Google Exits Radio Market Online; Seeks Streaming Audio Instead

Google has left Audio Ads behind, closing the door on their marketplace that connected buyers of remnant air-time with audio producers.

The company entered the market in 2006 with great expectations that they could transform the way audio advertisements on broadcast radio were produced and purchased, never shying away from a challenge.

Google VP Product Management, Susan Wojcicki, says, “While we’ve devoted substantial resources to developing these products and learned a lot along the way, we haven’t had the impact we hoped for. So we have decided to exit the broadcast radio business and focus our efforts in online streaming audio. We will phase out the existing Google Audio Ads and AdSense for Audio products and plan to sell the Google Radio Automation business, the software that automates broadcast radio programming. Advertisers will continue to be able to use Google Audio Ads until May 31 and broadcasters will be able to publish inventory to Google until that date as well.”

As a recap, here’s how Google Audio Ads used to work.

Google Brings Advertisers and Radio Stations Together

Google has positioned the Audio Ads system to serve both top-level advertisers, as well as the advertising agencies themselves. Although advertising agencies already have media planning and media buying personnel, you can now buy commercials direction from local, regional and national radio stations.

How Google Delivers Ads to Radio

1. Google Audio Ads is powered by a station inventory management system and studio log.

2. Google links electronically with radio stations to search for inventory that fits your advertising criteria.

3. Inventory is paired with your advertising requests, called “Google Avails”.

4. Google delivers an automated order to the radio station and reserves the ad inventory.

Source: Techmeme.com and Google Blog