DFP Premium and Ad Exchange releases archive
March 2016: What's New in DFP (4:06)
April 2016: What's New in Ad Exchange (3:37)
Q2 2016
April 4 DART tag deprecation / Reporting changes of eCPM and impressions / DFP Mediation for mobile appsHighlight
- DART tag deprecation
DART tag deprecation is scheduled to take place on April 5, 2016. After deprecation, DART tags will no longer deliver ads; instead, they will respond with an HTTP 400 error. Be aware that DART tag deprecation affects all DFP DART tags (includes internal redirects/DFP JS tags used as third-party tags), but NOT DCM legacy tags. Please replace any DART tags on your sites with Google Publisher Tags (GPT) prior to the cutoff date to ensure seamless ad serving. Learn more - Changes to reporting of eCPMs and impressions
To help provide clarity, we’ve made three CPM-related changes to the Ad Exchange.- Changed the default CPM metric from eCPM to “Ad eCPM (new)”
- Renamed eCPM to “Matched eCPM”
- Added new versions of Ad eCPM and Ad Impression that count a single ad impression if an ad request returns multiple text ads to a single slot, the deprecation of old versions of these two metrics, and the removal of old versions over time.
DFP Premium
- DFP Mediation for mobile apps
Access mobile app demand from third-party ad networks while continuing to use DFP and Ad Exchange. Learn more - DFP Dashboard includes new filters
Ad unit, advertiser, and country name filters are available in the network snapshot card and leaderboard card. - Dynamic allocation for sponsorships
Dynamic allocation now supports standard and sponsorship line items; both types can compete with Ad Exchange and other lower-priority remnant line items while ensuring reservation delivery. Ad Exchange and other lower-priority line items still cannot compete when a 100% sponsorship line item is eligible, or when a combination of sponsorship line items at the same priority with goals that add up to greater than or equal to 100% are eligible.
Ad Exchange
- Notable changes to Ad Exchange Query Tool
We've removed some already deprecated dimensions that have outlived their value and utility. Here is the list of dimensions:- Settings rules
- Ad units
- Bid types
- Bid results
- Ad Exchange Creative review includes policy status and more
When reviewing an upcoming ad in Creative review, the policy status appears in the left sidebar. This includes the ad’s deals status and open auction status. The sidebar also includes the creative file size and whether the creative uses data collection pixels. Learn more - Changes to Ad Exchange Block Override for Preferred Deals
As of March 30, the Block Override feature overrides Open Auction policy restrictions for Preferred Deals. Learn more - Deprecating reparenting in Ad Exchange
We've removed the ability to assign a new parent to a child ad slot.
Q1 2016
March 21 vCPM / Improved metadata key-value mapping / Unfilled impressions in dashboardDFP Premium
- vCPM (viewable impressions)
You can now forecast, traffic, serve, and report on viewable impressions (vCPM) line items using Google’s Active View technology. Viewability helps determine how likely it is that an ad was actually seen by a user. Publishers with the most viewable inventory will be in the best position to earn more revenue from this trend. Learn more. - Advanced video: improved metadata key-value mapping
It’s now easier to map your CMS keys and values to DFP key-values. Learn how to manage CMS keys and values. - DFP Dashboard includes unfilled impressions
Unfilled impressions are now available in the network snapshot card. If you haven’t yet added the network snapshot card, unfilled impressions will be included upon addition of the card. If you added the card before this release, you’ll need to remove then re-add the card to show unfilled impressions. Learn more - Removed the “Text and image” creative type
We removed the seldom-used “Text and image” creative type. This creative type is still available as a system-defined creative template named “Mobile application download”, so there’s no loss in functionality for publishers. Existing "Text and image" creatives have become identical "Mobile application download" template creatives with no interruption to ad serving.
Ad Exchange
- Advertiser name added to the Data Transfer report
A new Advertiser name field has been added to the report entries. Learn more about protocol buffers in Data Transfer.
DFP Premium
- DFP API v201602: Highlights from this API release include:
- Support for Active View (vCPM)
- Support for forecasting with alternative unit types
- Availability of terms and conditions on proposals via API
Learn more on the Google Ads Developer Blog.
- Changes to data protection report
Creatives delivered via dynamic allocation are no longer scanned by DFP and so are not included in the data protection report. - Changes to custom fields
Location and type can no longer be changed for a custom field after it has been saved. Learn more about custom fields. - Deprecation of segments overlap report
Because of reliability issues, we have deprecated the segments overlap report. In place of this report, consider running a forecast of two potentially overlapping segments in an AND relationship, with a lifetime per-user frequency cap of 1. Note that forecasting is designed to estimate future impressions based on past traffic, whereas the segment overlap report compared identifiers comprising two audience segments. The forecasting workaround is therefore only a rough approximation of the overlap size between the two segments, and should not be viewed as replicating the report.
Ad Exchange
- Deal check enhancement
Deal Check now shows “Bids not for this deal,” which happens when a buyer receives a request for impressions, but chooses instead to either bid for the impression in the Open Auction, or bid on a different overlapping deal. Learn more
Training and Help Center updates
- Publisher University: What’s New in DFP
In the March 2016 edition of "What's New in DFP," we take a look at new feature updates covering the DFP Dashboard, more granular geographical targeting options, creative-level targeting, new GPT targeting macros, companies filtering, and more. Check out the video on Publisher University.
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DFP Release notes card
Starting February 16th, 2016, you can view DFP releases in the “Release notes” card of the DFP Dashboard.
DFP Premium
- Notable change to DFP Query Tool reporting
DFP Query Tool has phased out reporting on orders, line items, ad units, and placements that don't include metrics. You can continue to export orders and line items from the "Delivery" tab. We're also working on a future feature to export ad units from DFP Inventory management. Be aware that ‘scheduled reports without metrics’ will no longer run. Note that reports related to Sales Manager don't change as a result of this update. - Postal code targeting
Postal code targeting is now available for France (FR), Germany (DE), India (IN), and the United Kingdom (GB). - Ads status dashboard
We’ve released the Ads Status Dashboard, a new, publicly-accessible tool that enables you to learn about major outages or functionality concerns across DoubleClick products, including DoubleClick for Publishers, DoubleClick Ad Exchange and DoubleClick Sales Manager. - Advanced video: MPEG-DASH
For DFP-hosted assets, DFP can now transcode media files into the MPEG-DASH format. Learn more about transcoding. - Change History update
We’re releasing a new, improved version of change history. This will be a gradual rollout, with new changes migrated to the new change history in groups. As a first step to this rollout, changes to Roles will be temporarily unavailable via the Admin page and instead should be viewed from the details page for a given Role.
Ad Exchange
- Flexible Ad Exchange sizes for apps
Flexible sizes, which allow you to specify a range of creative sizes that a segment of your inventory will accept, can now be used for apps. This removes the previous limitation where creative size must equal inventory size on apps.
Training and Help Center updates
- What’s New in Ad Exchange
In the February 2016 edition of "What's New in Ad Exchange," we take a look at updates including the rollout of video interstitials for mobile app publishers, the deprecation of Ad Exchange seller names, and the removal of the “Hold placement ads for 24 hours” option from Creative Review. Check out the video on Publisher University. - Register now for the March 2016 Display Ads API Workshops:
We're pleased to announce that we’ll be holding a series of Display Ads API Workshops in March 2016. These workshops are a half-day of tech talks, group discussions, and office hours geared toward developers who use the DoubleClick for Publishers API, Interactive Media Ads SDK, or Mobile Ads SDKs. The workshops will be held in the following cities:- San Francisco - March 14, 2016: Register here
- New York - March 21, 2016: Register here
For more information on the 2-session agenda and a preview of our talks, see our workshop page.
DFP Premium
- Notable change to DFP Query Tool reportimng
DFP Query Tool has phased out reporting on orders, line items, ad units, and placements that don't include metrics. You can continue to export orders and line items from the "Delivery" tab. We're also working on a future feature to export ad units from DFP Inventory management. Be aware that ‘scheduled reports without metrics’ will no longer run. Note that reports related to Sales Manager don't change as a result of this change.
Ad Exchange
- Traffic app video interstitials: rollout is complete
We’ve completed the rollout of the ability for Ad Exchange App publishers to show video interstitials, including TrueView and Video click-to-download. You can display both skippable and standard videos. Video demand competes with standard image ads to maximize performance for the publisher. Learn more - Ad Exchange seller names deprecation
You can no longer associate a seller name with inventory channels, and existing seller names have been removed from your inventory. Reporting channels are not affected by this change.
Training and Help Center updates
Register now for the March 2016 Display Ads API Workshops:
We're pleased to announce that we’ll be holding a series of Display Ads API Workshops in March 2016. These workshops are a half-day of tech talks, group discussions, and office hours geared toward developers who use the DoubleClick for Publishers API, Interactive Media Ads SDK, or Mobile Ads SDKs. The workshops will be held in the following cities:
- San Francisco - March 14, 2016: Register here
- New York - March 21, 2016: Register here
For more information on the 2-session agenda and a preview of our talks, see our workshop page.
Coming soon...
- DFP Reporting
We’ll be retiring the report size column in the DFP Queries and Report listing. We're replacing it with a column that shows the number of rows in each report, to give you a better idea of the size of your reports. - DFP Release notes card
Starting February 16th, 2016, you’ll be able to view DFP releases in the “Release notes” card of the DFP Dashboard. - DFP Targeting
Postal code targeting will soon be available for France (FR), Germany (DE), India (IN), and the United Kingdom (GB).
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More granular targeting within country geo
The following countries now provide more granular targeting: Estonia, Greece, Hong Kong, Latvia, Lithuania, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine.
DFP Premium
Tagging
New GPT targeting macros
You can now insert one or both of these macros into your creative code:
%%PATTERN:TARGETINGMAP%%
: Expand the complete key-value string and dynamically create passback tags. This serves the same function as the %p macro in DART tags.%%ADUNIT%%
: Insert the complete ad unit path into your creative code.
Learn more about these new macros.
DFP-to-DFP internal redirects
You can now traffic tags between two separate DFP networks by using internal redirects. Learn more.
DART tag deprecation
Fewer than 75 days remain before DART tag deprecation. Please migrate to Google Publisher Tags (GPT) as soon as possible. Learn how to re-tag from legacy DART tags to GPT.
Delivery
Change in how “Ready” line items are indicated in the user interface
Line items in the “Ready” state will now be displayed with a blue background to more easily distinguish them from line items that are in the “Paused” state.
