Google has officially integrated the projected Audio Ads (Advertisements) into their money making machine, i.e. Google AdWords. This is a plan for Google to projected itself into the traditional media such as radio, video, and the predicted TV. I’m still tend to believed that this audio ads is still operated as a limited test and as usual, you would easily find the pros and cons of this tactical move by Google. When a company is such big, many analysts, consulting firms, or blogs are keeping their eyes on it. One thing for sure, this audio ads is very much different when compared to the Internet ads, one player must always ensure it has the adequate airtime and the radio advertising inventory in order for the advertisers to test or use the services. Maybe this audio ads is attributed as a limited test, the official blog of Google AdWords never had a word on this until this moment.

Here you may wonder how an advertiser place an order for this audio ads, and what must be taking care in order to place the audio ads as well. In matter of fact, the audio ads is still operated as an auction-based advertising buying model by Google and there are some strict guidelines must adhere to for the advertisers. Some excerpts from an article of Google:

Ad Length and Time Use:

* Ad length cannot exceed 30 seconds.
* Ad cannot contain lengths of silence. The ad content must take up the full length of the ad.
* One company may promote multiple products during an ad spot, but multiple businesses can not advertise within the same ad spot (i.e. no time segmentation).

Sound Volume and Quality:

* Audio must be encoded at volume less than or equal to +4 dB.
* Your sound quality must be clear and words must be understandable.

No Non-Commercial Ads:

* Ads must advertise a product or service. We do not allow ads that are not commercial in nature.

To know further of the editorial guidelines for this audio ads, you can click here for the complete guidelines.

My view is the audio ads is not the playground for Google. It is not easy for Google to create a competitive advantage there, albeit the money Google has in hands. I believed the rivalry in radio advertising is also fierce, and the advertisers are typically sensitive to the role of Google in the traditional media and thus, when people don’t buy you, they don’t buy your services.

Update: I deleted the above sentence. I feel it’s not appropriate to describe the Google’s situation in marketing the service of audio ads. Sorry for any inconvenient caused.