets are beginning to send their expensive to produce and distribute flyers via email.

Newspapers have no practical way to do what Google does, metrically. The model is also different- passive advertising simply does not work the same. The categories that could have been measured that way are almost completely gone now. The arrogance of newspapers were the cause of the migration, and now it is probably too late to get it back. The only value newspapers can bring to bear is audience- much like TV and Radio have tried to do. Newspapers still have a much much bigger audience than any TV or Radio station in their local market.

Long explanation- the bottom line is this... Google Adwords work differently than any passive media...and search is the primary means of consumers choosing what and where to buy.

As a note...I am a 26 year veteran of newspapers, as an Advertising Director. I am also a Google Adwords certified specialist.

Aug 02 09:11 PM

[Garland Pol...:]

Great points, Relayer10, but having grown up in newspapers working in alternative weeklies, we still had to sell the way newspapers have to sell now. That means, when you put in an ad in the alt weekly, you hoped that you would get the retailer some result, but what you were doing is starting a conversation with the customer that was long term--you were always trying to sell the advertiser that you were trying to bring awareness to their store and such.

I do think that newspapers can begin to provide metrics, even if there is only a small bit of information. For instance, the newsletter I got was only a few actual bits of info, but mostly explanation.

McClatchy (MNI) or Gannett (GAN) or Scripps (SSP) could easily invest in a CRM system that married daily newsstand sales with the day an ad runs. That would give some explanation for advertisers.

So I am a small restaurant in Miami, and I advertise my job opening for dishwashers. I haven't been in the daily paper recently, but after my $40 ad, I get info that tells me how many people saw the ad online on various networks, which networks online, how many single copies were sold that day in print, exactly how many paid subscribers there were that day. The newspaper then threw in some extra info about how they can use a classified ad to build search traffic in general, and talk about response to ads in general. This employment ad can begin to rebuild the relationship between newspaper and advertiser, and now that the relationship has started, the newspaper can publicize that new restaurant directory that the newspaper is publishing online and next Sunday in the print edition.

Aug 03 07:49 AM

[yank:]

More proof that it's all over for newsprint media. Stick a fork in them. They are done. More evidence is available from posing a simple question to Gen Xers and Yers. How many of your friends read a daily newspaper? The uniformly negative answer is precisely NONE. Zero. Nada. Left-wing outlets like the NY Times and Washington Post have not helped their cause with their embarassingly one-sided coverage of last year's Presidential election. Not to pile on but when Warren Buffett was asked recently if he saw "value" in investing in beaten down media stocks his terse answer was "They are not a value at ANY price".
When I hear the ludicrous comment that we need newspapers as a watchdog over our Govt and business interests, my first reply is "you meant to say "lapdog" didn't you?"
Sorry Mr. Rather. You day in the sun is over. I say "Good riddance".

Aug 03 09:45 AM

[Relayer10:]

I ran two rather large weekly chains...one in a major metro (over 100,000 combined weekly, the other in a smaller market, with large reach (130,000). The ad sales were designed to provide our rather large audience to local advertisers. My staff saw their customers each week, and helped them shape meaningful ad campaigns to draw immediate business. That was the strength of all newspapers, weekly and daily. The way readers gather information is just different now- the audience is far more fragmented, with huge choices for information.

I worked for both Lee Enterprises and MediaNEWS- both in the top 10. They already have the capacity to provide exact numbers of daily circulation. They can even break it down by zip, single copy, and home delivery. Every modern daily, and most weeklies can do that as well. They can also tell you exactly how many unique pageviews for each news story and even the clickthrough rate of every story and ad on their website.

They simply don't want those numbers out, and for good reason. Over the years, fanatical focus was placed on single copy sales, and almost none on home delivery. Advertisers are not told how much of the circulation is home delivered, and how much single copy. Single copy numbers are manipulated to show artificial circulation. The best example of this is Newspapers in Education- NIE. Ask a local merchant or foundation to support reading in schools. Then charge the minimum allowed as paid by ABC and bulk deliver as many copies as that provides to a local school or (hopefully) schools. Or giving away copies at a stadium after an event. Or a free paper at your hotel room. All fake circulation, that provides thousands of single copy sales that mean nothing to an advertiser.

The click through rate of newspaper tile ads on their website is less than 1/2 of one percent!

Major advertisers have caught on, and now demand to separate their inserts into home delivery only- which does not change much, except on Sunday.

If they actually told advertisers how many papers were delivered to homes near their business each day, it would have to be without single copy to be "real". They can easily do that- I did it with any advertiser that cared to know, or I wanted to prove value to. Savvy advertisers would soon compare the dramatic drop year over year, and demand lower rates. Almost no one clicks on banners or tiles- so they really don't want to go there either....typically they use the numbers for the stories on the page, which do pretty well, not the tile ads on it.