Admin
Broader availability of filters
Filters are now available on the “Companies” section of the Admin tab, allowing you to quickly locate companies with certain characteristics. You can also save filters for reuse, a convenience for searches that you use often. Learn more about filters.
Partner management
Simplified DFP partner management
This approach allows you to indicate a simple percentage revenue share for each of your partners right on their details page. This replaces the separately managed financial terms. As part of this launch, the “Partner management” metrics replace the existing dimensions and metrics for partner management. Learn more.
Ad Exchange
Creative review
Removal of “Hold placement ads for 24 hours” from Creative review
On January 27, 2016, this feature will no longer be available in Ad Exchange. This mode currently only applies to a small fraction of ads (those that are placement targeted). Learn more about why we’re removing this setting.
Training and Help Center updates
Register now for the March 2016 Display Ads API Workshops: We're pleased to announce that we’ll be holding a series of Display Ads API Workshops in March 2016. These workshops are a half-day of tech talks, group discussions, and office hours geared toward developers who use the DoubleClick for Publishers API, Interactive Media Ads SDK, or Mobile Ads SDKs. The workshops will be held in the following cities:
- San Francisco - March 14, 2016: Register here
- New York - March 21, 2016: Register here
For more information on the 2-session agenda and a preview of our talks, see our workshop page.
Programmatic Guaranteed (Beta) training videos are now available: To support the recent beta, three new Programmatic Guaranteed training videos are available on Publisher University. The list includes Programmatic Guaranteed: Overview, Create a Proposal, and Create a Product.
Q4 2015
December 14 DFP Dashboard / Custom-level targeting / Traffic app video interstitialsHighlight
DFP Dashboard
The DFP Dashboard is the new homepage in DFP that provides quick insights and information about the campaigns and inventory that matter most. Learn more.
DFP Premium
Creative-level targeting
You can now target creatives across devices and other criteria within the same line item, allowing for more granular control over which creatives serve, and where. The feature is particularly useful for matching creatives to operating systems (for example, iOS and Android). Learn more.
Ad Exchange
Reporting
Notable changes to Ad Exchange Query Tool
We’ll be deprecating some dimensions that have outlived their value and utility. These changes will occur from time to time. Please check this article periodically to learn about these updates.
Updates to Benchmark reporting
As of December 8th, Publisher Benchmark reporting has new dimensions and metric support:
Dimensions--
- Creative sizes
- Ad locations
- Device
- Operating systems
Metric-- Average viewable time
Learn more about compatible dimensions and metrics for Benchmark queries.
Mobile
Traffic app video interstitials
We’ve begun rolling out the ability for Ad Exchange publishers to show video interstitials, including TrueView and Video click-to-download. They can display both skippable and standard videos. Video demand will compete with standard image ads to maximize performance for the publisher. The rollout will be complete in January. Learn more.
Training and Help Center updates
Ad Exchange Publisher Profiles: As a publisher, you can increase your visibility to advertisers and buyers looking to run ads on your sites using a publisher profile. If you don’t have any profiles created for your account, these two newly updated training videos can help you get up and running: Publisher Profiles: Overview, Create a Publisher Profile.
What’s New in DFP: In the December 2015 edition of "What's New in DFP," we take a look at new feature updates covering terminology changes in the UI, in-line targeting editing for line items, trafficking direct-sold native ads in apps, the new IDFA/AdID macro for mobile app creatives, and DFP multi-login. Check out the video on Publisher University.
DFP Premium
API
DFP API v201511: This release includes some trafficking clean-up to make the API easier to use. We also added a few sales manager reporting dimension attributes, and you can now set DeliverySettings on ProductTemplates. Learn more.
Ad Exchange
Reporting
Notable changes to Ad Exchange Query Tool: We’ll be deprecating some dimensions that have outlived their value and utility. These changes will occur from time to time. Please check this article periodically to learn about these updates.
Deals
Send offers directly to clients of Ad Exchange buyers: You can now send Preferred Deal or Private Auction offers to specific clients of buyers. Clients must have explicit permissions from their buyer to be able to receive direct offers from publishers.
Training and Help Center updates
- What’s New in DFP: In the December 2015 edition of "What's New in DFP," we take a look at new feature updates covering terminology changes in the UI, in-line targeting editing for line items, trafficking direct-sold native ads in apps, the new IDFA/AdID macro for mobile app creatives, and DFP multi-login. Check out the video on Publisher University.
- DFP Admin training in Publisher University: We’ve overhauled the tutorials that cover the different features and configurable options within the DFP Admin tab. Check out the new Admin module in the DFP Fundamentals for Administrators course, or watch the video tutorials in the Mix & Match section.
DFP Premium
Finance
Improved reconciliation experience: Each billing cycle for reconciliation now starts with a simplified list of orders that served in that billing cycle. From this list, you can select just the orders on which to perform reconciliation. Prior to this, reconciliation was performed on a list of all orders in a billing cycle. This approach improves performance and allows you to focus only on orders that require your attention. Learn more.
Reporting
You can now report on ActiveView metrics when using the "Device Category" dimension.
Ad Exchange
Deal health improvements
We’ve made several improvements over the last several months to our tools to make it easier for publishers to monitor their active deals. We have enhanced Deal Check to surface additional insights on deal competition including “Lost to DFP” and “Bid met minimum price but was outbid.” Buyers must also input an email address for new deals so that publishers know whom to contact if there are problems. Last but not least, we’ve added metrics (ad requests, impressions, and fill rate over the last 7 days) to the active deals table to allow publishers to quickly identify “unhealthy” deals.
Training and Help Center updates
- What’s New in Ad Exchange - November 2015: Want to stay up to date with the latest Ad Exchange releases? In the November 2015 edition of "What's New in Ad Exchange," we take a look at organizational updates to the Ad Exchange user interface, the introduction of Benchmark Queries in reporting, and a feature that allows the ability to traffic video interstitial ads to Ad Exchange using DFP dynamic allocation. Check out the video on Publisher University.
- Ad Exchange Benchmark Queries, New Video Tutorial: Benchmark Queries is a new query type in the Ad Exchange reporting tool that gives publishers the ability to see how their business is performing in comparison to their peers, or even the entire Ad Exchange market, across different performance metrics. Check out the new video tutorial, now available on Publisher University as part of the Reporting with Query Tool course, and the Ad Exchange Mix & Match page!
- DFP: Troubleshooting - Ad Selection / Dynamic allocation, New Video Tutorial: Ever wonder what goes on behind the scene of DFP ad selection and dynamic allocation? The "Troubleshooting: Ad Selection" video is now available on Publisher University. This video walks through the steps of the ad selection process, including when a request is eligible for dynamic allocation. Watch it now on Publisher University.
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Traffic app video interstitials from Ad Exchange
DFP app publishers who backfill through dynamic allocation can now show video interstitials, including TrueView and Video click-to-download, from Ad Exchange. They can display both skippable and standard videos. Video demand will compete with standard Image ads to maximize performance for the publisher. Learn more.
DFP Premium
Account management
Multi-login now enabled for all DFP accounts: You can now access multiple DFP accounts in the same window. No need to sign out or open an incognito (or private browsing) window. Click the account drop-down on the top navigation bar, click Add account, and then select the email address with which the additional DFP account is associated.
Ad Exchange
Deals
Access and monitor your active deals: When accessing your active preferred deals or private auctions, you can quickly monitor and identify any potential issues by viewing key metrics for all deals at once. Ad Exchange allows you to filter and sort the list of deals to easily highlight those that may not be transacting. Learn more.
Manage your deals settings: You can configure your settings for deals to control how buyers see you as a publisher, and to which buyers you are visible. Settings previously configured individually for display, video, and app properties are now managed together at your account level. Learn more.
Training and Help Center updates
- Update to the DFP reporting modules in Publisher University: We’ve produced seven new tutorials to help you understand the Query Tool and learn how it’s used to produce, schedule, and share reports. You can access the tutorials in the DFP Fundamentals for Traffickers and Administrators courses, or in the DFP Mix & Match section.
- New video interstitial training video in Publisher University: Mobile app video interstitials are now available to serve in Ad Exchange via DFP Dynamic Allocation. To help you understand all of the details, a new training video is available on Publisher University.
DFP Premium
Targeting
Inline editing of targeting criteria: You can now edit a line item’s targeting criteria directly from the “Line items” page using text strings. Learn more
Advanced video
Multiple midrolls supported in ad rules: You can now set podding, max number of ads, ad durations, and bumpers for midroll ads at each cue point. Learn more
Ad Exchange
User interface
Changes to the Ad Exchange user interface have been made to simplify options in the navigation sidebar and to achieve a consistent experience with the DFP user interface. Syndication types (Display, Video, Games, and Mobile In-App) have moved from the navigation sidebar and are now accessible as sub-tabs from individual inventory, rules, and creative review pages. All other functionality is not affected by these changes.
Query Tool
Publisher benchmark report: The Ad Exchange Publisher benchmark report now provides information on how your business is performing across different performance metrics compared to peer groups or all publishers in the exchange. You are able to gather insights into such areas as percentage of impression growth, eCPM averages across certain inventory, viewability coverage by ad size, or identify potential opportunities in advertiser categories.
Admin
Payment ID (this change applies to Network Partner Management publishers only): There now exists a payment ID across DFP and Ad Exchange, for all publishers to ensure that there is a single identifier that indicates the entity that is paid for an impression. The buyer of an impression receives a chain of unique, persistent supplier identifiers for the publisher for branded inventory.
DFP Premium
Reporting
DFP Query Tool and Data Transfer reports have undergo changes in reporting values related to user devices making ad requests. While the value outputs are generally not documented, we did want to alert you of the updates. The changes went into effect on October 1st.
- In DFP Query Tool, these changes appear in output of reports that use the Targeting dimension. The keys and values below appear in the output of the Targeting dimension and these keys are affected: Browser, DeviceCapability, MobileCarrier, OperatingSystemVersion, and Platform.
Here are the changes:
- The letter case of some values have been adjusted. For example,
iphone3,3_from_apple
have becomeiphone3,3_from_Apple
- For
OperatingSystemVersion key
, some values were prefixed withEqualTo
. These prefixes have been dropped. - For the
OperatingSystemVersion
key, "iphone" and "ipad
" have changed to "iOS
" - For
Platform
- "
HighEndMobile
" has changed to "Mobile Highend
" - "
MidrangeMobile
" has changed to "Mobile Midrange
"
- "
- For
DeviceCapability
, "supports calls
" has changed to "Phone calls
"
- The letter case of some values have been adjusted. For example,
- In DFP Data Transfer, the changed values appear in columns: Browser, DeviceCategory, MobileCapability, MobileCarrier, and OSVersion.
