Category Archives: DoubleClick Publishers Blog

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Achievement Unlocked: monetizing online games with TrueView and AdX


With every new plot planted and zombie zapped to bits, the online games industry is changing the way we interact with entertainment. Online games publishers work with us to grow their gaming empires across all screens, from distribution and downloads through to in-game advertising. We’ve also recognized a growing advertiser demand to reach highly engaged games audiences. So we were especially excited to announce two launches at Europe’s Game Developer Conference: we’re launching the TrueView video ad format across our games monetization platforms, and opening up the DoubleClick Ad Exchange to monetize desktop games.

TrueView creates a better ad experience for gamers, and higher monetization for publishers

We all know how important it is to create a gamer-friendly ad experience, which is why we’re bringing one of our most successful ad formats to games: the skippable video ad. TrueView Instream skippable video ads drive a lot of advertiser demand on YouTube, the Ad Exchange, and AdSense for video. Following on Susan Wojcicki’s beta announcement earlier this year, we’re now making TrueView video ads available to all games publishers on AdX, AdSense for games, and select mobile publishers on AdMob. During the beta, we found that TrueView video ads contributed to lower abandonment rates and greater monetization compared to normal instream video ads.

The Ad Exchange posts a new high score with desktop in-game ads

Programmatic channels have revolutionized the way we buy and sell online advertising - and now the launch of in-game ads on the Ad Exchange gives developers the same sophisticated platform to accelerate their monetization efforts. Publishers who have desktop Flash and HTML5 games can now access the global advertiser demand, top-performing ad formats, and finely-tuned controls offered by the Ad Exchange. Advertisers can now specifically target online games’ highly engaged audiences with wide range of gamer-friendly ad formats. These include image and text overlays and interstitials, right through to standard video ads and the skippable TrueView video ad format.

We think that opening the programmatic channel and the rise of gamer-friendly ad formats like TrueView will drive even better monetization for games - which is great news for game publishers, but perhaps not for the zombies.

Posted by
Rebecca Illowsky and Allen Huang
Product Managers, Games Monetization

Introducing ‘The Programmatic Opportunity’

Automated buying. Machine-based buying. RTB. Call it what you may, there's no doubt that programmatic buying is changing (read: simplifying) the way media is bought and sold, in real-time. No wonder then, we’ve seen more daily transactions on the DoubleClick Ad Exchange than on the NYSE and NASDAQ combined, and a tripling of instream video ad impressions as brands adopt the technology. And eMarketer predicts that 1/3rd of all display advertising is going to be bought programmatically by 2017.

But what's the real opportunity here for advertisers and publishers? How is programmatic going to safely grow their businesses and deliver ROI? In our new collection of insights, ‘The Programmatic Opportunity’, hear how this technology is transforming the industry, what’s going to make it work and why it’s the way of the future, from senior advertising and media executives like The Weather Company’s Curt Hecht, CBS Interactive’s David Chiang, Digitas’ Joel Aranson and Xaxis’ Mike Finnegan. Get some tips from Washington Post Digital on leveraging programmatic to tap into new buyer segments, and to realize CPMs at par with direct rates.

In coming weeks, stay tuned for us to add new research, best practices and perspectives to the collection. In the meantime, catch up with Google executives across the globe to hear about the evolution of online advertising and the programmatic opportunity:
Posted by Yamini Gupta, Product Marketing Team

Announcing DoubleClick Studio Layouts: Build rich media ads in minutes and get your ads live in hours.


Today, we’re thrilled to announce the launch of DoubleClick Studio Layouts, a rich media production tool that makes it easier to build and publish rich media and HTML5 ads.

Rich media formats are becoming a mainstay for brand advertisers, who are expected to increase their rich media spend by ~150% over the next four years.* Rich media’s continued growth is due in large part to it’s ability to help brands bring their stories to life online. (Check out our recent iMedia article for examples of great digital storytelling.) But although rich media ads are recognized as a critical vehicle for digital advertising, the tools to produce these ads are still too complex and time-consuming. The insurgence of mobile advertising and HTML5 has only made the process even more complicated. In fact, ad production can consume up to 80% of a creative agency’s time, leaving only 20% for the strategic, innovative thinking.

