By all measures, this year has been an incredible one for DoubleClick Ad Exchange (AdX) and its partners. From NYC to London to Tokyo (and everywhere in between), more buyers and sellers are using AdX than ever before, and they’re doing it across a broader range of use cases – including direct programmatic deals, tag-based ad network optimization, and of course, RTB.

From Q1 to Q2, AdX saw a 33% increase in RTB spend in the US and a 24% increase globally. But it’s not just about quantity: as marketers continue to embrace the programmatic opportunity, publishers such as Gannett, British Telecom, and The Weather Company are using the platform to identify and capture this spend. 

Part of what’s driving this shift for publishers is the availability of more powerful tools to specify the exact terms of each transaction and understand how buyers are buying. In the past, doing this required some publishers to stitch together many technologies at once. Although we’ve been working on unifying Admeld and AdX for more than a year, in March we unveiled a key milestone on that road with a major series of updates. In addition to its advanced programmatic tools like Preferred Deals and Private Auctions, AdX now includes the best features of Admeld such as ad network optimization and increased transparency and control. The response has been amazing: To date more than 50% of Admeld publishers by volume have migrated their inventory onto AdX. Hundreds of publishers – including CBSi, Jagex, and Stardoll – have already made the switch, and everyone else is scheduled to transition shortly. 

Though the legacy of Admeld continues to inspire our design decisions, we believe strongly that consolidating our efforts behind a single platform is more effective for our clients and more conducive to providing them with the best possible service. For that reason, we’ve notified all our clients in recent weeks that we’ll be sunsetting the Admeld platform and brand on September 30, before the holiday ad spend begins to ramp up.

We've done a lot of preparation to make the migration process as smooth as possible for you. Your account manager should already be in touch with you about what the migration will mean for you.

Posted by Scott Spencer, Director, Product Management

Since we launched DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) Small Business, we’ve been constantly innovating to meet the evolving needs of growing publishers.

From introducing free mobile and video ad serving functionality, to streamlining the tagging process, we’ve been committed to building a complete and easy-to-use platform that helps publishers grow their digital advertising business.

To help publishers continue to grow with the platform, we’re making available a set of features, such as creative templates, competitive exclusion, and configureable roles, that had previously only been available to our largest publishers. These features will help DFP Small Business publishers unlock new revenue opportunities and have even greater flexibility and control over their ad operations.

A full list of features now available to DFP Small Business publishers can be viewed here. If you don’t have a DFP Small Business account, sign up for free today.

Posted by Chealsea Conroy, Product Manager

In a few minutes, we'll be going live at AdMonsters OPS TV with AMC's Vice President of Digital Partnerships & Operations, Kirk Linden, and News Corp's Vice President & Head of Video, Rahul Chopra to talk about their approaches to digital video.

You can watch the conversation here, if you're not at the event:

Posted by Yamini Gupta, Product Marketing Team

Over the past few years we’ve witnessed a massive shift in how users consume digital content, using multiple devices interchangeably depending on context. We are now in a multi-device, multi-screen world, which presents great advertising opportunities (and potential challenges) to publishers and advertisers.

A multi-screen world doesn’t have to mean complexity with numerous ad technologies for each screen-type. We believe a multi-screen world presents publishers and advertisers with an opportunity to provide an even better experience for their audience and customers.

This is why in February we released Adwords enhanced campaigns to make it easier for advertisers to reach their audience across all devices with smarter ads that are relevant to their customers’ intent and context, without having to set up and manage several separate campaigns.

For publishers we’ve worked hard over the past year evolving DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) for the multi-screen world to reduce complexity and help publishers save time so they can focus on what they do best - creating great content.

Since a publisher’s audience is constantly switching between devices to consume content, ad inventory shouldn’t be tied to a specific device, but instead to content and audience. Going forward, inventory in DFP will no longer be tied to only desktop or mobile campaigns, rather all inventory will now be able to accommodate any campaign for any device.

With this update, publishers will be able to forecast, traffic, and report on campaigns across all devices without having to split an advertiser’s impressions, budget, or campaign objectives across multiple inventory units. Publishers will have the flexibility to target mobile or desktop attributes for all inventory.

Unified inventory is designed to help you succeed in a multi-screen world and will roll-out to publishers on DFP and DFP Small Business this summer. Here are some helpful resources to help you get started.

