Google recently announced that it would support a number of qualified ad networks to serve ads through AdSense. This is a game-changing announcement, because it signals an evolution from the AdSense we all know, the contextual ad network with its own relationships with advertisers and publishers, to a platform where ad networks can access any and all publishers using AdSense to monetize their online properties.

As this evolution unfolds, AdSense will become less a simple text ad network, and more a full-service platform for buying and selling display and brand ads.  Opening up the platform to large display and brand advertisers is probably just the beginning.  The goal is to increase the value of their publisher inventory, and courting brand dollars is the best way to do that. 

With Google’s deep pricing knowledge, targeting technology and huge reach, we suspect that they will continue to add transparency and build trust with brand advertisers while increasing the yields for publishers. Google has the exact strength in terms of scale and metrics that have until now made the transition to online a slow and hesitant process for the largest advertisers.

The next step will be opening up AdSense for third party developers to build on top of it – once this happens, AdSense will be the platform. At this point, opening up AdSense, both technologically and with respect to the breadth of their advertiser and publisher relationships, can only be better served by releasing some control. As some have noticed, Google still hasn’t been able to accommodate the big player in this space, aQuantive’s Atlas, probably because it is owned by Microsoft.

For publishers: You will have to do three things (if you haven’t done so already) to allow third-party display (image) ads to be served on your site (the following is true whether or not you are a YieldBuild client):

1. enable image ads - current third-party networks will not deliver text ads
2. allow advertisers to target your AdSense channels - since many display ad networks are likely to use placement-targeting rather than keyword-targeting, allowing placement-targeting will open your site up to broader reach by advertisers
3. allow placement targeting on your site – this allows advertisers to specifically choose to display ads on your site; again, popular among display/image advertisers

This entry was posted on Friday, May 30th, 2008 at 11:53 am and is filed under Online Advertising. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.