Google garners ad buys from K Street

Google has found a new market for its expanding advertising business: lobbyists in Washington.

Several issue advocacy groups and trade associations have begun to take advantage of the Mountain View, Calif., company’s online ad services to further their cause, grow their donor lists and contribute to their endorsed candidates.

{mosads}Many seized the opportunity of the party conventions in Denver and St. Paul to advertise online as the nation’s interest in politics piqued. Google is marketing its services as a way of reaching voters and policymakers.

“The beauty of Internet advertising is you know when it is working by the number of clicks you are getting,” said Peter Greenberger. “What we are trying is to make sure this advertising is not only accountable and impactful but that it can be refined in real time.”

Greenberger is the manager for election and issues advocacy at Google. The former Clinton White House aide and campaign manager for Brad Carson’s 2004 Oklahoma Senate run has headed up the five-person unit since its creation in 2007.

Greenberger and others at Google work with issue groups and political campaigns to help maximize their Web presence. Google has helped coordinate Internet ads for advocacy organizations from all over the political spectrum and worked with every presidential campaign this year, said Greenberger.

Google’s dominance of the Internet ad market has led to complaints by other major advertisers — and Washington has taken notice. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, the Justice Department is weighing whether to bring an antitrust suit against the company over its online advertising agreement with Yahoo.

Google sees its online political ad revenue expanding in the years to come. In 2004, only 0.8 percent of all political campaign ad buys were directed to online platforms.

“We expect that to double or triple this year,” said Greenberger.

Google’s ad service targets consumers based on the searches they perform. Companies pay for ads to show up on Google’s search results page when someone enters a particular word or phrase into the search engine. Clicking on the ad will bring one to a webpage of the company’s choice.

What is unique about the service is the Internet giant can set the ads for certain locations, times and even potential markets on the basis of the search terms applied by the user.

{mospagebreak}Take the abortion-rights group EMILY’s List . Like most Democrat-friendly organizations, the Denver convention was an opportunity for it to reinforce its base of support as well as expand its reach by hosting events and policy discussions.

The women’s rights group planned to use the headline-grabbing speeches to attract more donors and members.

{mosads}“We are trying to bring a new generation of supporters into EMILY’s List through the online world,” said Emily Lockwood, Internet director for the organization. “The convention is a kick-off for that. We are looking to capitalize on that moment when we have it.”

EMILY’s List paid for ads to appear on Google searches that took place during convention speeches given by those candidates the group endorsed.

For example, if one searched for New Hampshire Senate candidate Jeanne Shaheen (D) during her convention speech, there was a paid ad from EMILY’s List that popped up on the search results page. Clicking on it brings the user to a Shaheen profile created by the organization that detailed her campaign ads and policy positions, as well as provide a link to contribute to her campaign. Ads for the candidates also ran next to online news articles that mention the search words.

EMILY’s List also ran ads on Google searches for several other female politicians who spoke at the convention: Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

In addition, by running search ads during their candidates’ primetime speeches, EMILY’s List could expect to see a surge in Web traffic to its site, according to Greenberger. When candidates makes news, searches for their names in Google tend to spike.

A trade association, the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), saw its Web traffic jump after using Google ads during both parties’ conventions.

“It is an extremely cost-effective way of reaching a targeted audience,” said Jeff Joseph, vice president of communications for BIO. “That micro-targeting, the clear metrics, which are so hard to discern from traditional advertising, allows us in the Washington community to see direct results.”

BIO timed its ads to just the two weeks when the conventions were in session. In addition, only computers in the Denver, St. Paul and Washington metro areas could access them.

Unlike EMILY’s List, BIO’s campaign was not slated to certain candidates but was more of an educational effort surrounding biotechnology, according to Joseph.

The trade group also used ads on YouTube, another Google entity. Their ads were seen more than 1.4 million times, which led to about 1,800 people clicking through to BIO’s chosen website.