Google CEO: Targeting not flashiness key to effective online advertising
The Google CEO Eric Schmidt was quoted in this Wall Street Journal story (subscription required) as saying yesterday at the Jupiter/IAM Advertising Forum in New York, in reference to Google's text ads, "The Internet will transform advertising because of its trackability, not its beauty."
Mr. Schmidt says Google's effectiveness as a "matchmaker" easily translates to advertisers. "These are very targeted ads," he said. "I think you're going to see lots of companies trying to do that."
Mr. Schmidt mocked pop-up and banner ads as ineffective and annoying. Advertisers "are pushing too hard," Mr. Schmidt said. "The presence of an interruption in and of itself is not sufficient."
...As advertising operators such as AOL shift gears, the industry appears to be poised to begin growing again after two years of stagnation. In an updated forecast released Tuesday, Jupiter Research said it expects a 10% jump in online advertising in 2003 to $6.2 billion from $5.6 billion this year, fueled by classified ads and increased spending by traditional advertisers. That figure is expected to grow to $14 billion by 2007 as more households go online. The percentage of U.S. households with online access is expected to grow to 78% by 2007 from the current 62%, putting it on par with the number of homes with cable or satellite TV.
...Of course, some messages may never find an audience. Google recently removed an ad from an Atlanta skydiving operator that said "Only One Death This Year."
"No one clicked on it," Mr. Schmidt said.