Google Makes Ad Management Easier

Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) latest release is a tool not for search engine users, but for the companies that advertise on the site. The API (application development interface), made available yesterday in beta, should give its partners more precise ways to manage their online advertising campaigns, Google said.

The API is linked to the AdWords program, which allows advertisers to bid on search words for which they would like to be sponsored links. Google said it wants advertisers to be able to more easily track and predict placement trends of its ads on the site. With the API, developers can write their own software to manage their accounts.

Google Follows Overture

The API release had been rumored for some time. Yahoo-owned Overture, which also offers sponsored links, had offered an API to its clients for years, making managing Overture accounts easier, one media executive said.

"We can get much more data from Overture than Google," David Smith, CEO of advertising strategy firm Mediasmith, told TechNewsWorld. He added that the new API will help even the playing field.

"It will help us better manage Google campaigns," Smith said.

The tool is designed to help companies with campaign management, reporting on how successful their ads have been and estimating how much traffic to their Web sites the ads are generating. Advertising companies will also be able to build programs to link AdWords to their client account management platforms.

Detailed Programs

Andy Beal wrote in the blog SearchEngineNews that the API will allow developers to create programs that create automatic keyword, ad text, URL, and custom reports and integrate data generated from AdWords into other company databases that can trigger, for instance, increased ads for overstocked products.

Mediasmith clients already make significant use of AdWords, but Smith said the new API will enhance that.

"We use Google for all search clients, and all of our clients use search to some degree. It will probably facilitate higher spending and in some cases significantly higher spending for our clients," he said.

Smith believes the changes brought about by Google's API will reverberate through online advertising.

"We expect this move to be impacted by the law of unintended consequences in a very positive way. That is to say, there will be benefits that we cannot even imagine that will accrue from this," he said.