Spam the TV? Google Launches Adwords For Television

Today Google has opened their TV advertising program up to all advertisers and are offering a $2,000 promotional credit towards creating a professional TV commercial.

It's been talked about for a while now and it's finally here. Google Adwords for television is available now. Now, ANYONE can advertise their product or service nationally via television. It's as simple as setting up an Adwords account, choosing your text, selecting a budget, choosing a creative agency that wil create your commercial and giving them direction through the Adwords interface on what you would like to have. After that, you're off and running. Adwords then tracks and provides reports that show when your spot aired, how many people saw it and the costs involved. Watch the demo of how it works. From the Adwords blog

How does it work?

First, you'll need a TV commercial. If you don't have one yet, check out Google's Ad Creation Marketplace, where you can connect with industry professionals who provide script writing, editing, production, and voice-over talent at an affordable package cost. It's free to search for specialists and send them requests for project bids, and you aren't under any obligation to work with them until you accept a bid. To celebrate our launch, for a limited time Google will cover the cost of creating your TV ad through our Ad Creation Marketplace, up to $2,000. Learn more about this special offer.

Next, you're ready to create your campaign. You can choose the networks and dayparts on which you'd like your ad to run. If you're looking for guidance on how to best reach your target audience, TV Ads offers recommendations based on audience demographics, or you can request a free customized campaign proposal. You can also run your ads during specific television programs that are relevant to your product or service. If you search for program content such as "home improvement," TV Ads suggests programs based on matches with the title, program description, cast, genre, episode information and networks.

With Google TV Ads' auction model, you choose the maximum cost-per-thousand impressions that you're willing to pay, and only pay when your ad airs.

So far, as TechCrunch points out, the ads will only show on the Dish satellite TV network because they are the only company willing to allow Google to place it's tracking software in their system. At this point the cable companies want no part of Google's ads and are actually planning their own similar system called Project Canoe in which they have invested $150 Million. So, if you want to buy cheap advertising on national TV it's never been easier. I can only imagine the types of things we are going to see... hopefully "television spam" will not be the buzzword of 2009.