Google launches curation service in its ad manager for agencies to find deals

Google is introducing a curation product in Google Ad Manager, the programmatic ad platform used by publishers, which will open new types of ad inventory to brands and ad agencies. The deal-making mechanism announced today by Google is part of the growing curation trend in online advertising, where buyers contend with new dynamics that require alternative methods of targeting ads. “Buyers are looking for new ways to reach their audiences accurately and efficiently, and so the goal really here for our launch, and what we’re trying to achieve,” Peentoo Patel, director of product management at Google Ad Manager, told Ad Age this week, “is to enable audience and contextual targeting across multiple DSPs using SSP-level curation.” Curation tactics are shifting within ad tech from the DSP side, the demand-side platforms that were traditionally the curators on the buy side of the market, to now supply-side platforms doing the curating. The pivot is partly due to signal loss among advertisers, which have diminished powers to collect data online at a time when internet browsers and devices are preventing tracking. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs Google, of course, has been trying to ween advertisers off cookies on Chrome web browsers and restrict data sharing on Android devices, as one example of signal loss. However, in general, a push to privacy across the industry has left advertisers less connected, while publishers still have command of their audiences and contextual signals. Read: Ad Age’s explainer on the post-cookie ad tech landscape Also, advertisers have shown heightened interest in curation to deal with negative industry forces, such as “made for advertising” websites, which are low-quality sources of inventory. Curation goals Now, publishers’ supply-side platforms and other partners are finding ways to offer bundles of ad inventory across websites, apps and connected TV. The curators take approved inventory and package it for advertisers to help them maintain large-scale ad campaigns online. Curation has become a buzzy topic in the ad tech community, and this is the first curation product Google has launched on the supply side. Ad tech, identity providers and data firms have signed on to provide curation services in Google Ad Manager, including Audigent, Integral Ad Science, LiveRamp, Lotame, Multilocal, Permutive, PrimeAudience and Scope3, Google announced. “Curation helps brands and agencies achieve better connectivity and signal … across display, CTV and beyond,” said Travis Clinger, chief connectivity and ecosystem officer at LiveRamp, in a statement as part of Google’s announcement. These firms can identify programmatic inventory for sale across publishers that meet the needs of the advertiser or agency. For instance, an advertiser could prioritize “brand safe” ad inventory or inventory coming through eco-friendly ad tech sources to meet green initiatives. Curation can “help agencies reach their desired audiences through data segments and curated packages,” Patel said. “And so I think the idea here is, if we’re doing it at the SSP level, we’ll increase the targeting match rate, since the SSP can influence which bid requests are sent to DSPs to better target agency data segments and these packages.” Takeaways from Google and other players’ quarterly reports On the demand side, Google named Yahoo as one of the partners and Google’s own Display and Video 360 DSP. Publishers are invested in curation because it can fill their ad slots, but many are still trying to figure out the value of these services and whether they bring in acceptable ad rates compared to other deals. Within Google Ad Manager, publishers will get to decide whether they participate in curation and with which partners, Patel said. Advertisers won’t pay Google for curation, Patel said. “We’re not charging agencies any fees for this,” Patel said. “Data providers already traditionally charged separate fees for their services when they curate or offer their audience solutions. The idea here is, we’re going to facilitate that fee payment to that data provider on behalf of the agency.” Agencies can coordinate their own curation deals, Patel said. “First-party audience targeting based on data is already housed by these agencies’ [data management platforms],” Patel said, “or they may work with a curator who’s created a prepackaged deal ID that has verified inventory.” The publishers could benefit from offering their inventory in these deals as they would be able to connect with more advertisers, establishing relationships for more direct deals in the future, Patel said. “They’ll know which buyers are using the data segments,” Patel said, “and hopefully that will help them in future conversations around [private marketplace deals] with these same buyers and the same operational efficiencies.”

Google launches curation service in its ad manager for agencies to find deals

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