Google Launches Self-Service Advertising Program

Google's AdWords Program Offers Every Business a Fully Automated, Comprehensive and Quick Way to Start an Online Advertising Campaign

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - October 23, 2000 - Google Inc., developer of the award-winning Google search engine, today announced the immediate availability of AdWords(TM), a new program that enables any advertiser to purchase individualized and affordable keyword advertising that appears instantly on the google.com search results page. The AdWords program is an extension of Google's premium sponsorship program announced in August. The expanded service is available on Google's homepage or at the AdWords link at http://adwords.google.com/, where users will find all the necessary design and reporting tools to get an online advertising campaign started.

Since the beta debut of AdWords earlier this month, the program has seen widespread adoption by approximately 350 businesses and advertising agencies worldwide. The AdWords program offers advertisers the same highly targeted ad serving technology as the premium sponsorship program, and through a simple to use self-service system, enables advertisers to sign up and monitor a campaign directly from the Google website.

"Google has carefully built and scaled the AdWords program to address the needs of any business by providing a one-stop resource that is affordable and easy to use," said Larry Page, Google's co-founder and CEO. "AdWords offers the most technologically advanced features available, enabling any advertiser to quickly design a flexible program that best fits its online marketing goals and budget."

Google's AdWords program is designed to offer a simple advertising solution for every business, including brick-and-mortar retail outlets such as electronic or home furnishing stores and small family-run businesses such as a restaurants or floral shops. Google has differentiated its AdWords program with several key features, including the ability to fine-tune ads in real-time, post new ads instantly, monitor ad statistics, and track inventory and cost-per-day impression estimates--so advertisers can pace their actual spending limits.

"It's refreshing to find a self-service advertising program like Google's AdWords program, with which we see great click-throughs and have the flexibility to decide our advertising expenditure upfront," said Genie Livingstone, marketing manager for eyeondomain.com. "The AdWords program is one of the best kept secrets on the web." Similar to its premium sponsorship program, Google's AdWords program enables advertisers to purchase carefully selected keywords that target potential customers by serving an ad that matches a user's search query. The result is a highly targeted ad that appears only if a user enters the same keywords or phrase that an advertiser has purchased, ensuring advertisers will be delivered a prequalified visitor and will not pay for "off target" impressions.

For example, entering the query "buy domain" into the search box on Google's home page produces search results and an AdWords text advertisement that appears to the right of Google's search results and relates to purchasing a domain name on the eyeondomain.com website. This enhances the overall search experience for Google users by providing relevant, useful information on the search results page, and benefits advertisers by increasing the likelihood that users will click on a specifically targeted ad.

Google's quick-loading AdWords text ads appear to the right of the Google search results and are highlighted as sponsored links, clearly separate from the search results. Google's premium sponsorship ads will continue to appear at the top of the search results page. Google does not use GIFs, pop-ups, animations, or flashing logos, keeping its website clutter-free and focused on search.

Google's AdWords program offers the following features:

New ads appear instantly: Ads are online immediately after an order is placed.
Ad preview tools: Shows how an advertisement will look before it's posted on Google's search results page.
Unlimited ad creation: Advertisers can create and run as many different versions of an ad to see which ones get the best response from users.
Advanced keyword targeting options: Several targeting options are available to enable the fine-tuning of a campaign, including keywords, negative keywords, phrase matches, and exact matches.
Web-based reporting tools: Instant access to online reporting tools that deliver click-through rates and number of impressions delivered.
Ad performance feedback: Advertisers see real-time feedback--in the form of a visitor interest bar--to gauge the overall effectiveness and popularity of an ad.

Google's superior effectiveness as a search resource is gaining widespread acclaim from its growing number of loyal users, who currently conduct more than 20 million searches per day on google.com. Google's overall web traffic continues to increase by 3 million queries per day each month. The AdWords program provides low-cost exposure on one of the industry's leading search engines with CPMs from $15 or 1.5 cents an impression, $12 or 1.2 cents an impression, and $10 or 1 cent an impression, for the top, middle, and bottom ad unit positions, respectively.

"With a growing number of Internet users selecting the Google search engine as their primary search destination site, Google offers businesses and ad agencies an efficient way to reach new customers worldwide," said Omid Kordestani, vice president of Business Development and Sales at Google. "Google's AdWords program makes it easy for anyone--even those who have little or no online advertising experience--to purchase targeted and affordable advertising on one of the web's most trafficked and popular search engines, making it a superior value in online advertising."

About Google
Google Inc. provides the best Internet search experience, and accomplishes this for tens of millions of users daily by delivering a powerful, fast, and easy-to-use search service for finding the most relevant information. Google's technological innovations have powered the company to numerous awards, including Best Search Engine on the Internet from Yahoo! Internet Life; Top Ten Best Cybertech of 1999 by TIME magazine; Technical Excellence Award from PC Magazine; and this year's Webby Award for Best Technical Achievement; and a WIRED Readers Raves award for Most Intelligent Agent.

Google offers free search services through its own destination web site at http://www.google.com/, as well as co-branded search solutions for more than 100 of the Internet's premier information content and portal developers in more than 20 countries. Customers who rely on Google include Yahoo!, Netscape Netcenter, a subsidiary of America Online, RedHat, and Washingtonpost.com. A privately held company based in Mountain View, Calif., Google was founded by Stanford doctoral students Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998. Investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sequoia Capital, and partners John Doerr and Michael Moritz serve on the Google board with Ram Shriram.

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Google and AdWords are trademarks of Google, Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.