Google Ad Manager

Google Ad Manager is an advertising management platform for publishers, covering ad formats, video, yield management, data and insights and brand safety, with partner solutions for apps, television and broadcast, commerce, news and publishing and small business.

Serving both directly sold and programmatic demand from one place is what an ad server is actually for, and it is the reason publishers use this rather than a simple advertising network. A publisher sells some inventory directly at a good rate and needs everything unsold filled automatically, and yield management is the machinery that decides which demand wins each impression.

Requiring an AdSense account for smaller publishers is the gating detail worth knowing before starting, since Ad Manager qualifies applicants by monthly pageviews and routes those below the threshold to AdSense first, which is a materially different product with far less control.

Brand safety as a first-class capability reflects the risk publishers actually carry, because an advertisement placed beside inappropriate content damages the publisher's relationship with the advertiser rather than the network's, and controlling what may appear is therefore the publisher's problem to solve. Ad Manager is offered at no listed platform fee, with revenue share applying to programmatic demand.