Every year advertisers spend billions on television commercials. And every year advertisers lose millions of dollars on commercials tailored to large audiences. Why? Ads that don’t have optimal relevance on the majority of its receivers are wasteful ads.
Running a commercial on a major network is expensive and ineffective at reaching target audiences. The average price tag for a 30-second spot during the 2011 Super Bowl was approximately $3 million! Out of all the ads previewed during the Super Bowl, how many of those commercials were really of interest to its audience? This example may be extreme, so I’ll approach my argument from first hand experience. As a man, I am exposed to several cosmetics commercials each month. Each time an ad for Covergirl comes up, I immediately change the channel. Clearly, this is not effective advertising. Think about all of those marketing dollars Covergirl has wasted on the male audience?
A survey by the US Department of Labor states that Americans spend about 3 hours a day in front of the television. We also spend approximately 52 minutes of that time watching television commercials. So how do marketers capitalize on those 52 minutes and make better use of their advertising dollars? The answer to that question may lie in Google.