There has been a good deal of coverage around Googles recent decision to beta test a CPM model (as opposed to CPC) for their Adsense product.  Apart from the pricing model turning full circle (CPM to CPC and now back again), what does this move mean to the marketplace ?

Well, one factor is that the traditional ad network world should be watching their backs as Google tries to steal its way into their space.  Not only are these new ads priced by impression rather than clickthrough, but they are also going to contain images.  Yes folks, its a banner by any other name.... 

This gives Google the tools to compete in traditional, branding driven markets, extending its historical, performance related proposition and enabling it to grab share of brand building budgets that it could not traditionally reach.  And bringing Google head to head with networks it has not, up until now, competed with. 

Time will tell how the markets receive the product and if its "hybrid" format will  lead to increased partnerships between SEM agencies with their experience of Google PPC campaigns and interactive agencies with their experience of creative.....

Martin Dinham