{"id":8816,"date":"2014-10-16T08:12:11","date_gmt":"2014-10-16T07:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/okodigital.wpengine.com\/?p=270"},"modified":"2014-10-16T08:12:11","modified_gmt":"2014-10-16T07:12:11","slug":"should-i-use-dfp-adsense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cool.co\/supply-side-platform-home\/should-i-use-dfp-adsense\/","title":{"rendered":"Should I use Google Ad Manager with AdSense?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whilst AdSense is Google’s best known website monetization product, many larger publishers will use Google Ad Manager. Google Ad Manager is a hosted ad server that manages your ad inventory and orders and helps you maximise your earnings. The standard version is free for up to 90 million impressions per month, and there is a premium version, known as Google Ad Manager 360<\/a>, for larger publishers with more than 90 million monthly impressions.<\/p>\n

This post was updated in September 2019.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What is an ad server?<\/h2>\n

An ad server simply sits between the user and your ad inventory and serves the \u201cbest\u201d ad for each impression based on the rules that you give it.\u00a0 A simple example would be if you wanted to serve AdSense to most of your users, but a different network to users in a particular country.\u00a0 Once ad server tags are in place, you can set rules easily from the dashboard without editing code.<\/p>\n

What ad servers are not<\/h2>\n

Ad servers need ads to serve, they do not pay you for impressions directly.\u00a0 That means you can use Google Ad Manager with AdSense, but it doesn\u2019t replace AdSense unless you are planning to sell all your ad inventory elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Why use an ad server?<\/h2>\n

The most common reason to use an ad server is to serve ads from multiple sources.\u00a0 If you work with more than one network, or if you sell some advertising directly, an Ad Server gives you an efficient way to manage that inventory and maximise your yield (the total amount you earn across all sources).<\/p>\n

There are other reason though. You can also use an ad server to manage your house advertising and direct people to more profitable parts of your website in smarter ways.\u00a0 We work with a number of sites using Google Ad Manager to determine when not to serve ads as part of their policy compliance efforts.<\/p>\n

Why use Google Ad Manager?<\/h2>\n

Google Ad Manager is one of a small number of great, free ad servers available.\u00a0 Unlike its rivals, Google Ad Manager has a trick up its sleeve that offers a big advantage to AdSense publishers.\u00a0 Google Ad Manager is an integral part of the Google Advertising eco-system and works in unison with AdSense.\u00a0 That unison includes having access to the results of the real-time auction that happens for every AdSense advert that you serve.<\/p>\n

In real terms that means smarter ad serving.\u00a0 If you have a fixed price advert and AdSense both competing for the same impression, the highest paying one will always win. Done well this can even push up AdSense CPCs as advertisers are forced to pay closer to their maximum in order to get their ad seen.<\/p>\n

Should I use it?<\/h2>\n

Just adding Google Ad Manager to an all AdSense set up will, by itself, probably not bring any benefit. If, however, you can answer \u201cyes\u201d to any of the following then it is probably worth looking at more closely:<\/p>\n