Google is largely known for its prowess in the cpc online advertising world; notably with AdSense. Historically, AdSense has always been solely a Google offering and it did not include any non-Google ad networks. Things are changing very quickly as Google recently announced plans to open up AdSense to other “approved” ad networks.

This development is significant for a couple of reasons:
- Google will “approve” the incremental ad networks that can leverage AdSense distribution
- There are existing companies such as the Rubicon Project and OpenX that offer ad network optimization via one source

Key Questions
- What does this mean for the ad network consolidators and optimizers?
- Is this a ploy by Google to instill fear and then acquire one of them?

With Yahoo finally giving in and agreeing to the Bing-powered search, is Google having second thoughts about its current model? Google seems to be everywhere, so at the same time, maybe they are realizing this is an opportunity to increase their ad-distribution power over ads that they don’t sell directly, rather by other ad networks.

Google sent the following message to AdSense participants announcing the plans:

We’re writing to let you know about an upcoming update in your AdSense account designed to help you generate the maximum revenue from your ad units. You’ll soon be able to allow multiple ad networks to show on your pages, which means that advertisers from external Google-certified networks will be able to compete with AdWords advertisers for your ad space.

If you’re unfamiliar with what ad networks are, they’re companies that partner with advertisers and publishers to buy and sell ads on sites they don’t own themselves, similar to AdSense. Ads from these networks will compete with Google ads to show on publisher sites, and the ad generating the highest revenue for publishers will be displayed.

To ensure the quality of the ads appearing on your sites, we’re certifying all participating ad networks for adherence to our standards for user privacy, ad quality, and speed. You’ll also have control over which networks can show ads on your pages — you can choose to opt out of receiving ads from specific networks, or all networks completely. This means you can continue to show ads from only AdWords advertisers if you’d like.

Finally, some ad networks use tools similar to Google’s interest-based advertising to show more relevant ads to users on the sites they visit. These ad networks won’t be permitted to collect data from your site for the purpose of subsequent interest-based advertising, but we’ll allow those who comply with user privacy guidelines to show ads using these tools. You’ll have the ability to opt out of showing ads based on user interests from these ad networks, and we’ve changed our requirements for third-party ad serving to reflect this. More information is available at http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=94230 .

These new capabilities will automatically be enabled for your account, and you’ll see a new section in your Ad Review Center where you can allow or block specific ad networks. Please note that we’ll gradually be adding new ad networks to AdSense accounts over the next few months, so you won’t see any immediate impact on your ads or your earnings.

To learn more about this launch and managing the ad networks appearing on your pages, visit the AdSense Help Center and watch our video demo at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HyJPOVLd3I .

Sincerely,

The Google AdSense Team

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Tags   ad network  AdSense  google  Openx  Rubicon Project