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Testing Google TV Ads

If you haven't heard, you can now buy TV ads using the Google Adwords platform. That's right, regular old TV spots, bidding just like you do for keywords. (I highly recommend watching the video linked above)

I am doing my own test. I do some freelance web design work, so I created an ad for that, and am trying to get it on TV. My goal was to do this as quick and cheap as possible, while still producing something worthwhile. Here is the blow by blow.

1. Creating the ad
I went stupid simple. I just used still shots with my voice recorded over them using the mic in a webcam. Not ideal. If I really wanted to put some time and effort into this, I would have used a much better sound setup. I used Adobe's Visual Communicator product (originally created by Serious Magic). I really like this tool. You can make cool video very simply with it.

With Google TV ads, you can have various length ads (15, 30, 60, etc) but they have to be exact. I tried uploading one that was like 29.17 and Google told me I couldn't upload. I then had to find a free program to try to make the video exact. I found Pinnacle's VideoSpin that allowed me to cut right to the thousandth of a second. It didn't give me frame numbers, but it worked nonetheless.

2. Setting up the Campaign
This part is easy. Just like adwords, you set your CPM bid, your daily spend limits and length of campaign. You have to upload your video and then choose where you want it to run. There are a boatload of options here. For my test, I am choosing cheap. I am looking to run on Bloomberg Business TV and The Weather Channel, Tuesday and Wednesday between Midnight at 7am. According to the Google Estimator, with my bid of $1 CPM, my spot should air 13 times, with 245k unique impressions and 455k impressions for $300 (which is my cap).

Google told me that I am unlikely to run on Bloomberg between 5-7am because my bid it too low, but I should be fine from 12-5 and on the Weather Channel. I also saw my estimated traffic change while on the site and selecting my targets.

I will let you know how it goes!

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