18 September 2009 | Author: D. Warburton Search Copywriter

Google launches DoubleClick Ad Exchange

Google has announced its ad exchange to break into the graphical display ad field dominated by Yahoo!

The New York Times compares Google's DoubleClick Ad Exchange to a stock market, which aims to simplify the buying and selling of display ads, offering benefits to publishers and advertisers. Google's vice president for product management, Neal Mohan explains: "The objective from the outset is to grow the display advertising pie for everybody."

Display advertising has long been cited as one of Google's greatest prospects for expansion by chief executive Eric E. Schmidt, particularly with the declining business of the company's traditional text ads. But purchasing ad company DoubleClick last year for $3.1 billion was the first step in launching a competitive new ad exchange to rival the dominance of Yahoo!

Yahoo! secured its leading position when it bought pioneering ad exchange RightMedia in 2007, but analysts predict that Google's acquisition of the more established DoubleClick could see Yahoo! facing tough competition, particularly as the new systems allows advertisers and publishers currently operating Google's AdWords and AdSense to run their ads through revamped new exchange.

Analyst William Morrison of ThinkEquity Partners predicts that Google's DoubleClick Ad Exchange will not overtake Yahoo! within the next year, but could become the industry leader in the long term. The DoubleClick Ad Exchange is also expected to offer greater flexibility to advertisers, as ads are able to be targeted more directly at certain types of customer.

By offering a fast and easy method for thousands of publishers to launch display ads, especially premium brand marketers, Mr Morrison predicts: "Marketers are going to be able to effectively reach 100 percent of the Internet audience and do so at a high frequency.

"That is very difficult to do on the Internet right now, outside of a handful of major Web sites like Yahoo! and a few others."

According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, display ads accounted for approximately one third of all interesting advertising last year, generating $7.6 billion in 2008.