Google has been in the news for a number of reasons lately – AdWords updates, potential takeovers, stoushes with Yahoo – but it seems one of the company’s interesting initiatives, Google TV Ads, has gone unnoticed.

According to a posting on Andy Beal’s Marketing Pilgram site, Google’s Stephanie Duchaine, believes Google TV Ads are something every marketer should know about.

The most recent data from the company shows that 37% of online users who perform a search as a result of exposure to offline content, do so from seeing a TV ad.

Finding out exactly SEO/internet marketing actually crossed over into the TV industry was the hard bit, but when YouTube videos started appearing as clips on TV shows things had started to change. 

Beal’s posting asserts that being TV friendly with ‘web video’ is becoming increasingly important and as agencies start to roll out more viral video campaigns, the ability to launch these videos as TV Ads is the obvious next step.

TV advertising is changing because Google has entered the market as an agent of TV ads – its system just made buying advertising a whole lot easier and here is why, points out Duchaine.

The initiative is only available for USA TV networks so far, but plans for a European version rollout is on the cards – whether or not it hits Australia will be another matter.