Google ads will stream out to XM listeners

Google inked a deal with XM Satellite Radio on Wednesday that allows the search giant's AdWords clients to promote their products and services through XM spots.

The deal is the latest in a series of moves to expand AdWords, which specializes in site-targeted pay-per-click advertising, beyond a strictly online medium. In January, Google purchased radio ad company dMarc Broadcasting for $102 million, and last week Google-powered ads began appearing on terrestrial radio stations in Detroit.

With the dMarc platform, for which a U.S. patent is pending, many otherwise complicated radio advertising procedures--sales, scheduling and tracking, to name a few--are automated and simplified. Advertisements also can be sent directly from the advertiser to the radio station or network. Currently, the platform is available only to dMarc advertisers--not AdWords clients--but Google estimates that dMarc will be integrated into the AdWords software by the fourth quarter of this year.

The XM partnership is a major step in Google's foray into media outside the Web, as the satellite radio company boasts more than 7 million subscribers throughout the U.S.

Terrestrial radio's relationship with new media has traditionally been tenuous, but satellite radio has proven to be far more Net-friendly. In 2005, XM rival Sirius Satellite Radio forged an alliance with Microsoft to facilitate video broadcasting, and last year XM itself teamed up with Napster to accommodate the purchasing and downloading of songs played on its XM Radio Online service.

Music enthusiasts who subscribe to XM for its commercial-free playlists need not panic: The AdWords spots will appear only on XM's nonmusic channels.