Google Getting Into Offline Advertising

In a previous post, I wrote about Google’s possible foray into radio advertising with the acquisition of dMarc. However, offline advertising with Google is already becoming a reality with the advent of Google’s new auction for print ads in some magazines.

Currently there are three general categories of magazines available to choose from - automotive, lifestyle and technology - and includes well known publications such as Car and Driver, Entrepreneur, and PC Magainze. The auction allows you to select the magazine you want to advertise in and the price you are willing to pay for the ads. The ad sizes are either full page, half page or quarter page.

I have to wonder what the advantage is from the advertiser’s point of view. Is the winning bid for the ads going to be much lower than going rates for purchasing the ads directly from the magazines? It is unclear how Google is going to make this service unique.