We're making these changes in order to standardize values across our Query Tool, Data Transfer and API services. Please prepare any of your services that depend on these values.
Ad Exchange
No updates
Training and help center updates
- What’s New in Ad Exchange - October 2015: Want to stay up to date with the latest Ad Exchange releases? In the October 2015 edition of "What's New in Ad Exchange," we take a look at new feature updates covering Open auction pricing rules, renamed dimensions in the Query Tool, declaring the use of Sticky ads in your account, as well as an introduction to the multi-size pricing feature. Check out the video on Publisher University.
- Rules training videos: Two new training videos related to Rules have been added to Publisher University. The first tutorial, Rules Overview, navigates through the “Rules” tab in your account. The second tutorial introduces Blocking Rules, including how to block certain categories of ads, or ads that come from certain URLs, from showing on your sites or apps.
- Three new articles on DFP Audience: We’ve created the following new articles to help clarify differences between types of identifiers and segments, and to detail some use cases specific to DFP Audience for mobile apps:
Q3 2015
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DFP terminology changes
We made the following DFP terminology changes in the user interface. No other functionality is affected by these changes.
- The Orders tab in the user interface has been renamed the “Delivery” tab.
- All instances of custom targeting have been renamed to “key-values.”
- *Custom criteria in the Inventory picker is now "Key-values and audience segments."
* This change is only visible if you have Audience enabled, otherwise you will only see Key-values. For more information about Audience, you’ll need to contact your account representative.
DFP Premium
Inventory
Multi-size pricing for Display: In a single DFP ad request, you can now specify multiple sizes with different pricing rules per size, enabling you to monetize and target each size optimally. This feature is available to all publishers that monetize through Ad Exchange and is compatible with Preferred Deals, Private Auctions, and custom creative sizes for display ad inventory only. Learn more.
Mobile apps
IDFA/AdID macro: This new macro allows in-app publishers to send a resettable mobile advertising ID to their advertising partners for serving interest-based ads. This makes it easier to give mobile advertising ID access to their advertisers and agencies. Learn more.
Training
What’s New in DFP - September 2015: Want to stay up to date with the latest DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) releases? In the September 2015 edition of "What's New in DFP," we take a look at new feature updates covering the tag generator, global search, Google Mobile Ads SDK, reporting data in a Google Analytics account, and the DFP Reporting Labs training exercise. Check out the video on Publisher University.
Help Center
Prepare your pages and apps for HTML5 creatives: Download the one-sheeter on HTML5 and learn how to update specifications, traffic HTML5 creatives, and respond to advertisers and agencies that continue to send you Flash files. Get it now.
Ad Exchange
No updates
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DFP native ads for apps
DFP now gives publishers the tools to monetize their inventory with direct-sold native ads in apps. Native ads are a rapidly growing class of online ads that match the look, feel, and content of the publisher’s property. You can use DFP to:
- Traffic your mobile native ads with simplicity.
- Control the ad’s look and feel with custom rendering in your app’s code.
DFP Premium
Video and Mobile
Required update to IMA SDK for iOS 9: We’re pleased to announce version 3.0.b16 of the IMA SDK for iOS, which was updated to be compatible with a new security feature introduced in iOS 9 called App Transport Security. If you are building for iOS 9, this is a required update, as video ads will not serve correctly without it. The new SDK can be found on the downloads page. Learn more
Advanced video
Reduced latency for content source syncs: New content is now pulled from the delta feed up to 15 times per hour. In most cases, new content is targetable and reportable within 6 minutes of being added to your delta feed. Learn more
Support for HLS transcoding: We’ve added HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) to the list of automatically transcoded formats for hosted media files. Learn more
Ad Exchange
Reporting
Within Ad Exchange Query Tool's "Product" dimension, the "Application" value has been renamed to "Mobile In-App" for consistency within the product.
Rules
Apply pricing and blocking rules for brands: Brands are children that are mapped to parent advertisers, providing you with more granular pricing and blocking options and reporting data. Using brands can help you increase demand through more granular blocking rules.
Apply pricing and blocking rules for unclassified advertisers: An advertiser is considered "unclassified" if it doesn't appear on our list of top 9,500 advertisers available for setting pricing and blocking rules. Any brands belonging to these advertisers are also considered unclassified.
Training
Ad Exchange User Interface Tour: If you're brand new to DoubleClick Ad Exchange, the new Ad Exchange UI Tour training video provides a great way to get started navigating your account.
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Delivery Diagnostics
We've recently made enhancements to our Delivery Diagnostics tool, including:
Delivery Diagnostics, accessible through Publisher Console, shows information about the winning line item for a particular ad unit, as well as contending line items. Learn more about delivery diagnostics.
DFP Premium
Generate ad tags
You can easily customize and generate ad tags from the DFP interface without having to manually edit code. It is now possible to generate tags with advanced functionality such as page-level targeting, inventory unit level targeting and sizes, and passback tags. Learn more
Improved global search
Global search in DFP now returns results that are more intuitive and up to date. For example, searching for “he wo” would now return “hello world.” (Earlier versions of global search would require “hello wo” in order to return the same result.) Smaller improvements, such as to the treatment of special characters, should also enhance usability.
These improvements already affect orders and will roll out to line items and other entities, such as creatives and ad units, in the next two quarters.
Ad Exchange
Sticky ads
You may now monetize sticky ad units by declaring them through rules. A sticky ad is a persistent/fixed ad unit that stays visible while the user scrolls content on the page up or down.
If you use sticky ad units, you must set up rules that declare their existence. Learn about Google restrictions on sticky ads and how to declare them
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Admin
First Look for Contributor: First Look for Contributor extends Contributor users’ eligible inventory to include all impressions for your network, including reservation and sponsorship inventory. Learn more
DFP Premium
Mobile
MRAID v2 support in the new Google Mobile Ads SDK: The new Google Mobile Ads SDK is now available for Android (v7.8) and iOS (v7.4). This SDK release includes support for MRAID v2 (now in open beta), which is the latest version of IAB’s Mobile Rich Ad Interface Definitions standard for advertising in mobile apps. In DFP, you can now target a line item to MRAID v1 or MRAID v2.
For a full list of SDK updates, see the developer documentation for Android and iOS.
Data Transfer now includes Network Backfill file for Active View
Publishers who are configured to receive Active View files now receive a second file type that contain ActiveView data for backfilled impressions, if applicable. The file name are prefixed with NetworkBackfillActiveViews.
Training
DFP Trafficking Lab
We’re excited to announce the relaunch of DFP Trafficking Lab in Publisher University. Through Labs, you will have an opportunity to sign into a DFP test network where you can practice navigating the DFP Orders Tab, and identify key information about the campaign. Start practicing today on Publisher University!
Ad Exchange
Reporting
Ad Exchange Data Transfer updated: Three new report entry fields have been added to the Ad Exchange Data Transfer reporting functionality:
// Transaction type (0 = second price auction, 1 = fixed cpm, 2 = private exchange)
optional int32 transaction_type = 23;
// Dead ID of winning impressions, separated by '+'
optional string deal_ids = 24;
// Network names of DSPs, separated by '+'
optional string buyer_network_names = 25;
For more information, refer to the Ad Exchange Data Transfer guide for sellers.
AdX Query tool "Platform" dimension has been renamed to "Device Categories". We made this change to improve consistency across Ad Exchange and align with Rules' targeting.
General
To optimize the auction for the purpose of maximizing publisher revenue and buyer return on investment, we are continually exploring changes in the DoubleClick Ad Exchange. As we develop new ways to improve the exchange for buyers and sellers, we want to make sure our Help Center documentation remains accurate and accounts for behavior you might see due to optimization. Recently we launched a small update to the main auction dynamics article, we encourage you to review the changes.
Training
What’s New in Ad Exchange - July 2015
Want to stay up to date with the latest Ad Exchange releases? In the July 2015 edition of "What's New in Ad Exchange," we take a look at new feature updates including new custom inventory sizes and the new "Flexible sizes" rule type, as well as updates to options when creating a new Preferred Deal. Check out the video on Publisher University.
Coming soon...
- DFP terminology changes in the user interface will take place in the following month. All other functionality will not be affected by these changes.
- All instances of Order tab in the user interface will be renamed “Delivery” tab.
- All instances of custom targeting in the left navigation bar will become “key-values.”
- Custom criteria in the Inventory picker will become "Key-values and audience segments."
- After September 1st, there will be a retirement of the following Ad Exchange Query Tool dimensions: Bid type, Bid results, and Settings rule.
- Within Ad Exchange Query Tool's "Product" dimension, the "Application" value will be renamed to "Mobile in App" for consistency within the product.
- Within Ad Exchange Query Tool, we’ll be making the "Change History" feature more prominent by displaying a "history" button next to the graph buttons. Whenever your data spans over several days, use this button to quickly display all changes that happened over these days.
DFP Premium
Training
Google Publisher Tags certification course
Ideal for publishers who are migrating from DART tags to Google Publisher Tags (GPT), or those who have already implemented GPT, the new Google Publisher Tags certification course is now live on Publisher University. The course is comprised of eight video tutorials that provide publisher development teams and other technical users with the information necessary to serve ads in DFP using GPT.
The course is located in the Certification Courses section of the site, or as individual video tutorials in the Mix and Match section.
Ad Exchange
Training
New Query Tool training
The Ad Exchange Query Tool continuously evolves to provide a more robust reporting experience. To help, the course Reporting with the Query Tool is now available on Publisher University. The course consists of ten video tutorials, knowledge checks, example reports, a course glossary, and course exam. Localized versions of the course are available in German, Spanish, French, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese (Simplified), and Chinese (Traditional).
New Query Tool training material is also available in the following Help Center articles:
- Review the Query Tool overview for more information about what the Query Tool offers.
- Two ways to create a query provides information about how to build and manage your queries.
- For more details on working with queries, take a look at Create or edit a query, specifically dimensions and metrics as well as how to share your report with non-Ad Exchange account users.
- Review Understand your report to learn more about the scorecard, charts, and tables.
- Manage system queries covers how to run canned reports and copy system queries for customization.
- Take a look at Rejected ad requests report and Crawler errors report to learn about diagnostic queries.
Coming soon...
