Google is adding advanced TV buying capabilities to its demand-side platform, DoubleClick Bid Manager (DBM).
For the first time, Google will connect its ad tech to addressable TV inventory through its broadband and TV service, Google Fiber.
Google will also support local market TV buys in DBM through a partnership with WideOrbit, as well as national broadcast and cable inventory aggregated by clypd, Google revealed Monday.
The rollout supports Google’s long-term goal to enable advertisers to plan, buy and measure TV and video audiences – both live and on-demand – on any screen or device, according to Rany Ng, director of product management for video ads.
“We are opening access to traditional TV, so this will give brands and agencies complementary ways to reach audiences who they’re already reaching on digital,” Ng told AdExchanger.
In addition to new TV inventory access, Google is adding new impact-based TV ad metrics to help advertisers track the effectiveness of their campaigns beyond basics like reach.
Google says an advertiser will now be able to measure the incremental lift when someone searches for its brand on Google.com or YouTube after seeing a TV ad. Applying search data to video ad buys has been an increasing priority for Google in recent months.
“We feel that the action of search is a good signal of impact for a TV commercial,” Ng said. “On the digital side, we’ve invested in measuring reach, brand lift and purchase intent and recognized this is equally important for television as well.”
Google is not historically a front-runner in the TV department. It lags behind other DSPs like TubeMogul (Adobe), DataXu and The Trade Desk, some of which rolled out linear and addressable TV ad offerings as early as 2014, but the company is not letting up.
“Digital is our core competency and TV is hard,” Ng said. “It’s why we haven’t been as vocal about our thoughts and plans here, but we’ve been thinking about the evolution of TV for some time.”
Growing video and TV inventory – from new addressable hooks on Fiber to its new, subscription video-on-demand service YouTube TV – could give Google more of a complete look at a digital video buy through to over-the-top and linear TV.
While a connection between Google’s DSP and its addressable TV offering on Fiber is nascent and certainly not a scaled supply source yet (Google Fiber closed 2016 with fewer than 85,000 pay-TV subscriptions), Google is exploring the potential for new monetization.
In one test pilot, for example, Google Fiber started showing addressable ads for local auto dealerships and nearby businesses targeting certain households within its Google Fiber footprint in Kansas.
Adding more programmatic functionality could scale addressable TV ad buys, once (and if) Google Fiber powers up.
