Who sees your ad?

One of the hardest things to do when a marketer begins an advertising campaign is figure out where to place an ad. Traditionally the client would work with the ad agency to concieve of the campaign, build the creative and select the outlets.  Even if you couldn't afford an agency for the campaign and crative, ad placement often was made with the help of a broker who could offer guidance. Advertisers need to know who is at the keyboard;  A soccer mom, a nascar dad or a 'tween. This hasn't changed too awfully much since in the last few years as we've seen internet advertising explode into a multi-billion dollar business.  Even if a small-ish company could throw a home-brewed campaign at their in-house art department, most ad buys still go through a broker or digital agency.  The average marketer just doesn't know what sites are pulling visitors. Enter Google Sometime today, Google is expected to unleash it's latest service which will measure internet use and give ad buyers an idea where to place their ads.  The two 800 pound gorillas (ok they're probably more like 400 pound gorillas) are Nielsen and ComScore, figure out what's going on using the same methods that have been used for decades in broadcast media: surveys and polls.  Of course web metrics are also used, but by and large the data is qualitative. Google will, off course, be totally quantitative. I've not used the service, nor have I seen it, but I suspect it will be like the Google tools I am familiar with.  The only probelm I can imagine is the effect it has on the market.  Google is not a charity or a no-profit.  They're in it to make money.  Google will be telling me how to spend my client's money.  Can I trust the Mountain View mammoth?  Imagine one of my clients who sells widgets.  As we work together to determine where to place a widget ad, Google might make three suggestions.  How do I know that Google isn't trying to bias me toward the client of theirs who bids the highest on keywords?  How do I know Mountain View isn't outright lying to me by omitting sites with better pull but which are worth less to Google?  Besides, it's more than just hits.  Advertisers need to know who is at the keyboard;  A soccer mom, a nascar dad or a 'tween.  At the end of the day the prudent advertiser will use the new Google system as an additional tool and not a stand alone decision maker.  Polls, surveys and demographic diaries will still tell us more about the humans using a website than server-based data.