First Look for Contributor
When you enable First Look for Contributor, you’ll extend Contributor users’ eligible inventory to include all impressions for your network, including reservation and sponsorship inventory. Learn more about Contributor.
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Integration with Google Analytics
DFP publishers using Google Analytics Premium can view their publisher reporting data in their Analytics account to help understand the intersection of ad serving, monetization data, and Analytics data. DFP publishers need to have 90% GPT coverage to qualify (Learn more). Publishers who do not use DFP and do use Ad Exchange directly on their site can integrate Ad Exchange directly with Google Analytics (Learn more). To activate this feature, contact your Google Analytics Premium representative.
DFP Premium
Video
VPAID JS friendly iframe support for DFP video: The IMA SDK now supports VPAID 2 JS creatives rendered in a friendly iframe. Learn more
Audience
'Estimate segment size' feature has been deprecated: In place of this feature, you can pre-populate segments and then check their size a few hours after doing so.Training
New DFP Reporting 101 & 201 Labs!
We’re excited to announce the launch of DFP Reporting 101 and DFP Reporting 201 Labs in Publisher University. Through Labs, you have an opportunity to sign into a DFP test network with live data and complete a series of Query Tool exercises. The Labs provide you with a practice environment to test the concepts you’ve learned in the Publisher University courses.
Check out the DFP Reporting 101 & 201 Labs!
Ad Exchange
Query Tool
Active View for mobile apps in Ad Exchange Query Tool
With this feature, mobile app publishers can report on Active View insights across their entire inventory, through viewability metrics. You can better understand how mobile apps, ad formats, and sizes perform according to their viewability, and prepare or enhance them for future performance.
Training
New video tutorials on Custom Inventory Sizes and Flexible Ad Sizes
Three new training videos are now available for Ad Exchange publishers on Publisher University. Introduction to Custom Inventory Sizes and Flexible Sizes Rules, Custom Inventory Sizes, and Flexible Sizes Rules provide a great foundation to understand the new inventory size options now available in your account.
Coming soon...
Improvement to companion banner impression reporting in DFP Query Tool: Currently, if you want to see delivery metrics for Companion banner ads, you need to use the "Master or Companion creative" dimension. With this improvement, whenever you use the "Creative Size" dimension in DFP reports, both master and companion ads are included with their respective metrics in reports.
Q2 2015
June 29 Combined DFP and Ad Exchange Release Notes/DFP Query Tool: Custom and flexible Ad Exchange sizesAd Exchange Highlight
Custom and flexible Ad Exchange sizes
These new size features eliminate some of the restrictions for sizes on Ad Exchange, while also offering greater earning potential for publishers by expanding competition for your inventory:
- Custom sizes expand Ad Exchange support for inventory and creative sizes beyond the previously supported set of “standard” sizes. With this feature, you’ll be able to send Ad Exchange ad requests for any size, and Ad Exchange buyers can bid with creatives of any size.
- Use the new Flexible sizes rule type to specify a range of creative sizes that a segment of your inventory will accept. This removes the previous limitation where creative size must equal inventory size. Flexible sizes make inventory and creatives more compatible with each other and enable more ads to compete for your inventory.
DFP Premium
Reconciliation
Each billing cycle for reconciliation now starts with a simple list of orders which served in that billing cycle. Prior to this, billing cycles listed all orders and line items that served in a billing cycle. Now, from the list of orders, you can select just the ones you want to focus on instead of sorting through all orders and line items. The list of orders and reconciliation table also now show order ID. Learn more
Training
What’s New in DFP - June 2015
Want to stay up to date with the latest DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) releases? In the June 2015 edition of "What's New in DFP," we take a look at new feature updates covering the Query Tool, system limits, video creative sets, and click tracking line items. Check out the video on Publisher University.
Ad Exchange
Deals
Override blocking rules for deals
The Block Override feature now defaults to ON for new Preferred Deals. You still have the option to turn this feature off for any deal, at any time. The feature can be used for Private Auctions, but must be explicitly turned on for individual Private Auctions. Learn more about overriding blocking rules for deals.
Publisher auto finalize
This feature allows publishers to remove the “finalize” step of deal negotiation if the buyer has accepted your latest changes without any modifications. It can be turned on or off for any Preferred Deal. Learn More
Reporting
Report scheduling
We have adjusted the delivery times of scheduled reports. Reports should now arrive between 9 am and 10 am EST. Learn more
Coming soon...
Active view for mobile apps in Ad Exchange Query Tool: With this feature, mobile app publishers will be able to report on Active View insights across their entire inventory, through viewability metrics. You’ll be able to better understand how mobile apps, ad formats and sizes perform according to their viewability, and prepare or enhance them for future performance.
Improvement to companion banner impression reporting in DFP Query Tool: Currently, if you want to see delivery metrics for Companion banner ads, you need to use the "Master or Companion creative" dimension. With this improvement, whenever you use the "Creative size" dimension in DFP reports, both master and companion ads are included with their respective metrics in reports.
DFP native ads for apps: DFP will give publishers the tools to monetize their inventory with direct-sold native ads in apps. Native ads are a rapidly growing class of online ads that match the look, feel, and content of the publisher’s property. You'll be able to use DFP to traffic your native ads with simplicity and the power to control the ad’s look and feel with custom rendering. Learn more
Integration with Google Analytics: DFP publishers using Google Analytics Premium will be able to view their publisher reporting data in their Analytics account to help understand the intersection of ad serving, monetization data, and analytics data. DFP publishers need to have 90% GPT coverage to qualify (Learn more). Publishers who do not use DFP and do use Ad Exchange directly on their site can integrate Ad Exchange directly with Google Analytics (Learn more). To activate this feature, contact your Google Analytics Premium representative.
The audience 'Estimate segment size' feature will be deprecated: In place of this feature, you can pre-populate segments and then check their size a few hours after doing so.
Ad Exchange Highlight
Query Tool
Bar charts are now available
In addition to line charts, bar charts are now available in the Ad Exchange Query Tool. You can use this charting option to provide a visualization of key data points in the Query Tool. Charts allow you to quickly gain a high-level understanding of your advertising performance, represent multiple data elements, and identify trends over time. A bar chart is used to perform comparisons through the use of parallel bars of varying lengths to show numerical values of variables. Learn more about charting in the Query Tool.
DFP Premium
Query Tool
Improvement to companion banner impression reporting
Previously, if you wanted to see delivery metrics for Companion banner ads, you needed to use the "Master or Companion creative" dimension. Now, whenever you use the "Creative Size" dimension in DFP reports, both master and companion ads are included with their respective metrics in reports. Learn more.
System limits
Ability to deactivate custom targeting keys and values
If you have custom targeting values that are no longer being used, you can deactivate them and they are no longer counted toward system limits. Deactivating values can also improve reporting performance on active custom targeting criteria.
Two additional limits with no expected impact
We’ve made the following additions to system limits:
- Active placements per network: 60,000
- Total line items per network: 600,000
Neither of these limits should adversely affect any publishers. However, if you feel your network needs an exception to either of the above, please contact your DoubleClick representative.
Coming soon...
Custom Ad Exchange sizes: Custom sizes expand Ad Exchange support for inventory and creative sizes beyond the previously supported set of “standard” sizes. With this feature, you’ll be able to send Ad Exchange ad requests for any size, and Ad Exchange buyers can bid with creatives of any size.
DFP native ads for apps: DFP will give publishers the tools to monetize their inventory with direct-sold native ads in apps. Native ads are a rapidly growing class of online ads that match the look, feel, and content of the publisher’s property. You’ll be able to use DFP to traffic your native ads with simplicity and the power to control the ad’s look and feel with custom rendering.
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DFP Query Tool--New Advertiser dimension attributes
New dimension attributes have been added to the DFP Query Tool: Advertiser credit status and Advertiser type. Credit status is the current credit state of the advertiser, which includes Active, On hold, Credit stop, Inactive, or Blocked. Learn more about credit approval statuses. Type is the classification of advertiser, which includes Advertiser, House advertiser, or Ad network. Learn about advertiser types.
DFP Premium
Reporting
Query Tool
- Default queries renamed
To provide more consistency within our products, "Default queries" have been renamed to "System queries," but the functionality has remained the same.
- Nielsen OCR renamed
To abide by changes made by Nielsen, we’ve changed the name of their OCR product to “Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings”. This change is reflected in the Reach report, under the Orders page, in line items, and under forecasting > check inventory page.
Data Transfer reports
Our Engineering Team has recently observed occasional increased Data Transfer processing time. Therefore, in order to more accurately reflect the timing of file delivery, we're updating documentation in our help center. Moving forward, the help center will state that processing and delivery of each file may take up to 15 hours, in contrast to the previously documented 10 hours.
This won’t impact the actual delivery times. Our Product and Engineering teams are constantly working on improving the delays you’ve been experiencing and they will continue to enhance this service for all of our clients.
Help center / Training
Useful information added to the DFP Premium Help Center landing page
We’ve added a carousel to the bottom of the DFP Premium Help Center landing page. With just one click, the carousel displays important and useful information, such as best practices for common problems. You can find the following articles:
- DFP Release Notes
- Link to Publisher University
- DFP network setup process
- Solutions to common problems
Training link added to the DFP Premium UI
A direct link to Publisher University can now be found in the DFP user interface, under the gear icon.
Ad Exchange
Query Tool
Advertiser verticals dimension added
Advertiser verticals dimension has been added to the Ad Exchange Query Tool. Advertiser verticals show performance by specific advertiser categories, for example, Arts & Entertainment and Travel & Tourism, which is useful to help understand performance across different advertiser segments. The categories displayed are identical to the ones that you can block. Learn more about dimensions in the Query Tool.
Help center / Training
Training link added to the Ad Exchange UI
A direct link to Publisher University can now be found in the Ad Exchange user interface, under the gear icon.
Coming soon...
Custom sizes: Custom sizes expand Ad Exchange support for inventory and creative sizes beyond the previously supported set of “standard” sizes. With this feature, you’ll be able to send Ad Exchange ad requests for any size, and Ad Exchange buyers can bid with creatives of any size.
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Audience: globally licensed segments
DFP now allows third-party data providers to offer their audience segments with global licenses to all DFP publishers using audience management. This means you can buy and use third-party segments seamlessly, without the need to negotiate and sign a direct license with each data provider. Learn more
Help center/training improvements
Getting Started with DFP Audience
A new video, DFP Audience: Introduction, has been added to the help center. This video provides an overview of how you can leverage your visitor data to better target and monetize your advertising.
