Google have announced that they are to retire the DoubleClick brand and streamline the presentation of their ad products.
The announcement, made in New York, on Tuesday is essentially cosmetic and aims to bring the presentation of Google’s ad offerings more in line with the direction that the platform has been taking.
AdWords to become Google Ads
The AdWords name is a legacy of its origins as a product, launched in 2003, to buy text only advertising alongside Google search results. AdWords today gives advertisers access to a wide array of ad formats across the publisher networks, YouTube, apps and more. Ad buyers will now have a single name to turn to for buying ads across surfaces. The changes will apparently go beyond the cosmetic though. Buyers will soon have the option of goal-focused Smart Campaigns that leave Google’s AI to worry about how to get the results they are aiming for.
DoubleClick For Publishers and Ad Exchange to become Google Ad Manager
The unification of the two DoubleClick sell-side products should not be a surprise to anyone who uses either. DFP and AdX have been edging ever closer together and the dedicated AdX seller UI now nears retirement. The two are to officially merge and be unified under the slightly vague title Google Ad Manager.
Introducing Google Marketing Platform
All the tools that allow advertisers to reach an audience and measure the results will now be grouped under the new title “Google Marketing Platform”. This is more in line with the approach taken by rivals such as Adobe and Oracle in this space.
DoubleClick Bid Manager and Campaign Manager unite
Google’s main enterprise level ad buying platforms, DoubleClick Bid Manager and DoubleClick Campaign Manager both form part of the new Google Marketing Platform. The products are to be united though and will be known as Display & Video 360.
AdSense and AdMob survive
Google’s two turn-key monetisation products have escaped the re brand and will continue to be known as AdSense and AdMob respectively.
What this all means for publishers
Thankfully not much. The biggest change on the publisher side is the merging of DFP and AdX and those changes have been underway for three years and is largely complete. The new brands will be in use from July and the biggest change for most publishers will be some updated logos.
