Internet search leader Google, hot on the heels of winning European regulator approval of its $3.1 billion  purchase of online advertising giant DoubleClick, is racing headlong into expanding its Web ad business with a new free service called Ad Manager that will manage and serve ads aimed at small and medium-size Web publishers, the Mountain-View, California-based company announced Thursday. Google intends to share revenue by providing a commission to site owners who use Ad Manager, which is currently accepting applications to participate in the service's beta test stage, and hopes users will choose to carry some of its own ads, Google said. Google Ad Manager Touts Eight Core Features Google Ad Manager, which has undergone testing by a group of companies including The Nation, Date.com and Robin Liss's Reviewed.com, allows online advertisers to sell, track and deliver ads using a Google hosted application the company touts as being quicker and more reliable than other similar services, according to the Google Ad Manager site. Ad Manager includes the following eight core features:  | Inventory management with ad slots, ad placement groups and ad bundling products | | | Yield optimization with AdSense integration | | | Ad targeting with customizable criteria such as geography, operating system, browser and bandwidth | | | Trafficking, ad delivery, and order booking with frequency capping, CPM, CPC and CPD pricing models | | | Creatives and rich media management with tags from various media providers and third-party tracking | | | Reporting with interactive views and multiple detailed display options | | | User interface with browser session support and AdSense channels integration | | | Administration with contact organizer and team permission settings | Besides DoubleClick, OpenX Could Face Challenge The Google Ad Manager service combines such features in hopes of making it easier for users to create useful  reports tracking the success of their ads, such as how much each ad has earned per click or impression, and to act as a sort of control center for managing increasingly complex and varied ad networks in a Google-branded Web application. Competitors to Google's new Ad Manager service typically charge fees, most notably New York-based DoubleClick which serves roughly 2,000 clients including advertisers, Web publishers, and advertising agencies. Google now owns DoubleClick, which has caused some analysts to speculate that certain services provided by DoubleClick may be given away for free in the future, a prospect Google said Thursday it had no immediate plans to pursue, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report citing an unnamed company spokesman. Besides DoubleClick and its Dynamic Advertising Reporting and Targeting (DART) framework, other competitors in markets similar to that which Google announced Thursday for Ad Manager include UK-based OpenX, a free open source ad server which is expected to launch its own hosted ad server later this year. Targeting Options for Multiple Ad Types Thursday marked the opening up of the new service to a wider group of testers, with Google encouraging those interested in Ad Manager to apply for an invitation. Google has said the new service is robust enough to allow Web publishers to sell their own advertising, and perhaps a first in allowing them a tool that works alongside competing network's technology while handling a variety of ads types including text, video and graphical display ads. Google's newest advertising tool, which it developed independently, will allow ads to be narrowly targeted at visitors to any site using the service or any of the rival services it will work in conjunction with, delivering ads that can be based on a site visitor's domain name, such as Yahoo users or Microsoft's MSN users, the type or language of Web browser they use, or how fast their Internet connection is. WebmasterWorld Reaction Using the new service is expected to be easier than existing services, and will involve determining which sections of each site should be used to display ads and placing special code generated by Ad Manager into the pages of a site, followed by a period during which the system will gather information on the success of all the ads placed, data ultimately to be displayed within Ad Manager. Members of the online discussion forums operated by WebmasterWorld, a community of mostly technically savvy webmasters and search engine marketing (SEM) professionals founded by chief executive Brett Tabke, expressed mostly positive opinions about Google's Thursday announcement, such as a member using the handle "johnser," who summed up their opinion of the service with one word: "Fantastic". One WebmasterWorld member liked the timing of the Ad Manager test launch. "I feel this is going to be very good - and [has] exquisite timing," the member, using the handle "httpwebwitch," noted. Another WebmasterWorld member noted that Google's latest online ad tools will compete with existing services. "This would replace open source solutions like OpenX [formerly OpenAds] and potentially compete with commercial solutions like DART," noted a WebmasterWorld member using the handle "rogerd." Google Races Farther Into Web Ads With Ad Manager The move signals Google's intention to expand its selection of online advertising services, following the highly successful free application route that has helped establish it as an increasingly credible alternative to stand-alone desktop applications such as Microsoft's Office software, in its push beyond the small text-based ads of its AdSense program. DoubleClick is likely to remain the top online advertising choice among Google services for large-scale business transactions, however with the addition of Ad Manager, Google may soon benefit from offering products in all ad formats to customers ranging from small mom-and-pop operations to major advertising agencies. Related Links:
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9:13 pm on Mar. 13, 2008 (utc 0)
