BBC Google Ads

http://www.gorillaenterprises.co.uk/upload/uploadFiles/BBC_Google_Ad.jpg

Can anyone advise me why the Beeb need to advertise their Stoke news service on google ads?

No.

Shut up, it's a perfectly reasonable question.

I may be completely at the wrong end here but would I be right in thinking it has something to do with Meta-tags, which I beleive, Google work from.

Google is also the largest search engine, providing justification for placing it there?

I really am unsure. Sorry.

I don't know, but I would have to express the view that I'm none too happy about them wasting however small a portion of my licence fee on such advertising.

As far as I am aware, Google Banner Ads are paid for (like the sponored links on their engine) on a per-click basis.

The amount paid is at the discretion of the advertiser (BBC), but the higher the payment, the more prominent the ad. Banner ads won't be particularly cheap.

One just wonders why there is a budget for advertising a local service on Google when it is well signposted on the BBC online pages - an already well used site in the UK.

I know some people object to the BBC doing any commercial advertising, but ultimately it's no different to the poster sites they have around the UK.

It's quite likely a very cost-effective way of promoting the local TV trial in the Midlands.

The BBC's argument in these cases, which I have some sympathy with, is that there is no point them providing services if they don't promote them so that licence-fee payers can benefit from them.

And I answered it. He asked if I could advise him, I said no because I didn't know. Simple as.

"Can anyone..." is generally interpreted by cleverer people as "If you know, reply".

And you know that. Cretin.

Maybe the July 5th rebel came out in me

would it not follow that if you're launching a sub-regional news service on broadband, and you want to inform potential viewers of its existence (many of whom will be tech savvy younguns who aren't in the target audience of midlands today and probably spent most of their day watching e4 and sky1, have never tuned their radio away from signal radio to radio stoke) it might be an idea to promote it online?

local tv gets a mention in midlands today and trails are shown now and then - so its easy to target your stereotypical regional news watching audience, but it doesn't target the people that the more informal service is supposed to be serving. its not like scotland - there aren't local announcers to plug the service before young'uns programmes.

it would be unfair to end the trail and conclude that young people don't care about regional news, if you haven't made an effort to take the service to them.