Planning for Google, Fox/MySpace, and MTV
What do Google's latest moves mean for search advertisers?
What do Google's latest moves mean for search advertisers?
SES San Jose is a common venue and time for the search engines to announce new products, features, and alliances. This year was no different. The biggest news thus far (as of this column’s deadline) is Google’s $900 million deal with Fox Interactive Media (FIM) to be the “exclusive provider of text-based advertising and keyword targeted ads through its AdSense program, for inventory on Fox Interactive Media’s network.”
Although the FIM Network may not be a household name, you’ll recognize the name of its largest property (traffic- and probably page-wise): MySpace.com. FIM must hit certain milestones to lock in the payments, but with MySpace and its other sites, it can clearly earn its $900 million. The other way to look at the deal is FIM already paid $580 million for the acquisition of Intermix Media/MySpace.
Google’s press release indicates the MySpace deal will start during Q4 this year. As a result, there may be some issues you should keep in mind, regardless of Q4 is an important e-commerce season for you or not. I’ll cover some of the plusses and minuses Google advertisers should be aware of as MySpace and other FIM Interactive media come online. (Yahoo, of course, is the big loser because the sponsor listings at MySpace are currently Yahoo Search listings.)
Separately, Google announced a deal with MTV Networks (Viacom). MTV will deliver sponsor-supported video clips of its content through Google Video and will implement a pay-per-own download program. Through the program, consumers can download selected full-length episodes of hit programs for $1.99. Clearly, Google is serious about making both ad-supported content and pay-per-download content a reality.
Marketers won’t see major shifts in clicks from the MySpace deal other than the shift in search clicks from Yahoo to Google. However, some marketers will notice an increase in contextual traffic from the FIM sites (assuming they have AdSense turned on). If you’re running AdSense now, you likely already see traffic from MySpace, as Google is already actively serving ads within the site.
Other ad networks are also very active in MySpace; however, they’re from display media ad networks. My quick visit to MySpace resulted in seeing ads from Advertising.com, Tribal Fusion, and Fastclick. For those of you who buy non-search display media on those networks, you probably have a true effective frequency cap for MySpace users that’s three times higher than you expect, as frequency caps operate on a network-by-network basis.
Let’s look at the relative scale the FIM deal adds to the AdWords and AdSense side of the existing Google equation. Below, an evaluation of the larger FIM sites’ relative focus for which Google will be the exclusive contextual and search advertising partner:
In addition, there are a bunch of lower-ranked, niche-focused sites in the FIM network:
Meanwhile, the number of unaffiliated, high-traffic Web sites is dwindling as search engines sign exclusive deals to lock in eyeballs.
Want more search information? ClickZ SEM Archives contain all our search columns, organized by topic.