Google launches free ad serving platform

The service, called Ad Manager, will be tested with a ‘limited number’ of publishers, the Wall Street journal reports.  

The service, aimed at small and medium sized businesses, will provide the ad serving free, and can handle a number of formats including graphical display, video and text ads. 

The search giant is hoping to make money from the service by persuading Ad Manager clients to fill unused inventory with those from Google’s own AdSense system. 

Google will then take a commission on revenue from any ads it sells. 

The platform marks a major move away from traditional ad-serving platforms, such as the one provided by DoubleClick, which charge publishers to serve up their ads on their website.  

The move comes as the search giant looks to expand its ad services beyond its core strengths in pay-per-click (PPC) search ads, which currently make up most of Google’s revenue. 

Google added that  it won’t be mandatory for Ad Manager users to carry the ads from Google's AdSense system. Instead, they can also choose to fill the spots with ads from other online ad networks in cases where they generate more money for the publisher.  

This week, European Union regulators cleared Google’s $3.1bn bid for online ad technology firm DoubleClick, saying the deal would not hurt competition for online ads.  

Google said that Ad Manager will serve Web publishers with small- to medium-size sales forces, while DoubleClick's services are suited for higher-end ad-sales operations.  

Some analysts have speculated that Google will eventually make DoubleClick's ad-serving services free. A Google spokesman told the WSJ that the company has no immediate plans to make DoubleClick products free. 

Commenting on Google's acquision of DoubleClick, Oliver Bishop, CEO of search marketing agency Steak, said: “I’m excited about this deal. It has the potential to do for display advertising what Google has already done for search. Namely, bring it to the masses. I expect display advertising will now become more accessible to small and medium sized businesses. As with search, the size of your marketing budget will not be a barrier to display advertising online.   

“This deal could break another important barrier as well,” Bishop added. “That between branding and direct response. The cutting-edge tracking and reporting this deal brings, will empower advertisers to understand how their different advertising buys interact with one another and their combined affect on sales. It’s no longer about direct response or branding. It’s about how every piece of your marketing and communication work together and impact one another to drive purchasing decisions. Add to that the potential for enhanced targeting and personalisation of ads I believe the Google/DoubleClick deal could have a huge influence on growing the whole online advertising market.”  

“The potential is enormous. Success will depend on integration, implementation, addressing privacy concerns and of course, the competition and the looming union between Microsoft and Yahoo! Closing the deal is the first stage. There is much work to be done to realise its potential and many rewards to be gained, ” Bishop concluded.