Commentary

Google's Real-Time Ads Tap Into Growing Trend For 'Moment Marketing'

Google’s announcement that it will be beta-testing Real Time Ads with a select number of advertisers  including website building and hosting company Wix.com during the Super Bowl is welcome news.

Rumors abound that Comcast will tap into real-time ads at the Oscars, while Google has said it has been trying out the format with EA Sports. The tools will allow a pre-created ad to include a component — such as a photo or overlaid text — which can be updated immediately to reflect chatter.

More significantly, perhaps, the news marks a recognition from Google of the importance of tapping into the real-time market, as it tries to compete with Twitter and its newly launched platforms such as Periscope.

Connecting with real-time conversation is something advertisers have been trying to do on Twitter for years. So the arrival of this product from Google is good news – considering the huge reach of inventory and ad formats it has to offer.

It will be interesting to see how the product evolves over the next year. But one thing is for sure: it’s win/win for Google, advertiser and user as the market evolves.

We’ve already seen other third-party tools try to tap into the potential of TV and online synchronization -- such as wywy, which allows PPC marketers to set live campaigns at the same time as TV ads (theirs or their competitors).  But thus far, Google has only ever dabbled with real-time, for example with Google Scripts, which enables customizsed real-time ads in PPC search, allowing for a dynamic countdown to a sale end. This, then, is a way to keep people more engaged with banner ads.

It also marks a recognition of the fact that we need to evolve from the current disconnect between TV and online. People multiscreen. I expect pretty compelling results, because real-time marketing represents low-hanging fruit. We’ll be advising clients to think of what real-time data or assets they have that can feed into their banner campaigns.

Google has said it plans to roll out the service more broadly later this year, thereby allowing brands to run an ad across YouTube, apps and sites in its display network with a message tied directly to a specific moment. It will also mean that marketers can serve ads in real-time in response to relevant TV moments. And Facebook is in on the moment-marketing act, too, allowing advertisers to target ads based on football fans discussing a game.

Advertisers have always sought to be a part of conversations, while Twitter’s ability to target ads in real time has already made its Live Moment-type offerings a cornerstone of its revenue generation. But those that will succeed in this space will be those that have genuine (not forced) and creative ways to link themselves to the real-time content being produced. It will be interesting to see which advertisers do this successfully.

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