Google’s latest release is a tool not for search engine users, but for thecompanies that advertise on the site. The API (application developmentinterface), made available yesterday in beta, should give its partners moreprecise ways to manage their online advertising campaigns, Google said.
The API is linked to the AdWords program, which allows advertisers to bid onsearch words for which they would like to be sponsored links. Google said itwants advertisers to be able to more easily track and predict placementtrends of its ads on the site. With the API, developers can write their ownsoftware to manage their accounts.
Google Follows Overture
The API release had been rumored for some time. Yahoo-owned Overture, whichalso offers sponsored links, had offered an API to its clients for years,making managing Overture accounts easier, one media executive said.
“We can get much more data from Overture than Google,” David Smith, CEO ofadvertising strategy firm Mediasmith, told TechNewsWorld. He added that thenew API will help even the playing field.
“It will help us better manage Google campaigns,” Smith said.
The tool is designed to help companies with campaign management, reporting on howsuccessful their ads have been and estimating how much traffic to their Websites the ads are generating. Advertising companies will also be able tobuild programs to link AdWords to their client account management platforms.
Detailed Programs
Andy Beal wrote in the blog SearchEngineNews that the API will allowdevelopers to create programs that create automatic keyword, ad text, URL,and custom reports and integrate data generated from AdWords into othercompany databases that can trigger, for instance, increased ads foroverstocked products.
Mediasmith clients already make significant use of AdWords, but Smith saidthe new API will enhance that.
“We use Google for all search clients, and all of our clients usesearch to some degree. It will probably facilitate higher spending andin some cases significantly higher spending for our clients,” he said.
Smith believes the changes brought about by Google’s API will reverberatethrough online advertising.
“We expect this move to be impacted by the law of unintendedconsequences in a very positive way. That is to say, there will bebenefits that we cannot even imagine that will accrue from this,” he said.
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