We want to invert that statistic.

With today’s launch, you no longer have to toil through the hand-coding of a long tear sheet, or undergo multiple creative revisions for a simple ad. Studio Layouts provides a pre-built rich media ad shell, so you can simply select a layout, upload your existing assets and publish. You can even build HTML5 ads using the same basic assets. Because the structure of the ad is already created for you, there are fewer places for the creative to break, meaning your ads can get through QA with few to zero revisions. With Studio Layouts, you can build rich media and HTML5 ads much faster, reach more people with your existing assets and upgrade your basic image ads to rich media. Let’s see how these benefits came to life with Samsung Turkey for their recent Galaxy S4 campaign. (Full case study here.)

Efficiency: Build rich media and HTML5 ads faster
Samsung Turkey launched a rich media campaign in 90% less time than they could have before Layouts. They built a three-video GDN lightbox ad in 15 minutes and completed quality assurance in three hours with no revisions. Not only was the turn-around time greatly reduced, but the campaign was also successful in driving consumer engagement. In one month, 20 million impressions were served to 2.4 million unique users, with an engagement rate of 2.73%. More than 60,000 viewers watched the videos through to the end, and the cost per engagement was low, at less than 10 cents US.


Samsung’s GDN lightbox unit begins as a 300x250, and expands when a user hovers over the ad for two seconds. The expanded state can accommodate three YouTube videos.

Reach: Get more mileage out of existing assets
Samsung was able to take their YouTube videos and quickly turn them into a rich media ad, syndicating their existing content across the internet. They could also take those same assets, plug them into an HTML5 layout and reach people on mobile and tablet devices as well, without having to code a thing.

Performance: Upgrade standard flash and image ads to rich media
Finally, by using rich media to distribute their videos, Samsung gained access to rich media metrics, such as interaction and video completion rates. “The campaign data showed that we were reaching the right customer at the right place and at the right time,” says Seda Gumustas, digital marketing manager for Samsung Turkey. This data gives advertisers the ability to understand how users are engaging with their brands and gauge success of their campaigns in ways not possible before.

What’s Launching today?
Today, we’re launching Studio Layouts to the public, and we’ll continue to roll out new Layouts formats and features over the next six months. In the coming weeks, we’ll be launching Layouts for the IAB Rising Star formats Cascade, Billboard, and Sidekick, as well as an HTML5 GDN Lightbox format.

If you are already a DoubleClick Studio user, you’ll notice the new Layouts tab in the top green navigation bar of the UI. There you’ll find the Layouts Gallery with descriptions for how to begin using the tool.


To learn more about Studio Layouts, visit our landing page on the Rich Media Gallery.

Posted by Tal Snir, Product Manager, DoubleClick Rich Media and Video
*eMarketer, “US Ad Spending: Mid-2013 Forecast and Comparative Estimates”, July 31, 2013

AdX – Delivering for our Partners

By all measures, this year has been an incredible one for DoubleClick Ad Exchange (AdX) and its partners. From NYC to London to Tokyo (and everywhere in between), more buyers and sellers are using AdX than ever before, and they’re doing it across a broader range of use cases – including direct programmatic deals, tag-based ad network optimization, and of course, RTB.

From Q1 to Q2, AdX saw a 33% increase in RTB spend in the US and a 24% increase globally. But it’s not just about quantity: as marketers continue to embrace the programmatic opportunity, publishers such as Gannett, British Telecom, and The Weather Company are using the platform to identify and capture this spend. 

Part of what’s driving this shift for publishers is the availability of more powerful tools to specify the exact terms of each transaction and understand how buyers are buying. In the past, doing this required some publishers to stitch together many technologies at once. Although we’ve been working on unifying Admeld and AdX for more than a year, in March we unveiled a key milestone on that road with a major series of updates. In addition to its advanced programmatic tools like Preferred Deals and Private Auctions, AdX now includes the best features of Admeld such as ad network optimization and increased transparency and control. The response has been amazing: To date more than 50% of Admeld publishers by volume have migrated their inventory onto AdX. Hundreds of publishers – including CBSi, Jagex, and Stardoll – have already made the switch, and everyone else is scheduled to transition shortly. 

