Google this week announced the launch of a free adserving solution which is to be known as Google Ad Manager. According to the release notes this will be a free service allowing the serving of ads across the Google network but also on third party sites. This is an interesting development from Google and Im sure the fact the announcement was made a couple of days after the Double Click purchase was approved is no coincidence as the platform will undoubtedly harness some of the Double Click technology and. But what does this mean to other adserving providers in the market? Are they about to see customers leaving in their hoards to move towards this free platform? I doubt it. If we take Google Analytics as a case in point then we can see what is more likely to be the result. Google Analytics provides a stripped down version of many of the bigger tracking solutions which is great for smaller advertisers/website owners who want to know what an idea for what results are coming from their online activity without the complexity and in depth analysis capabilities of a full analytics package. Many small to medium size companies use it because it is free and serves their needs. I am expecting the same will be the case with Ad Manager. I can’t see it holding all the sophisticated functionality of the top ad serving solutions but how many smaller advertisers actually fully utilise the capabilities of adserving? Not many I would argue. Functionality such as retargeting, ad optimisation, message testing, are available within all the big suppliers, but are rarely used due to the necessary investment of time and resource. So a stripped down version will appeal to these advertisers as it provides what they need for no cost. For the advertiser/agency which fully utilises the functionality of their adserving tool, AdManager will not have the same appeal and so these people will stick with their current solution and be happy to pay a price for the increased functionality. Another reason people may stay away is the potential IP you are giving away to Google. If you run and Adwords account, use Google Analytics, have a Google Site Map, a Google Product Feed, and then and Ad Manager solution, you are essentially telling Google everything you do to promote your website online. Is this the sort of information you want to hand over about your company? Another question to ask is how long is it going to be free for? Google Analytics is going to be a chargeable service from next year and the same could be planned for Ad Manager. It will be interesting to see how many people stick with Analytics when it is no longer free. So is Ad Manager going to change the face of adserving? I doubt it. In fact the more interesting proposition is the suggestion by Google that it plans to make DoubleClick free in the future, but that’s a post for another day!