New feature
Forecasting
- Forecasting of underdelivery: DFP now predicts when your line items will underdeliver and alerts you, giving you the opportunity to stop underdelivery before it happens. Underdelivery is a lost opportunity for your line item to meet its goals, and it’s primarily caused by insufficient inventory. With forecasting of underdelivery, you’ll know in advance which line items may not have enough inventory, and have the time to take action and give your line items a better chance to deliver. Learn more.
Updated features
Creatives
- Video creative sets and roadblocks: It's now easier to create and reuse video creative sets and roadblock ads.
- You can now create video creative sets by clicking “Creative sets” in the left-hand panel instead of via a standalone button. Learn more
- Video creative sets and roadblock ads are also now available for reuse when adding existing creatives. Learn more
- Finally, video creative sets and roadblocks are included in global search results.
Line items
- Click tracking line item type: The “Click-tracking only” line item type setting has been moved from the standalone “Advanced” menu to the “Type” drop-down within the line item workflow. Learn more
Updated feature
Query Tool
- To allow for easier search of Dimensions and Metrics on the Queries and Reports pages, you can now filter for dimensions and metrics in the DFP Query Tool. Learn more about how to create a query.
Updated features
Additional Query Tool changes
- When you perform search in filters, you can now enter a comma-separated list of IDs, for example, line items, orders or ad units. Learn about how to filter in the Query Tool.
- To provide a better overall user experience, the "Reports list" and "Queries list" pages have undergone some cosmetic changes, such as a cleaner look and new colors--but, the functionality has not been changed.
Creatives
- Unlink from creative templates: You can now unlink creative code from its template, allowing you to create a custom creative based on either a user-defined or system-defined template. Learn more
Q1 2015
March 30 Query Tool hierarchy display preference defaultUpdated feature
Query Tool changes
- To speed up report generation for reports that use the Ad unit dimension, under the hierarchy display preference, the "flat" view is now the default view.
Help center/training improvements
Getting Started with DFP Mobile
A new certification course, Getting Started with DFP Mobile, is now live in Publisher University. The course consists of seven video tutorials that provide publisher development teams and other technical users with the information needed to begin serving ads to mobile apps using DFP.
You can find the course in the Certification Courses section of the site, or as individual video tutorials in the Mix and Match section.
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Forecast queries for an Ad Exchange line item
DFP can now predict the number of queries that will be available for a DoubleClick Ad Exchange line item, how many of those queries the line item will fill, and the resulting revenue of those filled queries. These forecasting numbers will help you when deciding whether to create, modify, or remove DoubleClick Ad Exchange line items. Learn more.Updated features
Inventory management
- Block competing advertisers from serving together: Competitive advertiser exclusions give you additional control over ad serving for Ad Exchange ads, competing advertisers mapped between Ad Exchange and DFP, and unknown advertisers. Prevent certain advertisers from serving together on specific ad units or across your entire network. Learn more.
- Create out-of-page ad units: If you want your ad unit to serve creatives that don’t fit in a traditional banner space or browser window, select the new Out-of-page size. Out-of-page creatives may include pop-ups, floating line items, and interstitials. Line items with the out-of-page size will continue to target 1x1 ad units for backwards compatibility—no changes are required. Learn more.
Help center/training improvements
Getting Started with DFP Video
A new certification course, Getting Started with DFP Video, is now live in Publisher University. The course consists of six video tutorials that provide publisher development teams and other technical users with the information needed to begin serving ads to video content using DFP.
You can find the course in the Certification Courses section of the site, or as individual video tutorials in the Mix and Match section.
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Saved filters
You can now save filters for reuse, up to 25 for each of orders, line items, and creatives. Learn more
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Multiselect in pickers
You can now use standard multi-select functionality for a number of pickers in DFP. Pickers now have checkboxes next to their items and you can use Shift + click
to select a range of items. Multiselect is available in the inventory, device, connection and custom criteria targeting pickers, for labels, inventory sizes, and many other elements.
Updated features
API
- Release of DFP API v201502: This release includes a revamp of the
ForecastService
, including support for Delivery forecasts. There are also new video features including GRP settings on line items, GRP breakdowns in forecasts, and newVIDEO_VIEWERSHIP
report columns. In addition, Sales Manager gains three new services, andType
fields have been removed from all entities. Get all the details here
Targeting
- Target a line item to the latest iPhones: When targeting a line item to manufacturers and mobile devices, you can now individually target the latest iPhones: iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, and iPhone 6 Plus. This provides up-to-date options to help you direct line items to the right audience at the right time. Learn more.
Sunsetting Legacy DART Tags
DoubleClick for Publishers will stop serving ads to legacy DART tags after April 5, 2016. If you are currently using legacy DART tags, to ensure seamless ad serving on your site(s), you will need to re-tag using Google Publisher Tags (GPT) prior to this date.
Google Publisher Tags (GPT) offer the advantages of a five-level inventory hierarchy, reduced page-load timing, asynchronous ad serving, single-request architecture, responsive ad tags, and viewability support. Learn more
For more information on how you might be affected, contact your account manager.
Updated features
Audience
- View segment overlaps: You can now view the number of cookies and advertising IDs that overlap between two segments. For example, if you choose the segment “Gender: Male,” you’ll be able to see both the count and percentage of cookies and advertising IDs that are also contained in the segment “Car buyers.” Learn more
- Segment targeting improvements: A new way to target Audience segments in the DFP targeting picker, with the ability to browse and search by taxonomy and data provider. In addition, more information is displayed in a hover card once a segment is added to the picker.
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Check on the status of your DoubleClick product
Real-time status of many Doubleclick products is now available at ads.google.com/status. Learn more on the Help Center.Updated features
Forecasting
- Criteria type (free-form or predefined) for custom targeting no longer has an effect on forecasting: You can switch from one to the other anytime, and the change will be reflected in forecasts immediately. Learn more.
- Fresher forecasting numbers for custom targeting: When you check inventory for a prospective line item that includes custom targeting, you’ll now see complete forecasting numbers 28 days after the key-values have been added to ad tags on your website. After those 28 days, you can use the key-values in any forecasts without any other setup required. Learn more.
On February 2, we launched a feature that included high-priority non-guaranteed line items in forecasting numbers. However, based on publisher feedback and our own subsequent analysis, we decided to disable this feature on February 12.
We will continue to find ways to improve our forecasting numbers and make them more meaningful to you. Please keep an eye on future release notes for more forecasting features.
Video
- Report on video auto-plays: You can now report on "Auto-plays" for your video ads. To implement auto-play metrics in your player, set the
autoPlayAdBreaks
parameter for your HTML5 IMA SDK or Flash IMA SDK.
Updated feature
Creatives
- Use creative wrappers for mobile: Creative wrappers are now supported for mobile web and apps. Creative wrappers are snippets of code that wrap around a creative when it’s served. You can use them to serve third-party tracking software or other code that’s useful to you. Learn more.
Updated feature
Reporting
Query Tool
- To quickly see the attributes of a query (e.g., date range, dimension and metrics) from the Query overview page, mouse over a query name to display a detailed hover card.
- To save you time, you can now use the Run Now link to execute a query directly from the Query overview page without having to first load the query.
Q4 2014
December 8 Query Tool: Reach reportsNew feature
Reporting
- Reach reports: A hierarchical ad units view for Reach reports in Query Tool is now available! In Reach reports, when you filter for “Ad units”, you're able to report on all ad unit levels, not only the top-level view. You don’t have to add the “Ad units” dimension when you filter by ad units, but you can only use the "contains" operator for top-level ad units. Learn more about Query Tool filters.
Updated feature
GPT
- Render creatives using SafeFrame in GPT: SafeFrame is an IAB standard which provides API-enabled iframes that prevent external access to sensitive data, while still allowing transparent and rich interactions between page content and ads. You can now configure your creatives to use SafeFrame in GPT. Learn more
Updated feature
Video
- IMA HTML5 SDK now supports Internet Explorer 11: Our SDK is now compatible with the desktop versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer, as well as the mobile versions of Chrome, Safari, and the default Android browser. Learn more at the Ads Developer Blog.
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Updated feature
Import and export creative templates: You can now export creative templates, work on them offline, and then import them as new templates or updated user-defined templates. Learn more about importing and exporting creative templates.
New feature
Audience
- Audience notifications: Some changes to first-party and third-party audience segments now trigger notifications if a segment is set to expire, is inactive, or if its price has changed. Learn more
Updated features
Creatives
- Improvement to creative "Start time": When a creative is uploaded after a line item has started to serve, the creative's "Start time" is now considered the date and time on which it was uploaded. Previously, a creative's "Start time" always equalled that of the line item, even if the creative was uploaded after the line item started to serve.
API
- Release of DFP API v201411: This release supports creating and updating VideoRedirectCreatives, enhances cross-sell via the new SharedAdUnitService, and adds an experimental Targeting field to the Line_Item PQL table. Learn more
Advanced video
- Sort video content table by ingestion date: You can now sort the video content table by "Import date."
As you are aware, our DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) ad server experienced a global outage on Wednesday, November 12, 2014 from 5:45am to 7:31am PST. This was the first DFP outage of this significance for many years and we take it very seriously. Our team’s first priority was restoring service and making sure the immediate issue would not recur. We are writing now to explain what happened and what we are doing to protect against future incidents.
The details:
- The DFP ad server relies on an internal service that began degrading in performance. This caused a cascading failure on DFP ad servers, leading to the outage.
- We designed our systems to gracefully handle performance degradation from dependent services. However, due to a misconfiguration, we were unable to prevent the outage.
- To restore ad serving and prevent cascading failures, we restarted the services by provisioning additional resources.
- We reproduced the failure in a test by degrading the availability of the internal service, proving the misconfiguration caused the cascading failures. We have since rolled out a fix to the configuration globally.
- We are conducting a complete review of all our processes and production configurations to prevent this from happening again.
As always, our goal is to provide a best-in-class product and the unmatched global scale and reliability you’ve come to expect from Google and DoubleClick. We value your partnership deeply and apologize for the disruption this incident caused to your business.
Best,
Neal Mohan - VP, Display & Video Advertising
Scott Silver - VP, Engineering
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Batch editing
Select multiple line items within an order and make the same change across all of them: You can now select multiple line items at once and bulk edit their priority, labels, frequency caps, and custom fields.
Updated features
GPT
- Responsive ads in GPT: Responsive ads now allow you to suppress (not show) ads for certain browser sizes. For example, you can show 1 ad on a mobile browser and 3 on a desktop browser, or you can create an ad slot that's only shown on tablets. You can also control the position of ads on different devices by limiting which slots are available to which browsers. Learn more about building responsive ads.
