Google Retreats From Radio
For those of you still wondering how bad the current economy is, here’s your sign: Google has now shuttered their radio ads, print ads and Google Video. There is plenty of criticism of Google for pursuing these forays initially, so I won’t go that route. Instead I’ll just give my two cents on how it affects Google moving forward.
Great for Google
Yes, that’s right, I think this is a great move for Google. The lion’s share of revenue being generated by Google comes through AdWords, mainly search. In business-speak, search advertising is their core competency. Though radio and print ads were under the AdWords umbrella, they were very different industries that Google did not and still does not really know well. That’s like asking the gold-medal USA basketball team to win the World Cup. To be fair I would also mention that print and radio advertising are trending the wrong direction anyway, so even if Google had done well the upside was limited.
What do you think? Should Google have stuck it out or did they make the right move?
