Q4 2015
December 14 Creative-level targetingHighlight
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 Small Business
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.
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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 Small Business
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.
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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 Small Business
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.
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
Reporting
DFP reports have undergone changes in 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. Any new reports generated reflect these values. The changes went into effect on October 1st.
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 has being adjusted. For example,
iphone3,3_from_applewill becomeiphone3,3_from_Apple - For the
OperatingSystemVersionkey, some values were prefixed withEqualTo. These prefixes have been dropped. - For the
OperatingSystemVersionkey, "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" changes to "Phone calls"
- "
We’ve made these changes to standardize values across our Query Tool and API services. Please prepare any of your services that depend on these values.
Q3 2015
September 21 DFP terminology changesHighlight
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."
DFP Small Business
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.
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.
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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 native ads with simplicity.
- Control the ad’s look and feel with custom rendering.
DFP Small Business
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
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Delivery Diagnostics
We've recently made enhancements to our Delivery Diagnostics tool, including:
- Improved diagnostic accuracy
- Enhanced capabilities for delivery involving DFP Audience
- Overall performance improvements & support for SSL ad requests
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 Small Business
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.
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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. This feature will be automatically enabled for all Small Business publishers over the course of the next week. Learn more
DFP Small Business
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.
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."
Coming soon...
First Look for Contributor
First Look for Contributor will extend Contributor users’ eligible inventory to include all impressions for your network, including reservation and sponsorship inventory. Learn more about Contributor.
If you use Ad Exchange, visit the Ad Exchange Release Notes to learn about the latest feature releases.
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Reporting
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). To activate this feature, contact your Google Analytics Premium representative.
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
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 Coming soon: Improved companion ad reporting / native ads for apps / Analytics integrationComing 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.
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). To activate this feature, contact your Google Analytics Premium representative.
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.
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 these limits should adversely affect any publishers.
Feature deprecation
The "Offer this placement to advertisers through AdWords” feature has been deprecated, as it is rarely used.
Help center improvements
Useful information added to the DFP Small Business Help Center landing page
We’ve added a carousel to the bottom of the DFP Small Business Help Center landing page. With just one click, the carousel displays important and useful information, such as policies and troubleshooting advice. You can find the following articles:
Coming soon...
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.
Policy Dashboard: Now publishers using Ad Exchange will be able to view certain policy violations associated with their linked Ad Exchange accounts and appeal them directly on the “Policy violations” page on the Admin tab in DFP. This new process is self-service and should result in a faster turnaround time for appeals, along with greater transparency.
If you use Ad Exchange, visit the Ad Exchange Release Notes to learn about the latest feature releases.
Reporting
Query Tool
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Launch of Active View metrics
Active View is a feature in DFP SB that tracks the viewability of ads served via Google Publisher Tags (GPT). Active View brings key metrics to the DFP SB Query Tool, allowing you to report on the impressions that are measurable, and of those, how many are viewable.
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 you assess the value of an impression.
Learn more about Active View metrics.
Learn about best practices for viewability and Active View.
Active View metrics is in beta until further notice. These metrics will become available to all Small Business publishers over the coming weeks.
- A new Advertiser dimension attribute
A new dimension attribute has been added to the DFP Small Business Query Tool: Advertiser type. Type is the classification of advertiser, which includes Advertiser, House advertiser, or Ad network. Learn about advertiser types.
- 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.
Help center improvements
Useful information added to the DFP Small Business Help Center landing page
We’ve added a carousel to the bottom of the DFP Small Business Help Center landing page. With just one click, the carousel displays important and useful information, such as policies and troubleshooting advice. You can find the following articles:
If you use Ad Exchange, visit the Ad Exchange Release Notes to learn about the latest feature releases.
New feature
Forecasting
- 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
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: You can now create “Click-tracking only” line items. This line item type is useful for tracking clicks for textual ads built into your content, or to track clicks on image ads delivered by your content management system (CMS). Learn more
Q1 2015
Updated feature
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
Query Tool changes
- 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 or report.
Updated feature
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.
Updated features
- 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.
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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
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_VIEWERSHIPreport columns. In addition, Sales Manager gains three new services, andTypefields 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.
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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.
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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.
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
autoPlayAdBreaksparameter for your HTML5 IMA SDK or Flash IMA SDK.
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.
