Ad Manager helps publishers simplify ad management and boost traffic monetization. For better performance, it becomes essential to perform regular hygiene checks and optimize ad performance. The team at Google recently published a post on how to optimize Google Ad Manager and achieve business goals. Here are some important points they covered and how to implement them to see better results.
Formats Optimization
Multi-sizing and native formats
Multi-sizing allows a single ad unit to serve multiple creative sizes, increasing competition in the auction. More advertisers can bid on the same inventory, leading to better yield. With this, you can also set floor prices based on inventory sizes that are more valuable than others.
To maximize competition, enable native and HTML5/banner ads to serve together. This will increase demand and boost revenue potential.
Why Use Multi-size?
- Size based competition
- Yield optimization with valid bids of different sizes
- Unified pricing rules to set price-specific bids
Ad Extraction and contraction
Size setting ensures all allowable ads compete on all screens.
This innovative algorithm takes the creative that has won the auction and attempts to extract or contract it to the width of the screen to achieve a natural fit. This leads to an improvement in the fill rate.
This feature optimizes competition and improves revenue by allowing multiple ad sizes to bid without disrupting the visual appeal of your content.
Best practices for Pricing Optimization
Set a ‘Catch-All’ Unified Pricing Rule
Ensure a broad pricing rule applies to all inventory beyond your standard UPRs. Indirect inventory defaults to zero-dollar floors if no pricing rule is applied, leading to lower CPMs.
Use Clear Naming Conventions
A standardized naming system helps with better reporting and rule management, whether by geo, inventory type, size, or format.
Minimize Overlapping Pricing Rules
To improve analysis, structure pricing rules using a broad-to-narrow approach- Apply lower floors to broadly targeted rules and gradually increase floors for more specific geo, size, and ad unit segments.
Leverage Automated Pricing Strategies
If using target CPM or optimized floor pricing, let Google Ad Manager’s machine learning handle segmentation. These strategies automatically adjust pricing based on demand signals, removing the need for manual rule segmentation.
Understand Unified Blocking Rules
These are not meant for blocking functions. Instead, manage ad blocks under Protections within Google Ad Manager.
Open Bidding best practices
Minimize the number of yield groups
Always remember that less is more. Use one yield group per inventory type: web, app, video, or audio. Bidders do not see yield groups, only bid requests, so multiple groups aren’t necessary for reporting.
Only create additional yield groups using nonbanner ad formats such as interstitial, native, or rewarded ads.
Target yield groups to run off the network
Target yield groups to run network-wide to allow new bidders to compete across eligible inventory. Avoid excluding geos unless there’s a business need. Buyers can easily limit ad requests to their preferred geo via pretargeting configuration.
Leave your inventory size blank
Keep inventory size settings blank to allow open bidding partners to serve multiple ad sizes, just like AdExchange. Be sure to enable creatives of similar size to increase auction density.
Use the same yield group for all third-party exchange partners
Avoid splitting yield groups by individual partners. This also ensures that there is no unnecessary overlap that might lead to duplication in reporting when using the yield group as a dimension.
Regularly review active yield groups
Ensure open bidders are competing across all format-specific yield groups to maximize revenue.
You can read more about how you can optimize Google Ad Manager and unlock incremental revenue opportunities in this PDF that the Google team has shared.
