Saturday, March 13th, 2010

New platform to replace DART for Publishers and Ad Manager.

It’s the latest ad serving platform from Google. DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) is designed to assist online publishers with fulfilling their ad inventory. This is most useful in addressing a variety of options such as timing and unexpected traffic surges.

The new platform is available in two offerings: DoubleClick for Publishers, for large sites, and DFP Small Business, a free version for smaller sites.

DoubleClick for Publishers will replace DART for Publishers, but the transition will occur over the next year. Additionally, Ad Manager customers will be upgraded to DFP Small Business over the next few weeks.

New platform to replace DART for Publishers and Ad Manager.

It’s the latest ad serving platform from Google. DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) is designed to assist online publishers with fulfilling their ad inventory. This is most useful in addressing a variety of options such as timing and unexpected traffic surges.

The new platform is available in two offerings: DoubleClick for Publishers, for large sites, and DFP Small Business, a free version for smaller sites.

DoubleClick for Publishers will replace DART for Publishers, but the transition will occur over the next year. Additionally, Ad Manager customers will be upgraded to DFP Small Business over the next few weeks.

The San Diego-based company builds on connection between search and display.

At their annual customer conference this week, Covario unveiled their new Display Insight (DAI), a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution for large advertisers to track performance and spend in display ad campaigns. DAI is designed to integrate with Covario’s existing search marketing tools, Paid Search Insight and Organic Search Insight.

This is a smart move by Covario since data shows that a combined search+display campaign is better than search or display campaigns alone.

Real estate search site Trulia is now offering the ability to purchase a percentage share of on their site in order to target markets geographically. Dubbed simply Trulia Local Ads, the offering includes both display ads on the site and search listings.

“The Trulia Local Ads platform has completely opened up the ad market on Trulia, allowing individuals and businesses of any size to easily, quickly and affordably reach hyper-targeted, hyper-local audiences,” said Pete Flint, CEO and co-founder of Trulia.

Trulia will provide detailed results on campaign performance so that advertisers can adjust their ads to fit their budget and maximize their spend. Details include traffic and click through rates.

has announced a new agreement to acquire Teracent, a San Mateo display optimization startup. Teracent uses technology that chooses from thousands of elements and machine-learning algorithms to serve up ads in real-time.

Elements include tweaking colors, images, messaging, and products. Then the ads are targeted even more according to location, language, time of day, etc.

The acquisition is expected to be complete sometime this quarter. After that, plans to implement Teracent’s technology to the Content Network and DoubleClick.

has announced a new agreement to acquire Teracent, a San Mateo display optimization startup. Teracent uses technology that chooses from thousands of elements and machine-learning algorithms to serve up ads in real-time.

Elements include tweaking colors, images, messaging, and products. Then the ads are targeted even more according to location, language, time of day, etc.

The acquisition is expected to be complete sometime this quarter. After that, plans to implement Teracent’s technology to the Content Network and DoubleClick.

has announced a new agreement to acquire Teracent, a San Mateo display optimization startup. Teracent uses technology that chooses from thousands of elements and machine-learning algorithms to serve up ads in real-time.

Elements include tweaking colors, images, messaging, and products. Then the ads are targeted even more according to location, language, time of day, etc.

The acquisition is expected to be complete sometime this quarter. After that, plans to implement Teracent’s technology to the Content Network and DoubleClick.

The holiday season is upon us and wants to help you get your display ads ready. They’ve just released new holiday-themed templates for Display Ad Builder. Here are some examples:

adwordsholidaydisplay110309.jpg

Google launched Display Ad Builder a year ago and have been adding templates ever since.

Still not convinced that display ads are a viable marketing option? There’s plenty of data to show that display advertising gives search a lift.

The Interactive Bureau () and PricewaterhouseCoopers have released their semiannual report on the state of Internet advertising. Overall Internet in the first half of 2009 declined by 5.3% compared to the same period, coming in at $10.9 billion. However, search continues to ride out the economic downturn by increasing 1.7% to $5.15 billion.

“While the overall market has continued to be impacted by current economic conditions, marketers are allocating more of their dollars to digital media for its accountability and because consumers are spending more of their leisure time online,” said David Silverman, PwC Assurance partner.

In 2007, , Starcom USA and Tacoda conducted a study on display clicks. This past March, they updated the data and have recently released the new info.

Clicks on display ads have seen a decline. In the 2007 study, 32% of internet users clicked on ads. In 2009, just 16% clicked. 8% of the Internet user base accounts for 85% of the clicks.

But don’t assume the decline means that display is not a viable online medium.