Late this week, Google announced that they’ve completed the acquisition of DoubleClick (after EU approval). They also launched the AdSense Ad Manager which, IMO, made the DoubleClick purchase a brilliant move.
DoubleClick is technically an ad display network servicing large online publishers. When Google bought them, everyone thought it was a move to expand their advertising network. It turns out, Google will be using the DoubleClick ad delivery platform as a complimentary service. Hence, the AdSense Ad Manager:
Today, we’re announcing a new tool for publishers with the beta launch of Google Ad Manager. Directed at addressing the ad management and serving needs of publishers with smaller sales teams, Google Ad Manager is a free, hosted ad and inventory management tool that can help publishers sell, schedule, deliver and measure their directly-sold and network-based ad inventory. It offers an intuitive and simple user experience with Google speed and a tagging process so publishers can spend more time working with their advertisers and less time on their ad management solution. And by providing detailed inventory forecasts and tracking at a very granular level, Ad Manager helps publishers maximize their inventory sell-through rates. {source}
Currently, small-time independent publishers would resort to free, open-source platforms such as Open Ads. I’m actually using OpenAds to serve some of the in-house ads. The system allows you to manage ads and control their delivery as well as track statistics like impressions and clickthroughs.
So, Google AdSense is like going that way now. But why free and all? Well, by helping publishers manage their direct ads, Google has direct contact/access with these non-AdSense publishers and maybe convince them to fill up unused inventories. I can see how it will look like — “AdSense Ad Manager — oops, ad campaign has expired; want us to put AdSense Image Ads in there?”
It’s currently under beta but I’ve sent in my application.
Hmm, OpenAds is not really geared towards small publishers, it was developed and being developed for big to huge publishers.
Of the 10 companies I recommended OpenAds, 8 are still using it, 5 are big, 1 mid-size, 2 small. The other 2 of the 10 purchased another after hearing that “FLOSS” is “bad” for business.