San Francisco — Search and advertising titan Google Inc. is leaving no stone unturned in an attempt to collect every advertising dollar. The company has just announced plans via a post at the Inside AdSense Blog that it is opening up its ad platform to multiple Google-certified ad networks that will soon be competing with AdWords advertisers to appear on AdSense sites.
This means that the networks will have to meet some strict standards as non-AdWords publishers will soon be able to bid on Google ad auction.
This new favor may be either because of the weakening growth in revenue or because it feels comfortable enough with its lead, Google is opening up its AdSense program to third-party ad vendors.“We have been hearing your requests for new ways to generate revenue in AdSense, and new ways to maintain control over the ads that appear on your sites. With that in mind, we are pleased to announce plans to give you the ability to allow multiple Google-certified ad networks to compete for display ad space on your site,” Sean Harvey, business product manager, wrote.
Presently, website owners who use AdSense get the ads from advertisers using AdWords to bid by means of an automated system for certain keywords. Google AdSense is an easy money making machine for Web site publishers who earn money by displaying targeted ads from Google’s ad network on their Web pages. With the newly introduced system though, ads coming from third-party ad networks will be allowed to bid and potentially get displayed on the sites instead of the ones coming from AdWords.
Now the search giant says it will allow third-party networks it approves to bid through auctions to have their ads appear on AdSense partner sites.
For example, if Google offers $2 CMP (cost-per-thousand-impressions) on display ads for a site, but another ad network bids higher at $3, the other ad network’s ad would be shown, resulting in more money for the publisher.
Here is a quick take of the new system as Google explains the concept in the following video:
“You may remember that we began to accept display ads served from qualified third-party vendors over a year ago, which helped increase the number of display ads competing on AdSense publisher sites,” says Google Business Product Manager Sean Harvey. “With this new change, participating ad networks can also bid in our auction to appear on AdSense sites. This new capability will help you generate the most profit for every ad that appears on your site, whether the ads come from AdWords advertisers or Google-certified ad networks.”
This would be shocking news for AdWords advertisers who could end up paying more competitively, as for AdSense publisher this herald new ways of generating revenue from their display ad space.
In an AdWords’ FAQ regarding the news, Google explained the criteria for certifying the outside ad networks, saying they will be approved according to its commitment to users’ “privacy, accuracy of measurement, latency, and compliance with our creative policies.”
“AdSense allows multiple Google certified ad networks to compete for your ad units. More ad networks mean more competition; as a result, you can generate the most profit for every ad unit, whether the winning bids come from AdWords or other ad networks,” reads the FAQ. “Contextually-targeted and placement-targeted ads from Google certified ad networks are eligible to appear on your pages, which will increase competition for your ad units and make your available ad space more valuable.”
AdSense users will also be able to control what ad networks can bid for their sites and can block the ones they do not want or even all third-party ones if they choose to. Depending on the type of ad, publishers get paid when users view or click on the ads displayed.
Additionally Google will also not allow these ad networks to collect any user data to be used for internet-based advertising.
Reporting and payments will continue to be disbursed through AdSense as always, and available ad formats will remain the same as they have been for AdWords.
Currently, the feature is only available to publishers in North America and Europe, but Google plans to rolling out to more places in the future.