A New Look and Additional Publisher Controls on DoubleClick’s Ad Exchange

As part of our Google-wide initiative to deliver a new and improved Google experience across all of our products, we’ve been making continuous enhancements to the Ad Exchange. Now, when you log into your account, it will still have the same structure but you’ll notice that some gradual updates have been made. There are some new settings in the interface, including cleaner design elements. If you are also using AdSense, Analytics or AdWords, you’ll be familiar with some of these updates.



The Ad Exchange interface has been refreshed with newly designed menus, tabs, navigation, and buttons. This new look simplifies the interface to make it more visually appealing, while keeping the features where you are accustomed to finding them.



Check out the ‘before’ and ‘after’ look:

Old Interface: Notice changes made to the Left Navigation panel

New Interface: Notice updated Left Navigation, Contextual Help and Alert Summary locations

To provide a more intuitive environment with a streamlined look, we have moved and added a few things. Here are some of the update highlights:

• Contextual Help: One of the changes you’ll notice is the location of help content in your account, which has moved from the left navigation bar to a dedicated ‘Help’ link in the top right corner of every page in your account.


• Alert Summary: We’ve added a new alert summary to the top of the page which collects all of the critical alerts for your account together in one place. Now, when you click the alert summary, a full list of your critical alerts displays without navigating you to a different page.


• Performance Reports: You’ll notice that your Performance Reports are now organized by type (Common reports, Quick reports, Saved reports). Click ‘Common reports’ to access your standard reports, and then use the new date range selector. You’ll still be able to choose to either see your default report or daily account performance, just as before. You can read more about these updates in the Ad Exchange help center.

More Granular Publisher Controls

To give our publishers more granular controls over the ad categories available on their sites, we’ve also updated the blocking options within publisher controls. 

New Interface: Provides Filter Control in General categories at the ad unit level

When you create or edit an ad unit, the Ad Exchange now enables publishers to set up an additional filter -- to block general categories at the ad unit level, which was previously only available at the account level.



Posted by Scott Spencer, Director, Product Management

Preferred Deals: A New Way to Sell in the Ad Exchange

A few weeks ago at DoubleClick Insights, we announced the beta of Preferred Deals on the Ad Exchange to help you find incremental revenue in the “middle tier” between your direct and indirect sales. Preferred Deals (formerly Direct Deals) is a sales tool that makes it easy for you to privately offer inventory to select buyers in a fixed-price, non-guaranteed fashion--before it enters the general auction.



Preferred Deals are best suited for publishers who usually sell their inventory anonymously and are looking to connect with buyers in a discrete way. The buyers benefit by getting access to inventory they can’t find elsewhere. This interface provides a streamlined process for soliciting and negotiating Preferred Deals, giving you and your demand partners a more efficient alternative to phone calls and emails.



Making Preferred Deals work requires that you and your buyers compromise to find areas of mutual benefit. Though Preferred Deals is currently in closed beta, we’re hosting two joint publisher/buyer webinars to help you understand how they work. Register for the time that works best for you below.



North American Webinar

Friday, June 22nd at 11am PDT (1pm CDT, 2pm EDT)

Register HERE



EMEA Webinar

Friday, June 22nd at 3pm GMT (7am PDT, 10am EDT)

Register HERE



Posted by Drew Bradstock, Product Manager

An Insights Recap

Tuesday I had the pleasure of delivering the opening keynote at DoubleClick Insights, a half-day event in which we brought together the industry’s top digital media executives for a series of honest conversations about where the space is headed and how we can move it forward together. In addition to several announcements I summarize below, the event was packed with viewpoints from ecosystem partners and luminaries. If you weren’t one of the thousands who tuned in for the livestream, you can watch it here on the DoubleClick YouTube channel.


Over the last few years, DoubleClick has focused its publisher efforts on helping you maximize revenues across multiple channels and formats. We introduced the next generation of DFP, expanded our capabilities across mobile and video, and acquired Admeld. Today we’re doubling down on publishers by building on this foundation to help you make smarter decisions, capture new spends, and work seamlessly with partners across the ecosystem.

Make Smarter Decisions
We launched the beta of Ad Exchange Market View, an interface that lets you see an aggregated landscape of pricing and uniques across the entire exchange, including which ad formats and regions are likely to get the best returns. It’s data that’s highly actionable, and no other exchange operates with this type of transparency. In addition, we also introduced the integration of 3rd party audience segments into the new version of DFP. For years, buyers have used aggregate audience data to target particular demographics and segments, and we think publishers deserve the same perspectives for their sales process. The early response to this capability has been enthusiastic and we look forward to expanding it further.

Capture New Spend
With its high-touch private exchange, Admeld took pioneering steps toward helping publishers find value in the elusive “middle tier” between direct and indirect sales. We’re continuing to iterate on this model with the launch of AdX Preferred Deals, a tool for publishers to privately negotiate and sell non-guaranteed inventory to individual buyers. Preferred Deals (formerly called Direct Deals), are best suited for publishers who haven’t yet fully embraced the exchange model, and in the coming weeks we’ll share more information with our clients about how they can take part in this closed beta.

Work Easily with Partners
As the ubiquitous Lumascape attests, our ecosystem is complex and in order for digital advertising to be medium that provides a great experience for consumers, marketers and publishers alike, we all need to work together. DoubleClick believes in the power of openness, and we’re privileged to work with over 200 partners. This includes 100+ for core DFP, 40+ for mobile, 40+ for video, and a dozen each for data and rich media. Together, in partnership with the ecosystem, we’re ready to help you explore the next growth areas, and drive the revenue that funds a new generation of great content.

A Word About Digital Marketing Manager
Lastly, I wanted to mention an big announcement we made on the buy side -- the introduction of DoubleClick Digital Marketing Manager (DDM), a integrated buy-side platform that will ultimately unify audience buying and reporting across all digital channels and formats -- search, display, social, desktop, mobile and video. DDM will help buyers spend more and spend smarter. As a publisher, that means means more revenue for you and better ad experiences for your audience. You can read more about DDM at the DoubleClick Advertiser Blog.

My main takeaway from Insights, is that we’re entering an exciting new phase in this industry--one in which everything is being re-imagined, from the ads themselves to the ways they’re created, delivered, transacted and measured. DoubleClick’s goal isn’t just to help you thrive in this change, but help you drive it in ways that meet your evolving business needs. In short, our success is based on yours.

Posted by Neal Mohan, Vice President of Display Advertising