Category Archives: DoubleClick Publishers Blog

DART for publishers – DoubleClick Publishers

“Making mobile work” for the advertising industry

Today, almost 50% of the US population has a smartphone* and one in five webpage views now occur on mobile devices.** Even though consumers have quickly incorporated these devices into their daily routines, advertisers haven’t necessarily followed suit. While a few of the savviest advertisers are taking advantage of the multiscreen opportunity, it’s time that the entire industry think critically about how to make mobile a first class citizen in their campaigns.

One key aspect of “making mobile work” is using mobile-compatible ad creative; HTML5 creative works on smartphones, tablets and desktops, allowing advertisers to build a single ad unit that can run across all screens. By using HTML5, advertisers open the door to cross-screen branding opportunities, as well as enable publishers to monetize their highly-trafficked mobile properties.

To call out this need, the IAB today published an open letter, signed by Google, 16 US publishers and six UK publishers, asking marketers to use HTML5 for their ad creative so that their campaigns can show up properly across screens.

This plea to marketers is the first step in a larger “Make Mobile Work” Initiative, in which the IAB, supported by Google and the other publishers, will provide additional resources to marketers to educate them on how to implement successful mobile campaigns.

By fostering the conversation and educating marketers, we hope the “Make Mobile Work” Initiative will invigorate the production of mobile-compatible campaigns, enable marketers to take advantage of the mobile opportunity, and provide publishers with the inventory they need to monetize their mobile properties.

Posted by Bonita Stewart, VP Americas Partner Business Solutions, Google *source: eMarketer “US Mobile Phone Internet Users and Penetration, 2012-2017.”
**source: http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_vs_desktop-ww-monthly-201012-201312

Advance Auto Parts takes AdX for a test drive – and finds a new source of revenue


Advance Auto Parts (AAP) is a leading retailer of automotive parts, accessories, batteries and maintenance items with over 3,900 physical stores as well as a thriving e-commerce business.

In late 2012 AAP began testing DoubleClick Ad Exchange (AdX) in order to offer ad placements on its e-commerce site. The aim was to derive additional revenue from non-converting traffic, and AdX proved a perfect fit:

More revenue, more conversions
AAP’s goal was to gain incremental revenue from the ads, but they were worried that existing conversion rates might be negatively affected. Fortunately, these fears were quickly overcome, as implementing ad units on the site in fact saw conversions increase.

Great tools equal happy customers
AAP was concerned about preserving brand safety as well a positive site experience for its users. Thanks to the robust set of tools and controls provided in AdX, AAP was able ensure ads from major competitors didn’t appear and that bounce rates remained unaffected.

E-commerce and ads: an ideal balance
“Working with AdX has taught us that online ads and e-commerce can certainly work together gracefully,” says Howard Blumenthal, AAP’s director of eBusiness platform solutions. “If you can get this balance right, you end up with the ideal situation.”

So what’s next? Howard reveals AAP has plans in place to use AdX to monetize the company’s mobile site, too. “We are always looking for ways to increase incremental revenue by optimizing AdX as much as possible.”

Read the full Advance Auto Parts story >>

Posted by Ian Cohan-Shapiro, Product Marketing Team

Weight Watchers weighs in on their success with Google Publisher Tag and DFP

A top name in weight loss and healthy living for 50 years, Weight Watchers serves over 140 million ad impressions a month at WeightWatchers.com.

Weight Watchers began using the Google Publisher Tag (GPT) in 2012 once they upgraded to the DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) ad server. They were hoping for better targeting, but they got much more.

Higher ROI, happier advertisers
With up to five levels of targeting hierarchy, GPT let Weight Watchers improve its targeting and end manual re-tagging. The results have been strong with Click Through Rates across all standard display ad units are up 13%, and for leaderboards up 76%. Advertisers are loving the performance and Weight Watchers now runs four times more monthly campaigns with advanced targeting than with basic demographic and geo-targeting.

