Run Cheap TV Commercials with Google TV Ads
With Google’s TV ad service, small companies can buy low-cost TV commercials on national cable channels
With nearly $18 million in annual revenue and 31 employees, ShoppersChoice.com, a Baton Rouge company that operates a handful of e-commerce sites, is substantial — but it’s no Wal-Mart. Yet for just $2,500 to $3,500 a week, commercials for BBQGuys.com, its online store for grills, run alongside ads for Wal-Mart on the Food Network and a few other channels.
Mike Hackley, founder and CEO of ShoppersChoice.com, launched his low-budget campaign using Google TV Ads, which lets businesses buy advertising time on national cable channels and the satellite service Dish Network. Google TV Ads essentially works like AdWords, except that instead of bidding on search terms, you bid on airtime.
After hiring a local production company to produce a 30-second spot for $2,500, Hackley began planning his TV strategy. Internal research had shown that most BBQGuys.com customers are 35 to 65 years old and make more than $80,000 a year.
Then Hackley bid on his choices using Google’s auction system. Advertisers set a daily budget and a maximum price they will pay for their ads to be viewed 1,000 times (also known as a cost-per-thousand impressions, or CPM). Google then auctions the time slots, so the winners pay an amount equal to or less than their bids. For a program with a weekly audience of 30,000, a $7 CPM would cost roughly $210. Hackley found he was able to reach 1.5 million to 2 million viewers for about $3,000 a week.
Google also tracks how many seconds viewers watch before changing the channel or hitting Fast Forward on their DVRs.
The experience is in stark contrast to what happened nine years ago — the last time Hackley ran some commercials on a local television station. At the time, he paid almost $10,000 for about 20 spots to run over the course of a month. The contracts were signed weeks in advance, and Hackley had little say over when the spots would run. “We could only do it once or twice a year, because it was way too expensive,” says Hackley.
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