Google finalises DoubleClick acquisition

Last month saw the final clearance of Google’s year-long acquisition of DoubleClick when the European Commission ruled that the purchase could proceed in Europe. Google immediately finalized the deal and now begins the big task of making the acquisition work, by combining the companies and advertiser services into an integrated package and pushing new products into the market.

DoubleClick is primarily an ad-serving software and management service, handling many of the display adverts seen on leading websites. Google has been dabbling with alternative advertising options beyond search but hasn’t been keen to work with other companies in this area. That’s what makes DoubleClick the perfect acquisition for them, giving them access to a leading online advertising service and also a huge amount of traffic data which can be combined with Google’s own search behaviour information.

The implications for the online advertising market are potentially immense as new targeting tools and analytics are incorporated into display advertising, so enabling advertisers to make better use of this medium and leading to a resurgence of this online medium, which has been significantly affected by the growth of search advertising in recent years.

The biggest opportunity for Google ‘ and concern for advertisers and consumers – is how much or how well Google will be able to use DoubleClick’s data on Internet users to target ads with the kind of precision that has made Google’s search ads so lucrative. These ads have been displayed due to what people are searching for and so the development of display advertising is likely to rest in how well behavioural targeting can be used, raising privacy concerns about the way data will be used.

From another angle, the completed purchase has also provided another setback for Microsoft and may precipitate a more urgent attempt to buy Yahoo! so that they can strengthen their position within the search market and avoid losing share in the display advertising sector. Microsoft have just purchased Rapt – a company that enables advertisers to manage their online ad inventory – a further sign that this sector will become a new battleground between the two search rivals.

If you’d like to know more about Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick and the possible implications for online marketing, please contact us for more information.

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