100% boost in operational efficiency from DFP

"I would actually say we've had a 100% increase in efficiency," says Jordan Tuck of Weight Watchers. Campaign setup is faster, and new features like the ability to update multiple line items on the same page save even more time later.

30% rise in indirect inventory earnings

With the move to DFP, Weight Watchers benefited from Dynamic Allocation with DoubleClick Ad Exchange (AdX) to monetize indirect inventory. Their indirect inventory rates are up 30% year-over-year, and the clickthrough rate is 2.5 times higher than it was before AdX. AdX now has 70% share of their indirectly sold inventory.

Weight Watchers helps its customers "move the needle," and DFP and AdX have helped them do the same with their own online properties.

Read the full Weight Watchers story »

Posted by Yamini Gupta, Product Marketing Team

Redefining "Advertising": How 2013 Transformed Digital Marketing

It was a great year for digital advertising. New technologies took off, helping brands, agencies and publishers reach today’s constantly connected consumers more easily and effectively than ever before. With budgets no longer being siloed, 20% of organizations incorporated digital into each marketing function, per a study by Adobe.

We compiled a few of the bigger changes in marketing and digital advertising in 2013, to see how far the industry has come along. View the full infographic here or see a brief summary below.

Redefining “creative”
New creative formats took center stage in 2013. Marketers invested more in social media and TrueView skippable video ad formats continued to grow on the DoubleClick Ad Exchange.



Redefining “integrated”
The new 360 media plan cannot overlook digital and the sheer number of screens people interact with. In 2012, Google released some research indicating that people use 3 screen combinations a day. In 2013, this manifested itself in the form of increased investments in multi-screen campaigns.




Redefining “buying”
New(Up)fronts. Programmatic. 2013 changed the way digital media spend is committed.18 digital media companies presented at the Digital Content NewFronts. And programmatic buying gained significant traction with an expected ~74% growth, according to eMarketer. As brands took to programmatic and with the growth of programmatic video, CPMs on the DoubleClick Ad Exchange increased, and Preferred Deal impressions grew 250%. DoubleClick Bid Manager powered social media ads, joined FBX.


Redefining “success”
Earlier this year, AdAge released some research indicating that 50% of display ads are not viewed, making advertising viewability a hot industry topic. Google’s viewability measurement solution, ActiveView, got MRC-accredited. Last week, Google announced that it would enable viewability-based buys on the Google Display Network. Engagement Rate was another hot metric in 2013, with Cost per Engagement pay models enabled for ad formats like Engagement Ads on the Google Display Network.


View the full infographic here.

Posted by Yamini Gupta, Product Marketing Team

Smart Strategies for Multi-Screen Sites

Consumers today are ready to connect with you all day long on screens of all types. But is your website ready to serve those customers on small screens as well as on tablets and desktops?

Mobile screens are where it often gets tricky for business owners: How do I design for smartphones? What's the right technology? What are the big mistakes to avoid?
That's why we've created a new Multi-Screen Resources page. This site is loaded with help for anyone who wants to reach their customers on all kinds of devices. Resources include:
  • Any Place, Any Time, Any Device: Building Websites for the Multi-Screen Consumer. Download this new guide for a close look at the pros and cons of common mobile website configurations. You'll find tips and best practices for improving the layout, content and speed of your mobile site. This white paper will help you build a great experience for all your users.
  • Approved vendors. Find a list of website vendors who can help you design a site, build a site, tweak strategies and go multi-screen fast.
  • Success stories from others. Read how the Huffington Post boosted mobile visits by 37%, or how Beyond the Rack created a mobile site that now accounts for 44% of their sales.
  • Tools that work. Try the PageSpeed Insights tool — it can help boost your site performance.
Get ready to delight your mobile and multi-screen users: visit the Multi-Screen Resources site today.

Also, don't miss Building Multi-Screen Websites — our upcoming webinar on Tuesday, November 19th, at 1:00 EST.

