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Source:CenterNetworks

Google has announced this morning that they have opened up their ad serving tool Google Ad Manager to everyone. Google Ad Manager is very similar (nearly identical) to the OpenX ad manager software. Google Ad Manager runs on Google’s servers while the main OpenX ad manager requires you to install the software on your server. You only need a Google AdSense account to use Google Ad Manager.

I’ve been using the Google Ad Manager for the last couple of weeks and found it relatively easy to setup and use. You setup your own campaigns, your default ad networks and you can backfill ads with Google AdSense ads so that an ad slot is always filled. It works just like OpenX in that you setup ad slots and ad types and then fill those with your customer ad impressions. This seems perfect for the small to medium size publisher and it does require a bit of basic advertising knowledge to get everything setup to work properly. Their walkthrough could really use some work and would be better as a video instead of a Web overlay.

What would be smart is if they hook up Google Ad Manager into Google Checkout and allow publishers to sell ads directly inside of Ad Manager.

The Google Ad Manager is much more robust than I expected and could put a hurting on the OpenX hosted platform that is apparently coming soon. Back in January OpenX (formerly OpenAds) announced a $15.5 venture capital round and the upcoming launch of their hosted ad manager. 

Just remember as with all Google services, the more you use Ad Manager, the more they know.

More CN Coverage:
– Docstoc
– Scribd
– Twitter

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 at 11:31 am and is filed under google, advertising, online advertising, Quick News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.