Small Business Google Ad Manager

Google Ad Manager rolls out a new update and relaunches its product as DFP Small Business.  They advise that your Ad Manager account will be automatically upgraded to DFP Small Business in the next few weeks.

In an effort to make their Adsense platform work more closely with DoubleClick, they have created a new publisher ad-serving platform called DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP Small business).  It is desisgn to meet the expanded userbase of small sites and niche networks who are using Google Adsense but need more insight which only DoubleClick has offered.

It will be interesting to see how the redesigned traffic workflows affects how easily you can manage your campaigns and increase the efficiency.  In a welcome move there are already a wealth of materials available which include its own website, videos and even a webinar.

The new features of DFP Small Business are advertised as:

• Ad Trafficking and delivery
• Impression scheduling and pacing
• Tiered priorities
• Frequency capping
• Roadblocking
• Various ad pricing models
• Built-in targeting
• Customizable targeting criteria
• Creative support
• Creative preview

The expanded list gives a hint to the actual power of this new platform for publishers who would have typically had to be a high-end advertiser or large agency to get these features in the past.  The revenue optimisation is a key offering that is designed just to get as much money as possible from your websites and combined with the inventory forecasting you can better plan your traffic and campaigns.

The addition of an API is useful if you are using custom solutions or inhouse products as you benefit but don't have to work within the supplied interface.  Most of the features detailed below are of interest just a matter of making sure they are correctly setup to get the greatest benefits.

Inventory Management

• Inventory levels
• Simple ad tag generation

Revenue Optimisation

• Google AdSense integration
• Site targeting
• Google Ad Planner integration

Inventory Forecasting

• Granular forecasts
• Availability reports

Granular Reporting

• Multiple reporting options
• Customizable reports
• Save and schedule reports
• Media Rating Council (MRC) accredited

Intuitive user interface

• Usability
• Quick help
• Search functionality
• International language and currency support

Significant cost savings

• Free ad delivery (less than 90 million ad impressions/month)
• Hosted solution
• Flexible API

The initial look at the new interface does offer a massive step up for their publisher network to offer more targeted placement and advertisers can now have better data and be more specific in their campaigns.  We have seem some initial issues such as the time taken to setup some of the many features and we currently have some issues with being able to select any ad inventory to new ads we created.

The other problem is that you need to have an Adsense account linked to the DFP Small Business account, so if you have setup more than one, you might be in violation of Google AdSense conditions...

So we suggest if you are interested in finding out more about the new Small Business Ad platform, signup and play around with the features and see if they are suitable for your projects or clients at the DFP website.  Google has also rolled out a new Google Ad Manager Partners program, where you can have a Ad Serving Certified Consultant help you.

If you want to learn more about AdWords and Adsense, I suggest checking out Google Advertising Tools 2nd Edition which i co-authored.

Telstra offers HTC Android Smartphone

Telstra has annouced that the new HTC Desire smartphone which was announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona will be available in Australia in April 2010.  This new Google Android-powered HTC mobile will be powered by Android 2.1 and will run exclusively on Telstra's Next G network.

The HTC Desire will use a 1 GHz Snapdragon processor, displayed on a 3.7in WVGA AMOLED display for what will be one of the more advanced smartphone displays available. 

Telstra is depending on the Australian marketing continuing to adopt smartphones in record numbers and using its Next G network to explore the online world with the Android-powered device.

Obviously Telstra customers will now have access to the suite of Google Apps products such as Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Maps and Telstra applications like Mobile FOXTEL.  What is yet to be confirmed is if Google Voice will be enbabled on the device.

So the HTC Desire arrives in April and you will have to wait closer to the date for pricing and package details, but if you want to see the first hands-on demostration of the HTC device, engadget has several images of the HTC Desire and a video of the HTC Desire in action.

Source: Telstra PR

Facebook beats Google News 3:1

BrandRepublic has reported that Facebook has passed Google News as the 4th most popular source for news online with around 3.5% of the total search traffic according to HitWise compared to Google News with just 1.39%.

The more than double market share is impressive as this time last year Facebook had just 1% of the news traffic, so the 350% increase further re-affirms their strength to challenge Google as the #1 website in the world. Even with Google's RSS reader it still only accounts for an extra 0.1% of visitors. 

It is likely that Facebook will continue to roll out its News services as more organisations such as The Wall Street Journal join Facebook. It is likely Facebook will continue to be a disruptive force for traditional media as they improve their Fanpage platform and allow customisation to suit different business types.

Facebook can eventually supply very detailed visitor and reader demographics which is not possible with traditional search engines and even news websites.