New feature
Forecasting
-
See how manual adjustments affect your forecast: When you check the available inventory for a new line item (using the Check inventory button) or an existing line item (using the Delivery forecast tab), you can see how manual and historical adjustments affect the forecasting numbers. The window displays the number of matched impressions before adjustments are considered and then lists how many impressions were added or subtracted as a result of adjustments.
Updated features
Targeting picker
-
Target the latest Apple operating systems: You can now target new operating systems iOS 7.1 and 8.0. Learn more about targeting a line item to mobile devices.
Network administration
-
Suggestions for verifying advertisers: If you use Ad Exchange, you can add verified advertisers to your list of companies, create unified advertiser exclusions to block ads, and report on the revenue between DFP and Ad Exchange, broken down by advertiser. Now DFP will provide suggestions for existing DFP advertisers that might match a verified advertiser. Learn more about verifying advertisers
Q3 2014
September 29 Active View reporting for video / Export forecast results / Single-escaped video title macroHighlight
DFP Video
Active View reporting is now available for in-stream video ads for desktop and mobile web through the IMA 3 Flash and IMA 3 HTML5 SDKs. Reporting dimensions for Active View for video are consistent with those available for Active View for display. Learn more
New feature
Forecasting
-
Export forecast details: When you check the available inventory for a new line item (using the Check inventory button) or an existing line item (using the Delivery forecast tab), you can now export the forecasting details to an Excel spreadsheet. You can then share this spreadsheet with clients or use it internally to keep a record of your forecasts.
Updated feature
DFP Video
-
Video title macro is now single-escaped: The
%%VIDEO_TITLE%%
macro now expands to the single-escaped version of the video title, making it possible to safely pass along the title in a redirect URL. Learn more about video macros.
Updated features
Data transfer
-
Negative key value targeting: Custom targeting displays keys in the tag that matched line item targeting, which includes broad-matched keys, prefix-matched keys, or both. This field also displays keys which were negatively targeted by the line item in question.
Updated features
API access
-
Service accounts: You can now add a service account user directly to DFP in the "Admin" tab. These are special Google Accounts that can be used by applications to access DFP through the API. Learn more
Query Tool
-
Query Tool reports can now be exported to Google Drive. CSV file type can be exported to Google Drive via report exports or sharing reports generated by queries. This file is converted and appears as a Google spreadsheet in the Drive account of the user (owner) requesting the export. Learn more
Updated features
Creatives
-
Preview creative templates: You can now click Preview while creating or editing a creative template, making it easier to confirm that your template is set up correctly without having to traffic a test campaign. Learn more about creative templates
DFP Video
-
Multi-sized video companion ads: For Video (VAST) ad sizes, you can now enter multiple companion sizes for each master ad size.
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Unified advertiser blocking
You can now use DFP to block verified advertisers from selected inventory, including ads trafficked directly in DFP, ads that are delivered from Ad Exchange through dynamic allocation, and ads trafficked in DCM/DFA or a different DFP network. Learn more
You can also now choose whether to consider the impact of advertiser blocking and ad exclusions when checking available inventory. Learn more.
Updated features
Ad exclusions
-
Ad exclusions without tag modifications: When you need to block ads with an ad exclusion, it's often an emergency situation where you need to act quickly. To make that easier, DFP now lets you apply ad exclusions directly to your inventory, without modifying your ad tags. The old system of tag modifications still works, but the new ad exclusion workflow is simpler, easier, and handled completely within DFP. Learn more
Reports
-
Ad Exchange opportunity reports: We've improved Ad Exchange opportunity reports to provide you with even better data. The metrics have changed so that you can now see both filled and unfilled impressions competing. To see this new data, you'll need to create a new query with the "Historical" report type. You can still view old queries or create new ones with "Dynamic allocation opportunity" metrics under the "Business intelligence" report type, but we recommend that you create new queries to get the best data. Learn more
-
comScore vCE in DoubleClick (Beta): You can now measure the reach and frequency of display and video ads across a number of demographic segments. For its initial release, comScore vCE reports only supports U.S. demographic data on desktop devices, and is only available to U.S. publishers. Learn more
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Notifications about shared reports: When you try to disable a user who has shared scheduled reports with other users, you'll now see a warning that the scheduled reports will no longer be delivered. If you then go ahead and disable the user, DFP will send an email to the other users to let them know which scheduled reports will no longer be delivered.
DFP Video
-
VAST 3: The third version of the IAB’s video ad serving template represents the latest video ad serving standards. VAST 3 contains a multitude enhancements, including standardized support for multiple ads in a single VAST response, granular VAST 3 error codes, enhanced support for adaptive bitrate creatives, and many others. Learn more
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Track app installs in DFP
You can now track app installs in DFP conversion reporting. With the Conversion Tracking SDK, you or your advertisers can include a small snippet of code in apps that pings DFP upon the app’s first launch. If a user has recently viewed and/or clicked one of that advertiser’s ads in a DFP publisher’s app, DFP will count that as an app install conversion. Learn more about incorporating the SDK in the developer documentation.
Updated features
Workflow improvements
-
Inventory tab navigation: To make the Inventory tab easier to navigate, we've improved the left-hand navigation panel. Click on a heading in the navigation panel to see a list of related pages.
Audience
-
Audience pixels in apps: You can now use audience pixels in apps to build first party segments. Before this release, you could only build first party segments in apps by serving ads to ad units. Learn more.
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Conversions
Cost per action (CPA) line items: You can now create line items with a pricing model that is based on actions, also known as conversions. Learn more
Updated feature
Reporting
-
Code served metrics: Code served metrics can now be used in combination with campaign-related dimensions such as line items and and creatives. Data is available from June 26. We recommend that you begin with July, as this is the first full month of data. Learn more
API
-
DFP API v201408: The new version of the DFP API, v201408, will be available on August 19, 2014. This release features the addition of a new table to the Publisher Query Language service, some changes to the LineItem.Goal object, enhancements to Sales Manager services, and changes to server endpoint and scope URLs. Learn more
Updated features
Targeting
-
New OS, browser, and device targeting: You can now target line items to the following operating systems, browsers, and devices:
Operating systems
- Playstation4
- Xbox 360
- Xbox One
- Wii U
Browsers
- Firefox (27.x)
- Firefox (28.x)
- Firefox (29.x)
- Firefox (30.x)
- Firefox (31.x)
Devices
- Galaxy S5 (SM-G900A)
- Galaxy S5 (SM-G900F)
- Galaxy S5 (SM-G900L)
- Galaxy S5 (SM-G900P)
- Galaxy S5 (SM-G900V)
- URBANO PROGRESSO KYY04 for KDDI (KYY04)
- Optimus it L-05D for DoCoMo (L-05D)
- ELUGA V P-06D for DoCoMo (P-06D)
- ELUGA power P-07D for DoCoMo (P-07D)
- Galaxy SIII LTE (SC-06D)
- Xperia GX SO-04D for DoCoMo (SO-04D)
- Galaxy Note II International (GT-N7100)
- Galaxy Note II USA (SGH-I317)
- Galaxy Note 10.1 (GT-N8000)
- Galaxy Note 3 (SM-N900T)
- Nexus 4
- LG NX550
Audience
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Segment re-approval grace period: Until now, if a third party changed the price for an audience segment, the segment was immediately deactivated pending approval of the new price. Starting today, you'll have a 30-day grace period during which the segment will stay active at the old price. As soon as you re-approve the segment, the new price will take effect. Learn more
Workflow improvement
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Switch to Ad Exchange account: You can now easily switch from DFP to your Ad Exchange account. In the upper right of the UI, click on your username and then select your Ad Exchange account.
New feature
Audience
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Audience explorer: If you're using DFP Audience, the new audience explorer module gives you insight into how much network traffic you receive from various segments, as well as the cost of each segment. This information can help you to decide which segments to target, how best to sell particular audiences to advertisers, and how much you should charge. Learn more
Updated feature
Workflow improvements
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Select multiple items: Throughout DFP, you'll find various fields where it's now easier to add multiple items. When you click into a text box and start typing, you'll see a list of suggestions, along with checkboxes. Click multiple checkboxes to select multiple items.
New feature
DFP Video
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Google Media Framework: This open source video player framework makes online video and video monetization with the IMA SDK easier than ever. The Google Media Framework (GMF) is available for iOS and Android, and we have a Video.js plugin for web based video players. Visit the Ads Developer Blog to learn more.
Updated feature
Browser support
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Internet Explorer support: Starting today, DFP supports only versions 10 and 11 of Microsoft Internet Explorer. Earlier versions are no longer supported, and you'll get a notification if you're using an unsupported version.
Updated features
Workflow improvements
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Change history redesign: The change history has been redesigned to make it easier for you to find the information you need. Columns provide a clearer organization for change history information.
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Geo-targeting: We've added neighborhoods to geo-targeting for major cities, such as New York City. We've also added new targetable cities, universities, regions, and postal codes.
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Active View metrics
Active View is a feature in DFP that tracks the viewability of ads served via Google Publisher Tags (GPT). Viewability helps determine how likely it is that an ad was actually seen by a user. Two important factors are (a) what portion of an ad appears in a viewable space on screen and (b) how long that portion of the ad remains visible. Measuring viewability helps publishers and advertisers assess the value of an impression. Learn more
New features
Admin
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Custom fields: Use custom fields to organize objects in reports, add comments, and for other workflow purposes. You create them from the Admin tab, and they can be applied at the line item, creative, or order level. Learn more.
Google Publisher Tags (GPT)
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GPT's new API method lets you control the creation of a new correlator ID for ad requests, which effectively allows you to define the start of a new page for dynamic websites. Visit the developers site to learn more.
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Data protection report
The new data protection report shows who is cookieing ads on your site broken down by advertiser, order, line item and creative. It also details the specific technology vendor from which the cookie originates. Learn more.
New feature
Publisher University
Everything you need to know about product training, including access to online trainings and details about which trainings are right for you, can be found at the Publisher University. As your one-stop training destination for all publisher-facing products, the materials have been designed to suit a variety of roles and skill levels. Whether you’re starting out as a trafficker or you’re a seasoned manager, there’s a learning path suited to your needs. Visit g.co/PublisherU to kick-start your training and learn more about what's offered.
