• by Shankar Gupta , March 13, 2007

Google's reported entry into the world of television advertising has interactive marketers hoping for the opportunity to target TV spots the same way they can target ads online, said industry experts.

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal over the weekend, Google has begun testing targeted TV ads through Astound Broadband, a Concord, Calif.-based cable provider. Rumors of a deal with another TV provider, Dish Networks, arose on Sunday when business blog VentureBeat reported that the parties were close to signing. Google has already made moves into two other offline media; the search giant bought into radio with its acquisition of dMarc and its entrée into print advertising with a deal encompassing multiple newspapers.

Bill Mungovan, director of search marketing, west for Carat Fusion, said that his company is currently testing a radio campaign with Google, and hopes that Google will bring the same accessibility to satellite TV.

"We're currently running a Google radio test with one of our largest West Coast clients," he said. "The foray into radio hasn't been huge just yet for Google, but the tools are really good."

Mungovan said, however, that a major challenge for Google--both in their radio test and any TV initiative they might begin--is to get more and better inventory to sell. "The big question is if they'll get access to the inventory. We're testing with what they've got, but if it's very successful, there's not a lot of room to grow," he said. "If they're able to get their hands on high-quality inventory, I'll be more interested."

Greg Sterling, principal of Sterling Marketing Intelligence, said that the move could help offer targeting to offline media that haven't typically had those options--something that marketers are craving.

"Advertisers are saying 'if we've got it on the Internet, we should have it on all media,'" he said. "There's a general thirst for targeting that the Internet has created."

But Mungovan said that some traditional advertisers may be harder to convince. "A lot of these agencies and a lot of these TV buyers are sort of set in their ways," he said. "That's where the online folks kind of come into play--we can show them some of the success we've had with really really tight targeting online and try to apply it offline."