Posted by Nabil Haschemie, Product Marketing Manager

Join us for "Digital Dialogues: Making Mobile Work with HTML5" – 10/24 @ 10am PT

Following the recent launch of our Mobile White Paper, “Unlocking the HTML5 Opportunity: What’s the Holdup?”, this week we’re continuing the conversation around unlocking the mobile opportunity with a Digital Dialogues Hangout-on-Air.

There's no question that people are spending more time across screens, and the opportunity to reach them there is huge. Advertisers, media and creative agencies are still trying to figure out the best way to leverage mobile in their campaigns, optimize for it and build engaging multi-screen creatives. Publishers continue to strategize on ways to deliver and monetize engaging cross-screen consumer experiences.

Join us for a conversation on how technologies and solutions like HTML5 can make cross-screen creative and mobile advertising more accessible for the industry.

Speakers:
What: Digital Dialogues Hangout on Air: Making Mobile Work with HTML5
When: Thursday, 10/24 @ 10am PT / 1pm ET
Where: Think With Google G+ page.

RSVP here.

While you’re waiting, here’s some background reading:
We hope you’ll be able to join us!

Posted by Becky Chappell, Product Marketing

Google Web Designer beta now available: Build beautiful HTML5 creative with ease.

By now, it’s evident that multi-screen consumption is the way of the future; mobile and tablet devices are becoming consumers’ first screens, so the content that is developed needs to work seamlessly across these screens. There are already more end-users in HTML5-compatible environments than there are in Flash-compatible environments, and HTML5 ad spend is expected to overtake Flash spend within the next two years (1). But until recently, advertisers and publishers didn't have the tools they needed to easily develop content fit for today's cross-screen experiences.

Build once, run anywhere 
We’re working hard to solve this development challenge by offering powerful yet easy-to-use tools for HTML5 production. In this vein, we announced DoubleClick Studio Layouts for HTML5 back in August (also available to DFP Premium publishers using DoubleClick Studio), which lets you create HTML5 ads in minutes, and last week we announced Ready Creatives in AdWords, which creates HTML5 ads for you in seconds.

Today, we’re excited to announce the public beta of Google Web Designer, a new professional-quality design tool that makes HTML5 creative accessible to everyone from the designer to the dabbler.

Google Web Designer enables you to:
  1. Create animated HTML5 creative, with a robust, yet intuitive set of design tools. 
  2. View and edit the code behind your designs and see your edits reflected back on the stage automatically. 
  3. Build ad creatives seamlessly for DoubleClick and AdMob, or publish them to any generic environment you choose. 
  4. Receive updates to the product automatically, without having to re-download the application.
  5. Access all of this entirely for free.

Watch the Demo: A quick glimpse of Google Web Designer

Ready to give it a spin? 
  • Download Google Web Designer. 
  • Read through our getting started guide. 
  • Send us feedback! We need your input to make this tool even better, so share your ideas with us in our user forum or on our Google+ page. We’re working hard over the next couple quarters to add new features and improvements to make the product an even more robust offering. 
HTML5 is a universal language for building beautiful, engaging content that can run across desktops, smartphones, and tablets. We think that Google Web Designer will be the key to making HTML5 accessible to people throughout the industry, getting us closer to the goal of “build once, run anywhere.”

NOTE: Publishers using DFP or DFP Small business, see our Help Center articles to learn more about trafficking creatives. DFP Help Center. DFP Small Business Help Center.


Posted by Sean Kranzberg, Lead Engineer, Google Web Designer 
(1) StatCounter, Top 12 Browser Versions in North America, February 2012 to August 2013 

Digital Video Creativity: A Conversation with Adam Good

A few months ago, we kicked off the Video in the Future content series featuring speakers like AOL’s Ran Harnevo, Meredith’s Liz Schimel, NewsCorp’s Rahul Chopra and AMC’s Kirk Linden, among others.