Though the legacy of Admeld continues to inspire our design decisions, we believe strongly that consolidating our efforts behind a single platform is more effective for our clients and more conducive to providing them with the best possible service. For that reason, we’ve notified all our clients in recent weeks that we’ll be sunsetting the Admeld platform and brand on September 30, before the holiday ad spend begins to ramp up.

We've done a lot of preparation to make the migration process as smooth as possible for you. Your account manager should already be in touch with you about what the migration will mean for you.


Posted by Scott Spencer, Director, Product Management

Helping publishers grow with DFP Small Business

Since we launched DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) Small Business, we’ve been constantly innovating to meet the evolving needs of growing publishers.

From introducing free mobile and video ad serving functionality, to streamlining the tagging process, we’ve been committed to building a complete and easy-to-use platform that helps publishers grow their digital advertising business.

To help publishers continue to grow with the platform, we’re making available a set of features, such as creative templates, competitive exclusion, and configureable roles, that had previously only been available to our largest publishers. These features will help DFP Small Business publishers unlock new revenue opportunities and have even greater flexibility and control over their ad operations.

A full list of features now available to DFP Small Business publishers can be viewed here. If you don’t have a DFP Small Business account, sign up for free today.

Posted by Chealsea Conroy, Product Manager

Announcing Publisher Connection: the newsletter that brings the best of Google right to your inbox

From DoubleClick to Google+ to YouTube to Wildfire - each month we create a ton of content to help publishers like you grow your business and navigate an increasingly complex landscape.

Until now, we haven’t put the best of this content one convenient place - your inbox. That’s why we’re launching Google Publisher Connection, a monthly newsletter with case studies, research, events and trends designed to help you stay ahead of the curve and on top of the issues impacting your business.

Subscribe now and we’ll add you to the monthly Google Publisher Connection mailing list.

Read the first issue here.




Posted by David Hertog, Product Marketing Team

Live from AdMonsters OPS TV: Digital Dialogues – The Video Revolution

In a few minutes, we'll be going live at AdMonsters OPS TV with AMC's Vice President of Digital Partnerships & Operations, Kirk Linden, and News Corp's Vice President & Head of Video, Rahul Chopra to talk about their approaches to digital video.

You can watch the conversation here, if you're not at the event:


Posted by Yamini Gupta, Product Marketing Team

Universal inventory in DoubleClick for Publishers

Over the past few years we’ve witnessed a massive shift in how users consume digital content, using multiple devices interchangeably depending on context. We are now in a multi-device, multi-screen world, which presents great advertising opportunities (and potential challenges) to publishers and advertisers.

A multi-screen world doesn’t have to mean complexity with numerous ad technologies for each screen-type. We believe a multi-screen world presents publishers and advertisers with an opportunity to provide an even better experience for their audience and customers.

This is why in February we released Adwords enhanced campaigns to make it easier for advertisers to reach their audience across all devices with smarter ads that are relevant to their customers’ intent and context, without having to set up and manage several separate campaigns.

For publishers we’ve worked hard over the past year evolving DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) for the multi-screen world to reduce complexity and help publishers save time so they can focus on what they do best - creating great content.

Since a publisher’s audience is constantly switching between devices to consume content, ad inventory shouldn’t be tied to a specific device, but instead to content and audience. Going forward, inventory in DFP will no longer be tied to only desktop or mobile campaigns, rather all inventory will now be able to accommodate any campaign for any device.

With this update, publishers will be able to forecast, traffic, and report on campaigns across all devices without having to split an advertiser’s impressions, budget, or campaign objectives across multiple inventory units. Publishers will have the flexibility to target mobile or desktop attributes for all inventory.

