Turn On Your Radio, Google Is Live!

Google finally managed to make an important step towards the expansion of its advertising platform to the offline media by making a partnership with Clear Channel, the owner of more than 1.100 radio stations and 30 television stations. Using the new deal, the search giant will be able to send adverts of its online members to numerous radio stations in the US. According to the Boston Herald, the agreement includes more than 675 Clear Channel radios and is especially meant to expand the advertising platforms owned by the powerful Internet company.

"This radio partnership with Clear Channel is a pretty big statement that Google is in the radio industry to stay and have a big impact. It will also allow those customers to target their campaigns, reaching particular audiences in targeted locations at specific times, and to get quick feedback about their campaigns," said Drew Hilles, Google Audio's national sales director, according to The Boston Herald.

The agreement is probably a sign showing us the December testing program of the audio ads was a successful beta stage and the company plans to make it a stand-alone advertising program. As you know, Google had several attempts to expand the advertising offerings to the offline media, most of them being based on AdWords and AdSense, the online platforms. The first test was started last year when Google made a deal with several US newspapers and sent online adverts to be displayed in their pages. Soon after that, the company started an audio test, sending several radio adverts to multiple stations in the United States. Google is now planning to make a bigger step and take the advertising straight on the street by placing adverts on billboards and in several US shops.