You may have heard that in mid-to-late July, Google will be officially retiring the 22-year-old DoubleClick brand. This follows its moves to consolidate features from the digital buying, selling, and marketing platforms DoubleClick Campaign Manager (DCM) and Google Analytics 360 for buyers, or DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) and the Google Ad Exchange (AdX) for sellers. We put together a quick overview of the changes & what to be aware of as a publisher.
The changes will be as follows:
First things first, as of right now, platform related fees are not expected to increase, nor any existing services or features in any of the formerly separate platforms deprecated. Phew!
DoubleClick Campaign Manager, DoubleClick Bid Manager (DBM), DoubleClick Studio, DoubleClick Audience Center, and Google Analytics 360, will be consolidated and branded as the Google Marketing Platform. A new feature called “Display & Video 360” will combine features from all of these platforms into a single console.
DFP and AdX are now modules within Google Ad Manager. For pubs who have AdEx, the user interfaces will be consolidated to include inventory management, ad delivery, reporting, with the ad exchange and its features, into one console.
AdWords will be rebranded as Google Ads and will include the new “Smart Campaigns” feature, which uses machine learning to optimize campaigns based on different key performance indicators such as brick & mortar store visits, website conversions, or phone calls.
The only platform not significantly changing at this time will be AdSense which will remain branded as AdSense.
What this means for publishers
Over the years, Google has acquired and developed new ad tech products and integrations to improve their platform offerings or to meet new business needs. The offerings have become more complex and numerous, making it harder sometimes for advertisers and publishers to identify the right products for their needs. We want to highlight Google’s new branding as another step in the direction of streamlining and simplification for our publishers. These updates mean that ad operations on both publisher and advertiser sides will have more of a “one-stop shop” experience in regard to selling and buying inventory.
For example, as a publisher, when working in DFP and AdX, you won’t have to go through cumbersome navigation from the main DFP platform tabs and menu to the AdX platform menus. In Google Ad Manager, they are both now consolidated into one single, user interface experience. For advertisers, with the consolidation of features from DoubleClick Campaign Manager, Bid Manager, Studio, Audience Center, and the Analytics 360 suite, advertisers and agencies will be able to plan, buy, and measure digital ad marketing campaigns and their performance in one platform.
Google also simplified the ability to connect different products via an Integration Center section in the Google Marketing Platform. This change may potentially impact publishers, as publishers can now easily combine buying tools like Display and Video 360 with Google Analytics 360, Salesforce Sales Cloud and Google Analytics 360 can be connected in the Integration Center.
Following the transition to the new branding and navigation, one practical step you may want to make is to update any reference materials you or your other demand network partners use to reference the new DoubleClick brand or navigation. This will help minimize confusion as the changes are launched.
With these changes, and in an environment where user data privacy, transparency & supply path optimization have become increasingly important, Google’s investment in the rebrand of DoubleClick for Publishers further enhances the future of programmatic.
For questions regarding the Google rebrand and consolidation, or if you need help with your DFP Ad Operations, browse resources or contact support.
