Google Ad Exchange - Everything You Need To Know

Google Ad Exchange is a huge buzzword in the advertising industry and the go-to for publishers to find the right buyer for their ad inventory and improve monetization. However, it is important to learn how it works and how you can get access to it. We have compiled everything you need to know about Ad Exchange in this blog post. Read on.

What is Google Ad Exchange

Google Ad Exchange is a programmatic advertising marketplace that facilitates the buying and selling of ad inventory between advertisers and publishers through real-time bidding. The ultimate

monetization platform for app and website publishers looking for suitable demand partners to sell their ad space, Google Ad Exchange hosts countless advertisers, demand partners, and DSPs who are looking for ad space to promote their business.

The Transition from DoubleClick Ad Exchange

In 2007, Google acquired an advertising company called DoubleClick with all its services, including the ad exchange service – DoubleClick Ad Exchange.

Google then released an enhanced version of it two years later, in 2009. Today, Google Ad Exchange is the most popular ad exchange platform in the world for helping app and web publishers monetize.

Requirements for Google Ad Exchange sign up

Eligibility criteria to sign up directly

Although Google does not list its eligibility criteria anywhere, we know for sure about the things that can be a hurdle in getting a Google Ad Exchange account.

1. Your website or app must be free from certain types of content that may be termed non-brand-safe content. For example:

   • Health-related or medical content
   • Drug paraphernalia or content related to drugs
   • Promotional content related to a particular race or ethnicity
   • Content related to religion or religious beliefs
   • Adult content
   • Selling tobacco, alcohol, or weapons
   • Content about the negative financial status of a person or business

2. Your website or app must not have altering behavior that leads to involuntary clicks, downloads, or redirects.

3. Your website must not have pop-unders or content or buttons that trigger pop-unders.

4. Your website or app must host an ads.txt (for websites) and app-ads.txt (for apps) file.

5. Your website or app must publish content in Google-supported languages. Some languages that Google Ad Exchange currently does not monetize are:

   • Croatian
   • Estonian
   • Greek
   • Hebrew
   • Indonesian
   • Latvian
   • Lithuanian
   • Romanian
   • Serbian

6. Your website or app must have at least 5 million monthly active users (MAU) or 5 million monthly pageviews.

Eligibility criteria to sign up through a channel partner

The eligibility criteria for a Google Ad Exchange account through a Google AdX Partner may vary depending on the partner. However, some common criteria may involve:

• A certain number of monthly page views (may vary from partner to partner)
• A certain amount of traffic (may vary from partner to partner)
• No illegal, unlawful, or unethical content
• No invalid or bot traffic
• Presence of ads.txt or app-ads.txt file

Process for Google Ad Exchange login

There are two ways to get a Google Ad Exchange account.

• By contacting Google directly: You can reach out to Google to sign up with Google Ad Exchange, and they will assign you an account manager.
  The Google account manager will tell you if you are eligible to have an account.
• Through a Google channel partner: Google has authorized a few companies under the Google MCM or Google Publishing Partner programs to provide access to its ad exchange as resellers. You can sign up with Google Ad Exchange by contacting a channel partner like GreedyGame.

How it is related to GAM

It is important to understand that Google Ad Manager (GAM) and Google Ad Exchange are different entities.

GAM is an ad server that helps set up and manage ads and gives access to Ad Exchange, AdSense, etc. You cannot access Google Ad Exchange separately from GAM. Ad Exchange and GAM are together called GAM 360.

Google Ad Exchange auction system

Google Ad Exchange supports the open auction or real-time bidding (RTB) system of programmatic deals. In an open auction system, auctions occur in real time when a user lands on an app or website page.

They involve many publishers with empty ad inventory and multiple advertisers bidding for it to display their ads. The entire process takes only about 200ms from comparing bids, selecting the winner, and showing the ad to the user. Read more about the process in the next section.

How it works

Here’s a brief explanation of how Google Ad Exchange works with open auctions:

1. Publishers make their ad inventory available to Google Ad Exchange with details such as their location, audience, etc.

2. The auction starts when a user lands on the web page or app. User data is collected and sent to Google AdX to decide which ad to show to the user.

3. The ad exchange sends a bid request to the DSPs and advertisers in its realm.

4. After analyzing the bid request (information related to the user impression, such as demographics, geolocation, targeting, etc.), relevant advertisers bid on the impression.

5. The one with the maximum bid amount is sent to Google Ad Exchange.

6. Finally, Google AdX picks the highest bidder’s ad creative to show to the user on the publisher’s web page or app.

How to increase your Google Ad Exchange revenue

Ad revenue depends on various factors such as impressions, formats, eCPMs, etc. Thus, to increase ad revenue, you must optimize various areas of your ads. Below are a few tips.

1. Optimize your ads by experimenting with ad types and backup ads.

   Try out rich media, images, text, or native ads to see how they perform. You can even use the Backup Ads feature to ensure that your inventory never remains unfilled; thus, high fill rates lead to more revenue.

2. Try different ad formats to identify the ones with high viewability.

   Sticky ads, out-stream video ads, and the like have higher viewability than other formats. Experiment with ad formats that deliver high viewability, increasing eCPM and ad revenue.

3. Optimize your blocking rules.

   To prevent non-brand-safe ads from showing, Google blocks some ad categories by default. Try blocking specific URLs or advertisers instead of categories or increase the price floor to prevent certain advertisers from bidding on your inventory.

4. Optimize your opt-ins.

   Google AdX offers ad technologies that let you integrate third-party vendors for various purposes, such as a demand-side platform (DSP), data management platform (DMP), etc. You can leverage them to your advantage.

5. Optimize your pricing rules.

   Sometimes it is recommended to keep the default floor pricing low to improve the fill rates. You must even try to maintain different pricing for different targeting such as geographies, devices, etc.

6. Utilize Google Ad Exchange’s suggestions.

‘Opportunities and Experiments’ are suggestions given by Google Ad Manager weekly based on your recent changes. You can even find out how the changes have impacted your revenue and use the information to make improvements and increase revenue.

Conclusion

We are sure you have all the information you need about Google Ad Exchange through this article. Still, want to understand further about it? Get in touch with us to learn how you can leverage it to scrape various benefits while boosting your ad revenue. Our experts will guide you!