Google has announced that it will now be accepting 3rd party ad serving tags for its placement targeting network in the US and has plans to roll this out in the UK in the near future. This is a big step for them and no doubt is linked to the double click acquisition in some way. The Google Image ads network has long been a no go area for media planners due in no small part to the fact they didn’t accept 3rd party tags. This announcement could mean a big growth spurt for the network as it should attract more advertisers which in turn should attract more publishers and also publishers of a higher quality. I would argue that Google needs to clean up their network a little in order to improve quality but you cant dispute the fact they have a large number of sites on board in a large number of verticals which could be tempting for the niche advertisers trying to build an effective media plan. There’s no doubt the ability to select individual sites, the flexible pricing and now the acceptance of 3rd party tags makes Google a viable option for future media plans and one good media planners should investigate.