An introduction to some common terms and ideas
Traditional Ad Serving is a service provided to publishers for the delivery of Ads from Google’s web servers to Target Properties based on criteria selected by those publishers and the advertisers and agencies advertising on the Target Properties.
Here are some descriptions of other key concepts and additional service features that will help you to understand how Ad Manager is organized and how people use it.
- Inventory is the advertising space you have available to sell. In Ad Manager, inventory takes the form of ad units, which can be grouped into placements. Learn more about inventory
- A web page or app needs to be able to request ads from Ad Manager to display them:
- Google Publisher Tags are snippets of code placed on your pages to call ads from Ad Manager. These tags connect the ad units you create in Ad Manager with your actual inventory. Learn more about tagging
- The Google Mobile Ads SDK allows you to call ads from Ad Manager on your apps. Learn more about requesting ads for apps
- The Google IMA SDK handles Video Ad Serving Template (VAST) ad responses from any standard, industry-compliant video ad server. Learn more about requesting video ads
- Trafficking is the process of setting up and managing ad campaigns. In Ad Manager, you create orders, line items, and creatives, and you target them. You can target them to specific inventory and use other kinds of targeting as well, like showing your ads only in certain locations. Learn more about trafficking
- Forecasting is the process of checking to see how much available inventory you will have in the future. Unlike, say, retail inventory, which you can simply count, it's hard to know exactly how many viewers you will have in the future — and even harder when you take different targeting scenarios into consideration. Ad Manager forecasting is designed to help you sell all of your inventory while avoiding overselling. Learn more about forecasting
- Reporting is where you go to check on active campaigns to see how they're delivering, and to get information about completed campaigns. Ad Manager reports are highly customizable, enabling you to discover insights about your inventory that can help you create and sell more effective ad campaigns. Learn more about reporting
- Account administration, sometimes shortened to "admin," is the set of tasks and tools that are used to administer your network: everything from setting up new users to enabling features. Admin tasks tend not to be everyday tasks, but they're important.