Updated features
Workflow improvements
-
Persistent system messages: When DFP shows you an error message or a system alert, you no longer have to worry about it disappearing. The message will stay in place until you click Dismiss.
DFP Video
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New double-escaped video description and video referrer macros
- Use
%%DESCRIPTION_URL_ESC_ESC%%
(double-escaped) when the macro is inside a URL, and use%%DESCRIPTION_URL_UNESC%%
(unescaped) in other contexts. In redirect ad tags, expands to the description URL parameter from the original GPT ad tag's description_url query parameter. -
Use
%%REFERRER_URL_ESC_ESC%%
(double-escaped) when the macro is inside a URL, and use%%REFERRER_URL_UNESC%%
(unescaped) in other contexts. This macro expands to the referrer URL (the URL of the page where the video player is located) in redirect ad tags. It does so in the following manner: DFP parses the ad tag's URL query parameter, isolates the referrer URL, and replaces the macro text with that URL.
- Use
DFP visual redesign
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Cosmetic improvements: You've probably noticed that DFP looks different lately. We've rolled out a new look and feel to make DFP more consistent with the rest of your Google products. Over the next several weeks, you may notice additional small changes as we complete the visual transition. These changes won't affect functionality. All of your features and workflows will stay the same.
Help Center improvement
Improved DFP apps documentation
Did you know you can also use DFP for apps? Learn more.
Q2 2014
June 30 Better audience pixel creation / Cosmetic improvements / Geo-targetingUpdated features
Audience
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Better audience pixel creation: You can now create an audience pixel on the page where you define it, making the workflow easier. Learn more
DFP visual redesign
-
Cosmetic improvements: You've probably noticed that DFP looks different lately. We've rolled out a new look and feel to make DFP more consistent with the rest of your Google products. Over the next several weeks, you may notice additional small changes as we complete the visual transition. These changes won't affect functionality. All of your features and workflows will stay the same.
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DFP visual redesign
DFP is rolling out a new look and feel. It's part of an ongoing redesign of Google products, including Search, Gmail, and AdWords. With the new design, DFP is more consistent with the rest of your Google products. Functionality hasn't changed. All of your features and workflows will stay the same.
New features
Reporting
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Full release of future sell-through reports: Future sell-through reports predict the availability of impressions for your network and help you manage your inventory and forecast availability. Use these reports to:
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Help direct sales efforts, to see what is and isn’t sold.
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View a breakdown by line item if you want to know how many impressions some line items are predicted to receive.
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Show your partners how much inventory they will have reserved or available.
-
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Export line item data to spreadsheets: You can now export data about a filtered list of line items, or all of the line items in an order, to spreadsheets. Learn more
Updated features
Reporting
-
Capturing unattributed impressions: Sometimes DFP records an impression for your network, but can't attribute it to a particular ad unit. For example, if you have a suggested ad unit at the top level that isn't yet approved, DFP can't attribute those impressions to any particular parent ad unit. Now, when you run a query on the ad unit dimension, these unattributed impressions will be listed under a "Default" ad unit. Impression totals for ad unit queries will match impression totals without the dimension.
Help center improvements
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Troubleshooting: We've released a new troubleshooting section that will help you quickly find the tools and answers you need when you need to solve a problem.
New feature
Audience
Batch upload Apple IDFAs: You can now batch upload Apple Identifiers for Advertising (IDFAs) to audience segments. Learn more
Updated features
Workflow improvements
Choose the default tab in line items: When you open a line item, the "Settings" tab is displayed by default. Now you can change that default to the "Creatives" tab if that's more convenient for you. Click on your username at the top of the page in DFP, then click User settings. On the user settings page, you can choose the line item default tab from a dropdown list, and that's the tab that will be displayed first when you click into a line item. If you're an admin, you can also change this setting for other users.
Better delivery diagnostics: When you run the Google Publisher Console and visit the "Delivery diagnostics" page, DFP now shows the IP address and geographic location of the browser where the line item under review was served. Learn more
DFP API
New DFP API release: We've launched v201405 of the DFP API. This release brings better OAuth2 standards, consolidates line item goal information, and adds a lot more report fields. Learn more
Help center improvements
Better getting started: We've updated and simplified the Getting started section of the help center to ensure that it's focused on the information you need to get new users up and running quickly on DFP.
Pre-release announcement: DFP visual redesign
-
On June 23, 2014, DFP will have a new look and feel. It's part of an ongoing redesign of Google products, including Search, Gmail, and AdWords. With the new design, DFP will be more consistent with the rest of your Google products. Functionality won't change. All of your features and workflows will stay the same.
Updated features
Query tool
- Include or exclude child ad units: When you filter a query by ad units, you can choose whether to include data for child ad units. If you do, the metric values for ad units will include totals from any child ad units, as well as the selected ad units. If this option is not selected, the metric values will show data only for the selected ad units, not child ad units. Learn more about query tool filters
Audience segments
- Check competition against segments: When you run the Google Publisher Console and visit the "Delivery diagnostics" page, you can now include audience segments in the adjustable targeting criteria when you rerun competition. Learn more
Google Publisher Tag (GPT)
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Updated GPT API reference guide: The Google Publisher Tag (GPT) API reference guide is now hosted on the Google Developers site. References have been updated, making it easier for developers to work effectively with Google Publisher Tags.
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Mobile app targeting and reporting
You can now specifically target and report on mobile apps in DFP. This feature is particularly useful for publishers that use the same ad units for their mobile web and mobile app inventory but want to traffic different campaigns to apps and the web, and also want to see app-specific data in reports.
Targeting: From the line item’s settings in the DFP UI, go to the Add targeting section. Select Devices > Device capability > Mobile Apps, and then click Include.
Reporting: In reports, app traffic is broken down in the targeting dimension, under DeviceCapability=serves on apps.
New feature
Workflow improvement
-
Select columns: On tables throughout DFP, you can click Select columns to choose which columns to show or hide, making it easier to see the information you need, and to hide the stuff you don't need to see.
Updated feature
Audience
-
Assign categories to segments: Categories allow you to organize and filter your audience segments. You can assign up to 5 categories from a list of audience segment categories. Learn more
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Better design for inventory targeting
We've made it easier for you to include and exclude inventory from line item targeting. Previously, you could only exclude inventory that was already included in a targeted placement or parent ad unit. To make trafficking easier, we've removed that limitation. You can now mark any inventory unit as excluded from a line item. The look and feel of inventory targeting has also been updated. Learn more about inventory targeting.
New features
Line items
-
Make multiple copies of line items: You can select one or more line items, choose More actions > Copy to, and choose how many copies you want to make of each line item. You can make up to 60 new line items at once. Learn more
Query Tool
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See the third-party vendor in the Query Tool: You can now add Third-party vendor as a dimension attribute for creatives. The attribute shows the third-party vendor detected from the ad tag trafficked in the "Code snippet" field. If the code snippet is not recognized by DoubleClick, this value will be "Unknown vendor". See a full list of dimension attributes.
Updated feature
Reporting
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The DSM Unified Revenue Report (URR) now uses 28 days of historical data: These reports now use a sample of the last 28 days (they previously used only 7 days of data). This means the numbers will more closely match the DFP inventory forecasts and future sell-through reports.
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Sticky table searches, filters and paging
When you're looking at a list in DFP, you often need to search, filter or scroll through to a particular page. But when you click on an item, then go back to the list, your search, filters and paging are gone.
We've fixed that. Now, when you go back in your browser, DFP will remember your table searches, your filters. You can even bookmark a particular search, filter and paging setup — all of the information is stored in the URL, so you can always find your way back, and you can share your deep links with others as well.
Today we're rolling out these improvements for standalone lists of orders, line items, creatives, creative sets, and creative templates. In the coming weeks, we plan to roll them out for lists of line items within orders and creatives within line items, as well as for audience segments and segment approvals.
Updated features
Workflow improvements
-
Archived entities removed from search: To make search results more relevant, archived orders, line items, ad units, and placements are no longer included in general searches. You can choose to view archived items by using the left-hand navigation panel. For orders and line items, you can also use filters in the table that lists them.
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Sort orders by impressions and clicks: Click on the Impressions or Clicks column heading to sort orders.
New features
Editable ad unit names
Until now, once you set the name of an ad unit, you couldn't change it because it was used in the ad tags. There were also a lot of restrictions on which characters you could use in the name (no spaces!) because it needed to meet the requirements of an HTML tag.
Today, DFP is separating the ad unit name from the ad unit code.
-
The ad unit name is an editable field that can include spaces and special characters. It's used in targeting and reports. You can change it at any time, even after you've saved the ad unit.
-
The ad unit code is what's used in DFP ad tags. It has limitations on special characters, can't contain spaces, and can't be changed once you've saved the ad unit.
For existing ad units, the ad unit code will be the same as the current ad unit name. You don't have to make any changes or updates, but the ad unit name is now editable. Changing the ad unit name won't affect your tags or ad serving.
Learn more about creating ad units, including rules for ad unit codes and ad unit names
AdMob line items
- The new AdMob line item type allows AdMob to compete for mobile app inventory via dynamic allocation, potentially improving your monetization. (This feature is only enabled for publishers that are serving AdMob campaigns.)
Administration
-
Verified advertisers: You can now edit and associate verified advertisers from the "Companies" table in the Admin tab. Learn more
Updated features
Workflow improvements
-
Bulk upload creatives in zip files: You can now directly upload zip files to DFP as a way to add new creatives in bulk. Learn more
-
Comma-separated inventory search: When you're targeting inventory in a line item, you can now enter more than one inventory unit in the search box, separated by commas, making it easier to select exactly the inventory you need.
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Automatically refresh ads on a mobile app
The new refresh rate setting allows you to have ad units on mobile apps automatically refresh at a specified interval. In other words, the app user will see a new ad every 30-120 seconds. This is useful for apps where users stay on one screen for long periods of time — such as games — to allow you to maximize ad revenue. Learn more
New feature
Inventory
-
DFP Audience segment sharing: You can now share your DFP Audience segments with Ad Exchange by linking your Ad Exchange account to DFP. Learn more
Updated feature
Smarter breadcrumbs: When you click on an advertiser name in the breadcrumbs, you are now taken to the Orders page, filtered to show orders that belong to that advertiser.
Notification
The change to editable ad unit names, announced on April 21, 2014, is not currently enabled. It will be available on May 12, 2014.
