What is Google DFP?More information about the latest in ad delivery

Monetizing a site has always been a top priority for many webmasters and blog owners – it’s a good steady income if done right, it pays the bills for hosting and gives you the rewarding taste of the fact that your labor has given fruit, your content is good enough to generate enough viewers, and now you’re not only paying for your site, your site Is paying you. However that cannot happen without advertising or sales, and for the topic of this article , we will discuss a new way to have ads, namely Google DFP.

Recently introduced by Google, DFP stands for DoubleClick for Publishers , and its full name is DFP Small Business, because it serves mostly the needs of the smaller companies and websites out there.

What is it DFP?

Google define their own product as a toolkit which allows for easier serving and management of ads. Now you might wonder “Isn’t that what AdSense is all about ?”

To be fair, the answer is no, since AdSense is only one of many networks for delivering advertisements to your site, and there are many more such networks throughout the web.

In addition to that, Google DFP has capability of handling not only ad networks, but direct advertising too – for when you have direct deals with the customers to show their ads on your website for a certain price. This makes Google DFP an invaluable tool if you want to drive a good ad campaign , and still not rely solely on one ad network. It gives you lots of capabilities , which we’ll discuss below.

The Features of Google DFP

Google DFP has a vast set of features to offer someone who wants to take control of their advertising strategy. It offers various functionalities and features, which we can organize into several basic categories:

Ad delivery and ad trafficking. These are a set of features which let you control when, to whom, and where your ads appear. In this category, Google DFP offers many options like frequency capping, to limit the same type of ad from showing up within the same day for the same user , for example, user targeting , different ad pricing models … all the good stuff that used to be available only for AdSense users, now for nearly any type of ad you can get for your site.

Revenue optimization. These are a set of tools to guaranteed that you use the maximum potential of your site’s inventory , with both AdSense and other third-party ads. The already integrated AdSense support, combined with the added functionality of Google DFP guarantees you get the highest bidder.

Inventory forecasting and reporting. The Google DFP offers a way to make a forecast, a goal projection so to speak, to know whether you’ll be able to accomplish what you’ve set for and what you promised to your advertisers. Reporting tools on the other hand can generate heaps of useful information to be sent both to any interested parties, and to yourself in order to control your campaign easily and knowledgeably.

Inventory management is made extremely easy and granular, allowing you to control how your ads are place, where on your site, and to whom they can be offered, in relation to your content and site organization

So … where does it start ?

Google DFP requires you to have an AdSense account at this point. It doesn’t matter whether you actually choose to serve AdSense network ads, or you use third-party advertisements, having an account is the necessity. This helps Google filter out any previous offenders of ad systems, which were banned from AdSense, and thus guaranteeing the best to people who bid on ads, which is in everyone’s best interest really.

So just to summarize , Google DFP is a set of tools which now allows you to broaden the horizons of your ad campaign, beyond AdSense, in a way that will allow you to get more money out of what your site currently has. It’s made easy and free for small businesses who are just starting in the area, and don’t have neither the experience, nor the professional contacts to drive an ad campaign of their own. If you fit into the former category, do try it. It’s likely that you won’t regret it.