Tag Archives: Programmatic

Infographic: 4 Ways Brands Win with Programmatic

It is an exciting time to be a brand marketer. In today’s world of constant connectivity, there has never been a greater opportunity for brands to reach their target audience in meaningful ways. But brand building in a multi-screen age has its challenges, causing brands to search for new solutions to meet their marketing objectives. Leading brands are turning to programmatic to cut through the clutter and make one-to-one connections with consumers, at scale.

In this infographic, “Programmatic: The Brand Era,” we explore 4 ways that programmatic makes it possible for brands to run more effective digital marketing campaigns - connecting them 1:1 with their audiences, helping them embrace cross-screen, engage with rich formats like video, and measuring exactly what matters.

All of these factors are helping brands embrace programmatic buying as the technology evolves from a “nicety” to a “must-have”.

Programmatic helps brands win in the moments that matter.

See the full infographic here.

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Be a programmatic expert: learn Bid Manager with role-based training and webinars

Programmatic buying in DoubleClick Bid Manager keeps getting easier. We offer training for all levels, from new user training to advanced webinars. To help you learn faster and more efficiently, we’ve launched the new Bid Manager checklists along with two new optimization webinars.

Bid Manager checklists
Learn the basics of Bid Manager or master more advanced campaign management topics using the new Bid Manager checklists. These self-paced learning paths help you learn and master the product based on your role:
  • Basics for new users: Learn the basics of a demand-side platform and apply these concepts to an advertiser's media plan in Bid Manager. This checklist includes Bid Manager Fundamentals eLearning and certification. You'll also learn how Bid Manager integrates with DoubleClick Campaign Manager & DFA6. 
  • Implementation guide for administrators: Learn to set up and structure a new account, set up new users, and create new advertisers. 
  • Implementation guides for campaign managers: Walk through step-by-step guidelines, tips, and best practices for setting up new campaigns. We offer checklists for campaign managers based on whether or not they use DoubleClick Campaign Manager & DFA6.
Regardless of your level of experience with real time bidding and DoubleClick Bid Manager, we have a learning track that’s right for you!

Join a webinar this spring
Continue your learning by joining a live training webinar this spring. See the schedule below and register through the Training page in the Bid Manager Help Center (sign-in required).

Bid Manager Overview for new users – 4/17
Get an overview of Bid Manager – including the basic benefits and features of demand-side platforms and how ad exchanges work. Learn the steps to setting up a new campaign in Bid Manager. We'll also cover Core Bid Manager functionality and how it works with DoubleClick Campaign Manager & DFA6, as well as how to analyze performance and optimize campaigns. Register

We also offer eLearning and Certification, available in Spanish, Portuguese-Brazilian, and more.

Optimization webinar series
Learn key features in DoubleClick Bid Manager so you can more effectively manage your programmatic campaigns.
Bids and budgets – 5/15
Learn tips on setting up bids, budgets, and frequency caps, and evaluating the performance to make optimizations. Register 
Audience buying – 5/28
Learn to use the audience targeting feature for both third-party and first-party audience targeting. We'll look at tools like the Audience Composition report, and provide best practices for your remarketing line items. Register 
These webinars are intended for Bid Manager users who have completed Fundamentals training. If you’re a Bid Manager customer but are not yet using the tool, complete the Fundamentals eLearning.
Advanced webinars
Launch your campaign – 4/23
Now that you know the basics, it's time to set your bid strategies. In this webinar, you’ll walk through turning a media plan into a live campaign in Bid Manager. We'll also cover different strategies for gaining reach and increasing ROI, as well as setting up remarketing recency. Register

Creative Approvals – 6/3
Learn more about the creative approval process and find out what you need to do if creatives aren't approved. Register

These webinars are intended for Bid Manager users who have completed Fundamentals training. If you’re a Bid Manager customer but are not yet using the tool, complete the Fundamentals eLearning.

Watch a pre-recorded webinar
We also offer recorded webinars in our Help Center, covering an Overview for new users, topics like keyword contextual targeting, creative approvals, upgrades, and more. While you’re there, be sure to read about our latest product releases.

Some sessions mention prerequisites where we recommend background knowledge. Please note these to make sure you get the most out of each session. Lastly, be aware of any regional time differences before enrolling in any of the live sessions.

Keep in mind, the Bid Manager Help Center is only available to current Bid Manager users, so you'll need to sign in with the Google account you use for Bid Manager.

Be sure to sign up for the DoubleClick Digest to get the latest DoubleClick news, research, events, and product updates.

Posted by Molly Larrison, DoubleClick Bid Manager Product Trainer

Study up on programmatic with our Bid Manager optimization webinars

Now that we're back from the winter break, it's time to study up on programmatic with DoubleClick Bid Manager. We'll help you be a star student with our Optimization Webinar Series over the next two months. Need to learn the basics, or are you already advanced? We offer basic training via eLearnings, as well as webinars for users already familiar with the platform.

Take a look at our schedule below and enroll through the Training page in the Bid Manager Help Center (sign-in required).

Optimization Webinar Series
In this series, experts will discuss key features in DoubleClick Bid Manager to help you more effectively manage your programmatic campaigns.

Buy Facebook Exchange (FBX) inventory using DoubleClick Bid Manager - 2/4
Did you know that you can use DoubleClick Bid Manager to bid on FBX, Facebook's real-time bidding exchange? In this session, our product experts will teach you tips and tricks on how to get started with DBM line items targeting FBX inventory. Join this webinar If you’re a Bid Manager customer looking to build your campaigns, expand reach, and explore new options. Register

vCPM Bidding - 2/18
Learn how to implement Bid Manager's automated bidding tool to enhance your campaign performance. Register

Targeting - 3/4
Learn how to assign targeting and make adjustment for your prospecting, audience targeted, and remarketing line items. Register

Reporting - 2/25
Join our live webinar on generating reports and reading inline statistics in Bid Manager. We'll cover how these reports can help you optimize prospecting, audience, and remarketing campaigns. Join this webinar if you run reports, review data, or make optimizations. Register

Advanced webinars

Launch your campaign - 1/23
Join this webinar if you’re ready to set your bid strategies. In this webinar, you'll walk through how to turn a media plan into a live campaign in Bid Manager. We'll also cover different strategies for gaining reach and increasing ROI, as well as setting up remarketing recency. Register

Private Deals - 3/19
In this webinar, you’ll learn how to set up private deals with ad exchanges, what’s needed to get started, and steps to launch. This webinar is intended for users of Bid Manager who are interested to learn more about available inventory and direct deals. Register

These webinars are intended for Bid Manager users who have completed Fundamentals training. If you’re a Bid Manager customer but are not yet with the tool, complete the Fundamentals eLearning.

Pre-recorded webinars available
We also offer pre-recorded webinars in our Help Center, covering the Overview for new users, as well as topics like Keyword contextual targeting, Creative approvals, upgrades, and more. While you’re there, be sure to read about our latest product releases.

Some sessions mention prerequisites where we recommend background knowledge. Please note these to make sure you get the most out of each session. Lastly, be aware of any regional time differences before enrolling in any of the live sessions.

Posted by Molly Larrison, DoubleClick Bid Manager Product Trainer

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

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

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