AdWords goes cross-channel

According to an article at CNET, Google is testing out radio, newspaper and magazine ads as part of its AdWords package. Print mediums were tested last year, but it wasn’t until now that radio was available to AdWords customers. The test is limited to around 20 AdWords customers right now, but is being conducted on 730+ stations including XM Radio. It’s uncertain when the beta will be made available to the public, but it’s reported that services will be made available to help inexperienced advertisers create radio ads.

I can’t find much information on how the actual placement algorithms are working, but I assume it’s similar to the online mechanism. Google technology applied to radio advertising would make money spent on radio much more effective. Having exclusivity as well as proximity to a related field of interest is a feature that is currently unavailable to me. In fact, I’m lucky in my area to get into a pod of less than 8 commercials. The closest I can get to that kind of placement is with Public Radio, but the cost per spot is highly prohibitive and doesn’t allow for much saturation. I’m curious as to how geographically targeted the ads can get. And how do you track response? This will be fun to follow.