Google unveiled Ad Planner

Yesterday evening Google unveiled Ad Planner, a free media-planning tool that identifies websites for target audiences.

The announcement was made during its 5pm talk at the Advertising Research Foundation's New York media conference.

"Simply enter demographics and sites associated with your target audience, and the tool will return information about sites (both on and off the Google content network) that your audience is likely to visit," wrote the Google AdWords blog.

"Drill down further to get more detail like demographics and related searches for a particular site, or you can get aggregate statistics for the sites you've added to your media plan."

Criterion includes "Defined Audience," which narrows down country and language; "Demographics," which narrows by gender, age, education and household income; and "Online Behavior," which suggests related sites the target might visit. Data is gleaned from over 40 countries, reports The Channel Wire.

Ad placement cannot be purchased, and Ad Planner will not facilitate contact between advertisers and site publishers. Users may export data to platforms like Google's DoubleClick, however.

Ad Planner's figures will be updated daily, or about as often as Google Analytics. Statistics will be drawn from Google search, as well as from a third-party consumer panel.

Late Monday evening, an anonymous source revealed Google's intentions to debut the ad planning tool. When a description of its talk appeared beforehand on the Advertising Research Foundation's website, the company requested the information be removed.

This week Google also launched Trends for Websites, a companion tool that compares site traffic data.