Now that Google has completed its acquisition of DoubleClick, they’re ready to start helping advertisers advertise and publishers publish. No sooner was the ink dry on the deal than Google announced its new Ad Manager.
Right now it’s in beta and participation is by invitation only, but I don’t think that will last long. Probably six months at most. Google will probably start taking open applications as soon as they feel comfortable that the bugs have been worked out and that could be as early as three months. Even now, they’ll take requests for participation from webmasters just dying to get in on the ground floor.
I see Ad Manager and a Google-owned DoubleClick catching on pretty fast. Google has already taken a lead in contextual advertising, pay-per-video, audio advertising, and now has gotten into print advertising. The way Google does things, it is inconceivable that it won’t sink a lot of resources into the lucrative display advertising field. Just take a look at the features Ad Manager offers and tell me you don’t think this will be a hot product:
# Inventory management
# Yield optimization
# Ad targeting
# Trafficking, ad delivery, and order booking
# Creatives and rich media management
# Reporting
# User interface
# Administration
I’m really looking forward to this one. Savvy webmasters will learn quickly how to make it pay.