Posted by Florent de Gantes, Product Manager

As we announced yesterday, we're excited to host a live hangout on air from AdMonsters OPS Mobile & TV in New York next week, as part of our Video in the Future Digital Dialogues series. Joining us on stage are Rahul Chopra, VP and Head of Video at News Corp, and Kirk Linden, VP Digital Partnerships and Operations at AMC. We warmed up the microphone with a few questions for Rahul yesterday and caught up with Kirk today on the things he's excited to speak about at AdMonsters OPS TV.

We’re collecting more questions for both Kirk and Rahul, so tweet your questions to @doubleclick_pub with #digitaldialogues #opstv, and we’ll try to get to them on stage.

Tell us about AMC’s digital video focus, and what sets your digital video offering apart from your competitors?
As a content company, AMC is focused on delivering distinctive, high quality content no matter the platform, providing authenticated episodes online, award-winning Web series and our industry-leading second screen application, AMC Story Sync.

AMC has a lot at stake when it comes to TV ads, but what gets you excited about the future of digital video advertising?
I am most excited about the opportunity digital video advertising provides to support distribution of great content across multiple screens. AMC is an ad-supported network, and digital video advertising helps us to bring quality content to more screens and more devices.

What are some key things you'd like to discuss with participants at AdMonsters OPS on July 18th?
1. How can we better leverage data to deliver more efficient campaigns and stronger viewer experiences?
2. As an industry, we need to find a way to better streamline the delivery and stewardship of cross-platform campaigns.
Come join us in New York at AdMonsters OPS TV to continue the conversation. Are you unable to make it to New York, but want to participate? Contribute a question for Kirk, and we'll get back to you if we're able to host you during the Google+ hangout during the talk on July 18th, at 1:50 PM ET, 10:50 AM PT.

Posted by Mel Ann Chan, Product Marketing Team

We’re going to be at AdMonsters OPS Mobile and TV on July 18, hosting a live Hangout on Air interview as part of our Video in the Future Digital Dialogues series. Joining us will be Rahul Chopra, VP and Head of Video at News Corp, and Kirk Linden, VP Digital Partnerships and Operations at AMC.

We’d thought we’d warm up the mic with a few preliminary questions for Rahul, and follow up with a few for Kirk the next day. We’re collecting more questions for both our panelists, so tweet your questions to #digitaldialogues #opstv, and we’ll try to get to them on stage.

 What sets News Corp’s video offering apart?
News Corporation possesses some of the biggest brands in publishing today across the globe, covering every possible genre. By harnessing the power of more than five thousand journalists, we have the ability to activate a video network that will be live when our readers want us to be, in depth when they need us to be, everywhere and anywhere they are.

The Wall Street Journal, a News Corp brand, was the only news publisher invited to the Digital Newfronts. What’s been the response from advertisers?

The response has been fantastic as we were able to present a clear vision for how video is now an inseparable part of the Wall Street Journal experience. It was a great opportunity to talk about how WSJ Live provides more than four hours of live video each day and hundreds of hours of on-demand content every month distributed on 30 platforms globally with video streams increasing 370% during the 2012 calendar year to 35 million across all platforms.

What are some key things you'd like to discuss with participants at AdMonsters OPS on July 18th?
I would like to discuss where does the advertising industry go from pre-rolls and how advertisers view content on owned sites versus off-platform (eg YouTube).

Come join us in New York at AdMonsters OPS Mobile & TV. Unable to make it to New York, but want to participate? Tell us your burning question for Rahul, and we'll get back to you if we're able to accommodate you in the Google+ hangout during the talk on July 18th, at 1:50 PM ET, 10:50 AM PT.

Posted by Mel Ann Chan, Product Marketing Team

The mobile advertising industry continues to evolve at a rapid pace - as new technologies have created new ways for publishers to grow and engage with their audience, new ways for advertisers to reach their customers have also emerged. With new opportunities aplenty for both buyers and sellers, how have they engaged with each other to shape the mobile ads ecosystem?

Based on aggregate data from across our network, we took a look at the economics behind the mobile ads ecosystem in a study: The Mobile Buyer & Seller Relationship. The study looks at mobile advertising from both a buyer and seller perspective, focusing on the types of content that are driving the most mobile web and app traffic, where advertisers are focusing their budgets, and the intersection of the two.

