Google has just rolled out “Custom Brand Exchanges” which will allow brands to buy premium ad space through programmatic buying. Programmatic buying means that companies can buy display advertising which has been analysed by a complex software and algorithm, displaying the ads in the best position. The system will be able to identify who and when to target, in real-time. This product is currently only available to large brands who have significant advertising budget to test.
The Custom Brand Exchange will let large brand advertisers choose which premium publisher site to appear on when. It will use data signals to identify the best time to display their ads to the targeted audience.
The exchanges, used by early-adopting brands such as Cadillac, break the normal practice by beginning with a brand’s budget and then determining appropriate ad space.
“We’re trying to create effectively a curated network for these advertisers using the best inventory these publishers have to offer,” said Aaron McNally of Google’s DoubleClick Ad Exchange.
Putting advertisers, not publishers, first
Through the Custom Brand Exchange, Google serves as an intermediary between high quality publishers and advertisers.
The move puts the web giant in direct competition with other private ad exchanges, such as Pubmatic, Airpush and OpenX.
However Google also plans to redefine how private exchanges operate in general by starting with the demand-side of the process first- hoping that its high profile advertisers (with large budgets) such as Cadilac, Burberry and Disney will attract the best publishers to the market.
On the publishing side, Google already has Time, Forbes and The Wall Street Journal on board.
Watch this video from AOL’s Beet TV, with Jay Vanderzee, Head of Sales Platforms at Google, discussing Google’s 2014 strategies for ad exchanges.
