Google SVP of ads Susan Wojcicki announced the launch in Q1 of Google Display Network Reserve on last Thursday’s Google Q1 2011 earnings call. The new initiative enables media buyers to acquire display ad inventory in the future, also known as “guaranteed” buying. Read more from the call here.
A Google “spokesperson” provided the following answers to AdExchanger.com questions about the new guaranteed sales strategy.
AdExchanger.com: Can you walk through a use case from the publishers perspective? How do they sell reserved/futures/guaranteed inventory?
Publishers do not have to do anything new with the introduction of GDN Reserve. We have developed a way to bundle inventory across a number of publishers, offering them high CPMs, while providing incremental value to agencies and their advertisers in the form of guaranteed impressions across brand-appropriate content. We believe this will ultimately result in higher revenues for our publisher partners.
And advertisers? How do they buy – through a GDN rep?
Yes. Agencies or their advertisers can buy Reserve by working with their Google representative.
Who are the publishers in the program today? How does a publisher apply?
We’ve launched Reserve with a handful of content-specific verticals that consist of numerous publishers who are able to offer quality inventory at scale. New publishers who can provide significant numbers of quality impressions can reach out to their Google representative to request inclusion in Reserve.
How does GDN Reserve work with the DFP ad server and the auction of the DoubleClick Ad Exchange?
We continue to innovate around ways to connect the DoubleClick technology stack, which is best-in-class in reservations, with the AdExchange technology stack, known for real-time-buying and auctions. GDN Reserve is our latest innovation in this space.
Anything you can add regarding GDN Reserve as to its purpose and where the agency fits?
We are introducing this in response to feedback from our agency partners: they have told us that the ability to guarantee a fixed number of impressions is critical to meeting the needs of their brand-oriented advertisers. GDN Reserve was developed to help agencies address this need, and in beta testing with a number of agencies and advertisers, it drove great results.
By John Ebbert
