Google DoubleClick: The REAL big time payoff

Google wins big in its acquisition of DoubleClick. 

Immediate credibility and market share in display advertising market? YES

Competitive posturing to the disadvantage of prime rivals Microsoft and Yahoo. YES 

BUT, the two oft cited rationales for Google’s $3.1 billion investment are complementary to the core Google mission to sell more and more of the its $150 billion market cap fuel: The Golden AdWords Goose.

In Google to Madison Ave: Buy from us, too, last October, I dissected the Google end game aimed at convincing marketers to append an AdWords buy to each and every dollar of ad spend, anywhere and everywhere, underscoring Google’s bottom-line message: No marketing campaign works without a (big) Google AdWords component.

Way back then, Google aimed to “differentiate” its banner and video ads from those of its competitors by using data from online research firm ComScore Networks Inc. to correlate the “effectiveness” of each ad by tracking the number of people exposed to it who later perform searches about the product.

In other Google words, all successful marketing spend roads lead to a Google search and, for the smart marketers, to a paid Google search result. 

A DoubleClick competitor, Atlas, has analyzed the interplay of search and display advertising, in response to marketer moves from display to search marketing, to conclude a 22% higher possibility of conversion when advertisers employ both search and display in conjunction with each other.

Conversion attribution capabilities across the myriad of consumer touch points across the Web will also be key as Google aims to push uptake of its new Pay Per Action AdWords product, in conjunction with banner buys.

Google may have paid $3.1 billion for DoubleClick, but it did not buy a billion dollar business, far from it.

The Google multi-billion dollar investment in banner ad serving will ultimately serve to further enhance the Google multi-billion dollar AdWords business which fuels GOOG, and which Google repeatedly characterizes as having no obvious ceiling to monetization growth.

ALSO: Yahoo to Google: WE rule in display advertising!

IN-DEPTH DOUBLECLICK ACQUISITION ANALYSIS:

Google: $3.1 billion cash for Web monopoly!
Microsoft vs. Google: Will MSN, Windows Live compete?
Google DoubleClick merger: Who wins, who loses
Google DoubleClick marriage (can be) risky business:
Google to tag users across Web: Privacy Boomerang?
Google hurts Yahoo with DoubleClick deal