The curtain has been lifted on Google with its planned IPO.
Now we see that Google has been very successful selling ads targeted to readers’ searches. It sold $658 million in advertising last year, passing Yahoo!, which sold $638 million and was the previous leaders in online sales.
“(T)he striking success of its Internet advertising business poses perhaps an even greater threat to Madison Avenue” is the lead to today’s N.Y. Times article: “Google Poses a Challenge for Usual Ad Outlets.”
“(A)dvertisers are finding they can attract buyers relatively cheaply without a blaring message and an expensive Madison Avenue agency to create it.”
It sounds so simple: Readers come to Google looking for something specific and are ready to look at ads about those things.
Google’s success further explains why search ads are hot. Ad revenues of Google and Yahoo! together are about 18% of the $7.3 billion online ad market estimated by New Media Group of PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Interactive Advertising Bureau.