Google has further unveiled its new automated radio commercial placement system and is now selling advertisements on “hundreds” of stations across America, taking in most major markets.

Still regarded by the company as beta test, Google Adwords Audio is the first product to generate revenue following its January acquisition of dMarc Broadcasting. dMarc is the software developer of Maestro and SS32 – radio automation systems that have been adopted by around 5000 stations worldwide.

In the past ten months Google has further developed dMarc’s backend software to completely automate the process of placing an audio commercial through the Internet, in so doing bypassing traditional radio sales departments.

Potential advertisers can now log into the Google Adwords website to select a location for their campaign, then a demographic, day of the week and preferred daypart.

Finally the client bids on how much they are willing to pay to place the commercial in a similar manner to Google’s online ad auction.

If a commercial needs to be recorded, Google has built a separate auction marketplace for producers and voice-over talent to create, audition and get approval of the audio file.

Post-campaign reporting and verification is also built into the product offering.

Unsurprisingly, US radio sales executives are already critical of the closed beta, saying it has the potential to drive down spot rates, however at this point in time only unused spot inventory is being allocated to the system.

Google’s own Adwords Audio help centre is linked below.