Compared to Google’s other offerings, Google Audio Ads has often been something of an unknown quantity.  Some ads played . . . some people came to the site . . . exact relationships remained mysterious.  But Google’s hoping to offer some solid stats through an integration with Google Analytics.

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Anyone in the U.S. who has linked their Analytics and AdWords accounts "can now see how their campaign metrics for impressions, ad plays, markets, and CPM correlate with their website traffic data . . . such as conversions, revenue, and transactions," according to Christian Yee.

On the Google Analytics Blog, he then underscored the main point: "Customers can see if their audio campaigns resulted in greater amounts of traffic and conversions on a regional basis."

Such patterns are presumably pretty common; Google, professed dedication to openness notwithstanding, wouldn’t do something that would cause all Audio Ads users to abandon the program.

We expect to see a slight increase in the use of Google Audio Ads, then, with more people joining in as word spreads and time goes by.