As I said earlier....the model has changed, and newspaper top execs just have not yet admitted it to themselves yet. Adwords fluctuate with demand, and click price is based on instant value of the moment. Newspapers could do the same, with little effort. They do this to a small extent by charging lower rates weekdays than Sunday- but no where on the scale of Adwords.

I LOVE that someone in the media (you) is actually looking at this, and shining light on something that Ad Directors and Circ Directors have known for years- and have been frustrated by Publishers and Corporate types for years! They are their own worst enemy, and we just have to wait till shareholders demand their removal. Hopefully, the industry will still be there to save!


On Aug 03 07:49 AM Garland Pollard wrote:

> Great points, Relayer10, but having grown up in newspapers working
> in alternative weeklies, we still had to sell the way newspapers
> have to sell now. That means, when you put in an ad in the alt weekly,
> you hoped that you would get the retailer some result, but what you
> were doing is starting a conversation with the customer that was
> long term--you were always trying to sell the advertiser that you
> were trying to bring awareness to their store and such.
>
> I do think that newspapers can begin to provide metrics, even if
> there is only a small bit of information. For instance, the newsletter
> I got was only a few actual bits of info, but mostly explanation.
>
>
> McClatchy (seekingalpha.com/symbo...) or Gannett (seekingalpha.com/symbo...)
> or Scripps (seekingalpha.com/symbo...) could easily invest
> in a CRM system that married daily newsstand sales with the day an
> ad runs. That would give some explanation for advertisers.
>
> So I am a small restaurant in Miami, and I advertise my job opening
> for dishwashers. I haven't been in the daily paper recently, but
> after my $40 ad, I get info that tells me how many people saw the
> ad online on various networks, which networks online, how many single
> copies were sold that day in print, exactly how many paid subscribers
> there were that day. The newspaper then threw in some extra info
> about how they can use a classified ad to build search traffic in
> general, and talk about response to ads in general. This employment
> ad can begin to rebuild the relationship between newspaper and advertiser,
> and now that the relationship has started, the newspaper can publicize
> that new restaurant directory that the newspaper is publishing online
> and next Sunday in the print edition.

Aug 03 08:46 PM

[a4htec:]

I wonder if newspapers ever thought of selling their daily newspaper through kiosks that are accessible where ever you can purchase a regular paper or on busy street corners.

They can sell their paper for like a quarter and you have the option to insert your own usb flash drive and have it copied directly to that or email it to a personal email account to be read later on.

Wouldn't this attract more people to read their paper because of the low cost for next to nothing a person who would normally not buy a paper can spend a quarter and get todays local news and coupon printouts or just simply read directly on the kiosk.

For first time buyers they can just purchase a new flash drive for a few bucks and attach that to their keychain. This way of advertising would actually give businesses more ways to advertise their product in full sound and visual mini ads and videos. And the newspapers can update their papers instantly via the net everyday and their front page headlines can stand out on a big screen on the kiosk.

For me I would spend a quarter each time im at the store or purchase a whole weeks subscription for a few bucks and have it emailed to me each day for that week this way I think newspapers would get more of their papers sold to new people who wouldn't normally pick up a paper at the news stand and now would just to get coupons or the latest local news.

Aug 05 04:15 AM

[Relayer10:]

This is a really unique idea! Very "out of the box"...fairly easy to set up and execute. It would work really easy in large cities with mass transit commuters. Great idea....but it requires a forward thinking executive to pull off.

I think this kernal of an idea could work...and the kernal would grow...

LIKE IT A LOT

Aug 06 09:29 PM

[a4htec:]

Oh yea most definitely, its endless the amount of things you can offer thru this kiosk that would keep the customers from coming back and in turn you will develop and able to maintain a customer base.

You can offer video game demos or recipes or even sell music like itunes and they can just plug in their ipod or iphone. Anything to keep people coming back and spending a quarter. Back in the day when arcades were around people who never play games but seeing a machine that can offer entertainment or just something to do for a quarter ppl will not hesitate to try it out. And this is where this type of gimmick will be effective in getting new customers for what ever needs they have. And it should be simple easy to use touch screen with minimal menus but it will take them thru a wizard if they choose to add extra stuff to their flash drive or email. A menu system with categories that is easy to navigate and click what you want to download to take home. And lets say they want to find out which club to goto or restaurant or if they are looking for a plasma tv or rollerblades and if there is a business that has an ad for that inquiry then the user will be able to select that to load to the flash drive along with their paper or emailed to home. Maybe they can have an option to buy the NYtimes or what ever paper that is offered other than the local and even buy subscriptions or memberships for premium website. And because this is cash transactions to buy services or internet subscriptions or memberships to websites its easier for the average person who might not have a credit card or older people who are skeptical about using their credit cards online and for the younger people this is very easy for them to buy from the internet. I think if enough time is spent on this it could have many conviences for all types of people and can offer many services that people normally would never pay for online using credit cards or paypal.

Aug 07 03:24 AM