Google Issues New Features to Measure Effects of Advertising

Google Inc. Issued a new advertising feature that will make it easier for companies to know when Web surfers see their ads, an improvement aimed at getting businesses to do more marketing online.

The effort, called Brand Activate, will signal when an ad impression has been viewed, the Mountain View, California-based company said. That means at least 50 % of an ad has been viewable on a screen for at least one second.

Google also will let customers make speedier adjustments to brand campaigns, depending on the responses of online users.

Google is trying to get companies to spend more of their ad dollars on the Web, rather than on traditional media such as television and print.

The effort will attempt to measure whether an ad for a new summer movie is driving more traffic to theaters or if a marketing effort is encouraging consumers to go to a store to buy toothpaste or shampoo.

“It’s kind of taking this really scattered alphabet of metrics and measurement that are out there, and turning it into a usable language for brands,” said Neal Mohan, vice president for display advertising at Google. Advertising dollars that now go to television “will move online much more easily if we can give them the tools by which they can measure their campaigns and act on them.”

As part of the rollout, Google will use a measurement tool called GRP, or gross rating point, which is common in television advertising, as Bloomberg stated.

The new service will be available to companies that use its DoubleClick tool, which enables advertising to be placed on websites, including non-Google properties.