The lines between search marketing and online media have been blurring for some time. This is especially true with the Google AdSense network. It’s basically a huge ad network where content sites run ads for Google.
In a Google search program, this is also known as content targeting. Even though you manage these ads through the Google interface and they’re often targeted by keywords that don’t show up in search listings, they show up in Web sites, just like online media.
A debate recently popped up in our agency about whether Google content ads, banners, and click-to-play videos managed by our search term could also be managed by our online media campaign managers as part of a media buy.
Online media campaign managers should be able to manage these ads too, because — to reiterate — ads running in the Google content network aren’t in search results. The ads are on regular Web sites and can be targeted on a site-by-site basis.