New feature
Advanced video
- Session ad rules: You can now define when pre-roll ads show on a section of your site. Unlike standard ad rules, session ad rules are frequency-based and apply across multiple video streams. They control how long a visitor can watch content across streams before an ad shows, and how many ads that visitor sees. Learn more
Updated feature
Forecasting
- Improved forecasting numbers when the historical data contains large user sessions: When you run a forecast to predict the future inventory of a line item, DFP uses a sample of the last 28 days of your network’s impression activity as a basis to model future traffic patterns. When that sample includes large user sessions with many impressions, we’ve significantly improved the variance for forecasting of line items. In other words, the forecasting numbers are now much more consistent, with fewer unrealistic highs and lows.
Notification
The change to editable ad unit names, announced on April 21, 2014, is not currently enabled. It will be available on May 12, 2014.
Highlight
Editable ad unit names
Until now, once you set the name of an ad unit, you couldn't change it because it was used in the ad tags. There were also a lot of restrictions on which characters you could use in the name (no spaces!) because it needed to meet the requirements of an HTML tag.
Today, DFP is separating the ad unit name from the ad unit code.
-
The ad unit name is an editable field that can include spaces and special characters. It's used in targeting and reports. You can change it at any time, even after you've saved the ad unit.
-
The ad unit code is what's used in DFP ad tags. It has limitations on special characters, can't contain spaces, and can't be changed once you've saved the ad unit.
For existing ad units, the ad unit code will be the same as the current ad unit name. You don't have to make any changes or updates, but the ad unit name is now editable. Changing the ad unit name won't affect your tags or ad serving.
Learn more about creating ad units, including rules for ad unit codes and ad unit names
New features
Reporting
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Device category dimension (query tool functionality): You can now distinguish between mobile and web inventory in query tool reports by including the "Device category" dimension. This dimension can also be used to filter your reports. Learn more
-
Query tool released to all publishers: Premium publishers using the legacy Reports tab will now be upgraded to query tool functionality. Learn more about reporting with the query tool in our Introduction to query tool functionality.
Updated features
DFP Video
- HTTPS support for DFP-hosted assets: You can now provide full SSL compliance on your pages while using DFP's hosting and transcoding. Learn more about DFP-hosted linear creatives.
New features
Trafficking
-
Auto-name creatives You can now set up a default format so that new creatives will be automatically named. It can include information about the creative, such as the size, the advertiser name, the creative type, and so on.When you add a new creative to DFP, the default creative name format is applied. You then have the option of changing the name manually. Learn more
-
Creative SSL compatibility When you serve creatives to secure pages which use SSL — typically pages whose URLs begin with
https://
— it's important to be sure that the creatives are compatible with the pages' security settings. If you use a creative type that can include content hosted on a third-party server, such as custom, third-party, or DoubleClick tag creatives, DFP now checks the creative for SSL compatibility. Learn more
Updated features
Creatives
-
Improved workflow for dynamic allocation creatives: You no longer need to specify size parameters for dynamic allocation creatives in snippets. That information is automatically pulled from the line item and creatives. Learn more about Ad Exchange and AdSense line items
Updated feature
Forecasting
Improved consistency across forecasts that cover the same date range: When you run a forecast to predict the future inventory of a line item, the numbers of a forecast with a larger target date range will now more closely match the sum of multiple, smaller forecasts that cover the same date range. For example:
- Run a forecast from April 1-14.
- Then run 14 forecasts — one for each day from April 1-14 — and add the forecasting numbers.
The sum of the 14 smaller forecasts will now match the bigger forecast much more closely than in the past. Learn more about how this works and why the numbers may not exactly match.
Improved accuracy of manual forecast adjustments: We’ve greatly reduced the number of forecasting errors as a result of manual forecast adjustments. In particular, DFP now updates the number of matched impressions more accurately when you add non-overlapping manual forecast adjustments.
Q1 2014
March 31 Future sell-through reports now use 28 days of historical dataUpdated feature
Reporting
Future sell-through reports now use 28 days of historical data: Future sell-through reports (currently in beta) now use a sample of the last 28 days of your network’s impression activity to determine future projections. This means the numbers will match inventory forecasts much more closely (future sell-through reports previously used only 7 days of data).
In addition, we’ve improved the freshness of booked line item data in future sell-through reports. It’s now updated twice a day instead of just once.
New features
Orders
-
Archived orders: To ensure that you can find your active orders easily, DFP will now automatically archive orders that haven't delivered any impressions for the last 365 days, if your network has more than 5,000 orders total. Active and pending orders won't be affected. You can always view and reactivate archived orders if you need them. Learn more
Reporting
-
Report on unfilled impressions by ad request size (query tool functionality): To provide you with more insight into your unfilled inventory, you can now pull a report showing where unfilled impressions are serving, by ad request size. Learn more
Advanced video
-
Content bundles: You can now group videos into targetable content bundles that you assemble based on filters or by selecting individual videos, or both. Bundles are automatically updated as new metadata that matches their criteria is ingested. Learn more
New features
Account administration
-
Access billing information: Users with a system defined admin role can now access the "Billing" tab in DFP. This tab allows you to view and download your invoices, change invoice settings, and view transaction history. Learn more
Tagging
-
Google Publisher Tag (GPT) event listeners: You can now use the Google Publisher Tags (GPT) API to register an event listener notifying you when an ad slot finishes rendering. This can be used to obtain details of the ad delivered, such as if the slot was unfilled, size of the ad, creative ID and line item ID. Learn more
Creatives
-
Flash click tracking: You can now override the clickTAG in Flash files, ensuring that your Flash creatives click through to the right place and that DFP can track clicks even if the Flash clickTAG is missing or set up incorrectly. Learn more
Reporting
-
SDK mediation metrics (query tool functionality): You can now report on impressions and clicks for networks that use SDK mediation. These metrics will help you understand the performance of your ad network partners. Learn more
Updated feature
Line items
-
Line items now open to the Settings tab by default: Previously, when you navigated to a line item, it would default to the Creatives tab. Most publishers look to update their settings first, and this improvement saves them a click.
New features
Monitor delivery
-
Enhanced dynamic allocation: We are changing the way DFP interacts with Ad Exchange and AdSense. Called “enhanced dynamic allocation,” our ad servers now optimize the distribution of Ad Exchange and AdSense impressions throughout goal-based line item delivery, without compromising reservation goals. Prior to enhanced dynamic allocation, DFP did not make a bid request to Ad Exchange or AdSense before delivering a goal-based line item, missing out on potential revenue. Learn more
Trafficking and targeting
-
Targeting presets: Instead of reentering the same set of criteria again and again, you can save time, minimize errors, and keep your campaigns consistent by saving targeting criteria to a preset. Learn more
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Secondary currencies: You can set up secondary currencies to make it easier to enter line item pricing information. This can be useful if you sell inventory in more than one currency. You can set the currency for the line item when you're creating it; once the line item has been saved, you can't change the currency later. Learn more
User role administration
-
"Invite contacts" permission: A new permission has been added to roles: "Invite contacts." Previously, in order to invite a contact, a user needed the "Edit users, roles and teams" permission plus the "Edit contacts" permission. Now, the "Invite contacts" permission has been separated from "Edit users, roles and teams," giving you more granular control over what users can do.
There will be no change in what existing users and roles can actually do. If you could invite contacts before, you still can; if you couldn't, you still can't. That also goes for any new users you add to your existing roles, unless you make changes those roles. If you don't have any concerns about how your users have been inviting contacts (or not inviting them), then there's nothing you need to do. However, if you've wanted to control which of your users and roles can invite contacts, now you can. Learn more about roles and permissions
Reporting
-
Run default queries (query tool functionality): You can now use default queries as templates for commonly used reporting configurations. These templates allow you to easily set up reporting queries and adapt to your own needs. Learn more
New feature
Google Publisher Toolbar
-
View ads on this page: The "Ads on this page" section, added to the Account Overview popup, provides a summary of all Google ads. Scroll to a specific ad by clicking on the bullseye icon or open an "Ad Details" window directly from the popup. Learn more / Get the Toolbar
New features
Line items
-
Prevent automatic line item activation: To make it easy to traffic line items, DFP automatically activates them once you've added a creative of each specified size. However, if you want more precise control of when line items become active, you can require that all line items be activated manually. Learn more
Help center improvement
Testing recommendations: Check out new recommendations on how to test your network and sites as you're rolling out a new network, site, or campaign.
New features
DFP Video
-
DFP now supports the
%%DESCRIPTION_URL%%
and%%REFERRER_URL%%
macros to pass these parameters from the DFP ad tag to third-party ad networks. Google Publisher Tags are required for this feature. Learn more -
"Skippable video skip time" can now be customized at the network level rather than hard-coded to 5 seconds. This customization requires the use of VAST 3. Ask your account manager for details.
Mobile
-
Creative orientation lock - For creatives that can serve in mobile applications, you have the option to lock the creative’s orientation to ensure images are not cropped when a device is rotated. This is particularly useful for interstitials that need to be displayed in portrait format even when the device is rotated to landscape (or vice versa). Learn more
Help center improvement
The DoubleClick for Publishers help center has a new look. With this new design, we've reformatted our content to help you resolve your questions quickly and achieve your goals efficiently.
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Play Services SDK for DFP and Ad Exchange launches
The Play Services SDK with support for DFP and Ad Exchange brings a couple of benefits to DFP Publishers:
- Android Ad ID - a privacy-safe, resettable identifier for advertising that has the potential to improve monetization on dynamic allocation via Ad Exchange and AdMob.
- Automatic updates - all apps on devices with the Google Play Store will always have the latest version of the SDK by virtue of being part of Play Services.
New or updated apps submitted to the Play Store must upgrade to this new SDK by August 1, 2014. Ad serving to existing apps will not be affected. Minor code changes are necessary to take advantage of the new SDK. Visit the Play Services Migration Guide for more information.
New features
Trafficking
-
Line item defaults: Specify default settings for line items. When someone creates new line items in your network, they'll start out with the default settings you set. Learn more
Reporting
-
Data transfer files now include a unique identifier for events, out-of-page (interstitial) detection, and device category.
DFP Video
-
Template pods: You can now create standard pods with ads of different durations. (Previously all ads in a standard pod had to have the same duration.) Learn more
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DFP video now supports VAST 3 and VMAP in beta, including the IMA SDK. Specifically, if you’re on IMA 3, you don’t need to make any SDK changes. Ask your account manager for details on how to join this beta.
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Query Tool now includes dynamic allocation in conversions and video error rates.
Help center improvement
Inventory forecasting FAQs
This new article answers some of the most common questions about inventory forecasting, including questions about data differences.