Google testing waters in print advertising

Google is giving advertisers a chance to bid online for space in 28 magazines, part of an effort to extend its dominance of Internet search advertising to print.

Customers of Google, the world's most-used search engine, can choose the size of the ad, where it appears and how much they are willing to pay, according to the company's Web site.

The program reflects Google's ambition to use online auctions to sell advertising in media beyond the Web. Google began buying space in PC Magazine and Maximum PC last year. Publications in the new phase of the test include Car and Driver, Budget Living, Martha Stewart Living and Information Week, according to Google's Web site.

"Google would like to be the mechanism advertisers use to place ads across virtually all media," Ben Schachter, an analyst at UBS, said Thursday. Investors are "taking a wait-and-see attitude as to whether this can turn into a real business," he said in an interview.

Clients seeking print ads can see the circulation of the publications they are interested in, as well as demographics of the readership, including average household income and age.

Google offers quarter-page, half-page and full-page ads, according to the Web site. After selecting the desired date of the publication, clients bid the most they are willing to pay for the ad. Ads run only if the client wins the auction.

Google spokesman Michael Mayzel confirmed in an e-mail that Google started the test yesterday. Under the trial, clients must bid by Feb. 20. They will be told whether they made a winning bid by March 3, according to the Web site.

"It streamlines the process for selling print ads," said Gokul Rajaram, a Google product management director. "Our goal with the test was to select a diverse set of publishers."

Under the test last year, companies negotiated prices for ads directly with Google without using an auction, he said.

Google, whose stock more than doubled last year, is seeking new markets to sustain growth. Magazines garnered 4.7 percent of U.S. advertising last year, more than the 2.8 percent for the Internet, according to market researcher EMarketer.

"We don't know exactly how it will work," Google founder Sergey Brin said on a conference call with analysts last month, referring to the print advertising plan. "Advertisers want greater access, better accountability."

Brin said that while he's optimistic there is demand for print ads sold over the Web, he couldn't forecast that Google will be successful.

Hundreds of publications have expressed an interest in being part of Google's print advertising program, Brin, 32, said on an earlier conference call in October.