Unified inventory is designed to help you succeed in a multi-screen world and will roll-out to publishers on DFP and DFP Small Business this summer. Here are some helpful resources to help you get started.

Posted by Florent de Gantes, Product Manager

Sneak Preview: AMC’s Kirk Linden at AdMonsters OPS TV, July 18


As we announced yesterday, we're excited to host a live hangout on air from AdMonsters OPS Mobile & TV in New York next week, as part of our Video in the Future Digital Dialogues series. Joining us on stage are Rahul Chopra, VP and Head of Video at News Corp, and Kirk Linden, VP Digital Partnerships and Operations at AMC. We warmed up the microphone with a few questions for Rahul yesterday and caught up with Kirk today on the things he's excited to speak about at AdMonsters OPS TV.

We’re collecting more questions for both Kirk and Rahul, so tweet your questions to @doubleclick_pub with #digitaldialogues #opstv, and we’ll try to get to them on stage.

Tell us about AMC’s digital video focus, and what sets your digital video offering apart from your competitors?
As a content company, AMC is focused on delivering distinctive, high quality content no matter the platform, providing authenticated episodes online, award-winning Web series and our industry-leading second screen application, AMC Story Sync.

AMC has a lot at stake when it comes to TV ads, but what gets you excited about the future of digital video advertising?
I am most excited about the opportunity digital video advertising provides to support distribution of great content across multiple screens. AMC is an ad-supported network, and digital video advertising helps us to bring quality content to more screens and more devices.

What are some key things you'd like to discuss with participants at AdMonsters OPS on July 18th?
1. How can we better leverage data to deliver more efficient campaigns and stronger viewer experiences?
2. As an industry, we need to find a way to better streamline the delivery and stewardship of cross-platform campaigns.
Come join us in New York at AdMonsters OPS TV to continue the conversation. Are you unable to make it to New York, but want to participate? Contribute a question for Kirk, and we'll get back to you if we're able to host you during the Google+ hangout during the talk on July 18th, at 1:50 PM ET, 10:50 AM PT.

Posted by Mel Ann Chan, Product Marketing Team

Rahul Chopra from News Corp warms up for AdMonsters OPS TV, July 18th


We’re going to be at AdMonsters OPS Mobile and TV on July 18, hosting a live Hangout on Air interview as part of our Video in the Future Digital Dialogues series. Joining us will be Rahul Chopra, VP and Head of Video at News Corp, and Kirk Linden, VP Digital Partnerships and Operations at AMC.

We’d thought we’d warm up the mic with a few preliminary questions for Rahul, and follow up with a few for Kirk the next day. We’re collecting more questions for both our panelists, so tweet your questions to #digitaldialogues #opstv, and we’ll try to get to them on stage.

 What sets News Corp’s video offering apart?
News Corporation possesses some of the biggest brands in publishing today across the globe, covering every possible genre. By harnessing the power of more than five thousand journalists, we have the ability to activate a video network that will be live when our readers want us to be, in depth when they need us to be, everywhere and anywhere they are.

The Wall Street Journal, a News Corp brand, was the only news publisher invited to the Digital Newfronts. What’s been the response from advertisers?
The response has been fantastic as we were able to present a clear vision for how video is now an inseparable part of the Wall Street Journal experience. It was a great opportunity to talk about how WSJ Live provides more than four hours of live video each day and hundreds of hours of on-demand content every month distributed on 30 platforms globally with video streams increasing 370% during the 2012 calendar year to 35 million across all platforms.

What are some key things you'd like to discuss with participants at AdMonsters OPS on July 18th?
I would like to discuss where does the advertising industry go from pre-rolls and how advertisers view content on owned sites versus off-platform (eg YouTube).

Come join us in New York at AdMonsters OPS Mobile & TV. Unable to make it to New York, but want to participate? Tell us your burning question for Rahul, and we'll get back to you if we're able to accommodate you in the Google+ hangout during the talk on July 18th, at 1:50 PM ET, 10:50 AM PT.

Posted by Mel Ann Chan, Product Marketing Team