Yahoo! are working on a new advertising network. To me it looks quite similar to the DoubleClick network that was recently acquired by Google. Here is a video preview of Yahoo! AMP.

Google is working on an ad-serving platform for the masses. The so-called Google Ad Manager, currently in private beta, is aimed at small and medium-sized companies, creating a counterpart to DoubleClick’s DART.

The service is going to be free. The underlying purpose of Google Ad Manager is the further spread of AdSense on publisher sites. Just like Google Analytics is supposed to help AdWords clients optimizing their campaigns, Ad Manager is supposed to help AdSense clients to deliver more ads and collect more information about your site.

It’s a done deal now. After four months of investigation the EU gave their approval for the creation of probably the largest group of online advertising companies. I’m not a big fan of this decision because I don’t like monopolies. But it seems Google presented the EU a good case. Well done, guys.

The Google-DoubleClick deal seems to go through. With the acquisition of DoubleClick Google adds a big portion of online advertising spaces to their portfolio. DoubleClick and Performics have a huge list of clients. But honestly, from a technological point of view they suck.

Here are my top three reasons why DoubleClicks sucks from a tracking point of view:

1. The whole system is running on Pacific time only. That way the whole issue of reporting and statistics becomes a major pain in the ass for international advertisers.
2. Most of the converison tracking is still based on tracking pixels only. DoubleClick doesn’t have a sophisticated system for backend synchronization of conversion data yet.
3. The old DART for Advertisers (DFA) was based on an ugly XSLT technology with little usability. Hitting the back button in your browser was a big no-no.
4. Support from DoubleClick is formalized and slow as you would expect it from the public administration.

Pepperjam, eine der größten Online-Marketing-Agenturen, hat einen exklusiven Deal mit DoubleClick unterschrieben. Pepperjam wird in Zukunft DART for Advertisers (DFA) benutzen, ein umfangreiches Kampagnen-Tracking-System. Für das Suchmaschinenmarketing integriert Pepperjam das DART Search, DoubleClicks Suchmaschinen-Tracking-System.

Gestern wurde bekannt gegeben, dass DoubleClick von Google für mehr als drei Milliarden US-Dollar übernommen wird. Für mich ist ganz klar, dass es Google hier nur strategisch vorgegangen. Google verschafft sich Zugang zu einem riesigen Kundenstamm. Weiterhin wird ein potentieller Konkurrent im Markt des Affiliate-Trackings aus dem Weg geräumt. Ich bin überzeugt, irgendwann wird Google ein eigenes Affiliate-Netzwerk auf den Markt bringen.

Meine Gründe warum die Technik von DoubleClick schlecht ist: (more…)