What to make of this?
We’d like to announce two changes to site targeting in Google’s content network. First, because site targeting now offers more precise targeting options, we’ve given it a more appropriate name: placement targeting. Second, we’re introducing a new cost-per-click bidding option so you can now pay per click or per impression.
Introducing placement targeting
When site targeting was first introduced two years ago, advertisers could search for specific URLs or topics to find individual sites in the Google content network and run their image and text ads on these sites. Over time, we’ve introduced other features like targeting by demographics and richer ad formats such as click-to-play video ads. Now, advertisers can target not only websites but also precise subsections of sites, such as the football pages of a news site, the show times section of a movie site, and even a specific ad unit (a block of Google ads) on a particular webpage.
Because of these new changes, we’ve changed the name from site targeting to placement targeting. The term “placement” can be used to refer to any site or subsection of a site that you choose to target. As the number of placements available for targeting continues to grow, you’ll have even greater control over the parts of the Google content network on which your ads appear.
As you move up the chain of value in the ad world, you must have a few things. You must have flighting – the ability to run ads at a specific time in a specific place on a specific site. And you must have service – the ability to change those flights when you want, as you want, and to learn what is working, what is not, and why. And, you must have integration – the ability to make your ads conversant with the flights you’ve bought.
Google, with this evolutionary move, is working on the first two of these key items. The company is still entirely focused on scaled, software driven approaches. But it’s working its way toward approaches that only work when humans are involved. Very interesting.