The next edition in this series will be from Australia, as we’ll speak with Adam Good, Director of Digital Media & Content, at Telstra.

From Telstra’s long history as a telco to now, a media empire - how is the company creating, promoting and monetizing digital video content to engage its audience? Adam will speak about Telstra’s digital video strategy in a conversation with Jason Pellegrino, Sales Director for Google Australia and New Zealand.

Join us live on September 24, 10:30AM Sydney time. RSVP here.

Posted by Yamini Gupta, Product Marketing Team

Now on Mobile – The DoubleClick Ad Exchange Deals Interface

DoubleClick Ad Exchange (AdX) launched the first Preferred Deal in 2012 and the first Private Auction in 2013 to help publishers and advertisers create greater opportunities with programmatic buying. Since the beginning of this year we’ve seen the number of Preferred Deals double, the number of Preferred Deals impressions grow by 2.5X, and Private Auction impressions explode from nothing to millions per day. As these programmatic deal types become more important for our partners, they started asking for the ability to negotiate deals on the go. So today, we’re excited to launch a Mobile version of the DoubleClick Ad Exchange Deals interface.

Negotiate on the go
The new DoubleClick Ad Exchange Deals interface for mobile allows buyers and sellers to check the status of a Preferred Deal or Private Auction on any device. When you sign into the Deals interface on your phone or tablet, the mobile site will load automatically. From there, buyers and sellers can view, edit, accept, or stop existing deals.
If at any time you need to access other features, you can switch to the classic version of the Deals UI by clicking on the Desktop link at the bottom of the screen.

We built this mobile interface to help DoubleClick Ad Exchange partners continue their deal negotiations while away from their desks and it’s available now for all users. To access it, just visit www.google.com/adxbuyer/uploader from your mobile browser and visit our Help Center for buyers or Help Center for sellers to learn more.


Posted by Michael Smith, Product Manager 
Built by Brandon Krieger, Software Engineering Intern

Continuing to invest in a clean, open exchange

Recently there has been a great deal of discussion about applications that inject or overlay ads on sites without the express approval of users and those sites, and then monetize the inventory as their own. We believe that this kind of activity is bad for end users and damages the integrity of the advertising industry. In order for the programmatic marketplace to achieve its full potential and help as many marketers and publishers as we think it can, there needs to be trust between advertisers, publishers, and users.

We’ve invested, since the beginning, in strong policies and a system of checks and filters to ensure that the inventory on the DoubleClick Ad Exchange is the highest quality in the industry. Here’s a quick summary of what we do to stop invalid injected inventory from entering our exchange.

We don’t support spammy applications. Period.
Both the Google Platforms program policies and the DoubleClick Ad Exchange (AdX) Seller Program Guidelines strictly prohibit the use of systems, including toolbars, that overlay ad space on a given site without express permission of the site owner. In addition, we have numerous processes and technologies in place to review publishers’ inventory as well as advertisers’ ads to maintain a high standard of quality for how advertising is transacted on our platforms. 

In light of the increased concerns on this subject, many publishers have asked us for guidance on what to ask the exchanges or networks they work with. Here are three suggested questions any publisher partner should be able to answer in regards to protecting against injected inventory:
  • Does your platform work with or supply advertising for clients who inject display ads in browsers?
  • Do your program policies prohibit the use of systems to inject display ads in browsers, without first having obtained user consent or consent from the site affected?
  • Please provide me a report of all the inventory partners on your platform serving my domain?

We do, and will always, support our publisher partners. 
Finally, I’d like to thank the millions of publishers who use the DoubleClick Ad Exchange, large and small, that day in and day out, provide amazing value both to their users and their advertisers. We welcome a broader discussion with our partners and with the industry about how to collectively solve this issue and others. Together, we can all ask the tough questions, hold each other accountable, and ultimately create the web we all want, where publishers, users and advertisers all thrive.


Posted by Scott Spencer, Director of Product Management