Here are a few highlights from the research:

• Mobile application inventory is highly concentrated: On mobile applications, ad impressions and spend are highly concentrated around games, which account for 46% of total ad spend.
• Advertisers are embracing mobile applications: We're seeing all types of advertisers embrace advertising on mobile applications, with Media & Entertainment and Technology advertisers leading the way. These types of advertisers account for nearly half of all impressions and spend on mobile applications. 
• Advertiser spending on mobile web is closely tied to relevant content: Unlike mobile applications, on mobile web, advertisers are predominantly focusing their spend on ad inventory that closely relates to their products or services. 
• Spending on mobile web is evenly distributed amongst advertisers: The top five spending advertiser categories on mobile web accounted for 12-16% of total web impressions each. 

Check out all of the findings by downloading the full report here.

Posted by Stephen Kliff, Product Marketing Manager

It’s important for businesses to stay up to date about the most recent research and insights related to their industry. Unfortunately -- with so many new studies and with data being updated so often -- it can difficult to keep up. To make life a bit easier, we created the Databoard for Research Insights, which allows people to explore and interact with some of Google’s recent research in a unique and immersive way.

The Databoard is our response to three big challenges facing the vast majority of research released today.

1. Ease of consumption: The databoard introduces a new way of sharing data, with all of the information presented in a simple and beautiful way. Users can explore an entire study or jump straight to the topics or datapoints that they care about. The Databoard is also optimized for all devices so you can comfortably explore the research on your computer, tablet, or smartphone.
2. Shareability: Most people, when they find a compelling piece of data, want to share it! Whether its with a colleague, client, or a community on a blog or social network, compelling insights and data are meant to be shared. The databoard is designed for shareability, allowing users to share individual charts and insights or collections of data with anyone through email or social networks.
3. A cohesive story: Most research studies set out to answer a specific question, like how people use their smartphones in store, or how a specific type of consumer shops. This means that businesses need to look across multiple pieces of research to craft a comprehensive business or marketing strategy. To address this need, the Databoard allows users to curate a customized infographic out of the charts or data points you find important across multiple Google research studies. Creating an infographic is quick and easy, and you can share the finished product with your friends or colleagues.

The databoard is currently home to four research studies including The New Multi-screen World, Mobile In-store shopper research, Mobile search moments, and more. New studies will be added frequently so be sure to check back often. To get started exploring the Databoard and creating your own infographic visit google.com/think/databoard.

Posted by Adam Grunewald, Product Marketing Manager

When people are given a choice in the ads they see, it provides incentives to advertisers and publishers to create a better user experience. The rising popularity of skippable video ads is one example of how choice is propelling video advertising to a whole new level. As more brands and publishers grow their video advertising investments and increase programmatic video budgets, we're seeing first-hand how giving viewers choice drives better results for everyone.

To bring together how choice benefits publishers, advertisers and viewers, we analyzed skippable video ads on the DoubleClick Ad Exchange and revisited some previous studies on the skippable video ad format TrueView in-stream in our research “Video Advertising Momentum”.

• Publishers get a more attentive audience: Skippable ads reduce audience abandonment rates by 50% compared to standard in-stream ads. That means more people are continuing to watch video, swelling your audience numbers and deepening their engagement with your content. Selling skippable ads through DoubleClick for Publishers or through AdX increases monetization without sacrificing viewer experience.
• Advertisers get a more engaged audience: Viewers are 75% more engaged when watching a skippable ad compared to a standard pre-roll, and this engagement has positive knock-on effects on brand favorability and purchase intent. And once you've identified viewers who choose to watch your ad, you can extend your campaign through remarketing or storyboarding a continued message.
• Viewers get a better experience: 4 out of 5 viewers prefer skippable ads to non-skippable ads. Cultivating a viewer-friendly advertising experience is proving more effective for advertisers and enables publishers to earn revenue without impacting viewers.

Digital video opens up new ways to engage viewers, and skippable ads are just one way of doing this. But if these findings are anything to go by, there are strong reasons for advertisers and publishers to incorporate skippable video ads in their advertising strategy.

Posted by Mel Ann Chan, Product Marketing