Looks like Google is looking to expand far beyond its Adwords roots into the boardrooms of Madison Avenue. And its taking the spirit of on-line metrics and applying it to other kinds of on-line advertising not usually available to mom-and-pop online stores. A Washington Post article today examines an example of Google is working with ComScore with a Volvo as its client to not only create online campaigns, but track it in novel ways.
For example, people who visited the AutoTrader.com site this summer were shown an image of a Volvo sport-utility vehicle advertising the car for lease at $389 a month. ComScore placed “cookies,” or tracing files, on the computers of visitors and tracked how many typed the word “Volvo” or “Volvo SUV” into a search box weeks or months later. During the Web campaign for the Volvo’s XC90, Google said 39 percent of Internet users who were exposed to the ads later conducted online searches for Volvo cars.
In spite of all the press with the YouTube acquisition, it looks like Google is still busy working on generating ad-revenue in new ways, but in the way it knows how: taking guesswork out of the equation by doing a careful analysis of the numbers.
Some consider comScore to be controvertial — see http://ebiquity.umbc.edu/blogger/2006/10/28/google-to-partner-with-researchware-firm-comscore/