Q4 2014
December 8 Query Tool: Reach reportsNew feature
Reporting
- Reach reports: A hierarchical ad units view for Reach reports in Query Tool is now available! In Reach reports, when you filter for “Ad units”, you're able to report on all ad unit levels, not only the top-level view. You don’t have to add the “Ad units” dimension when you filter by ad units, but you can only use the "contains" operator for top-level ad units. Learn more about Query Tool filters.
Updated feature
GPT
- Render creatives using SafeFrame in GPT: SafeFrame is an IAB standard which provides API-enabled iframes that prevent external access to sensitive data, while still allowing transparent and rich interactions between page content and ads. You can now configure your creatives to use SafeFrame in GPT. Learn more
Updated feature
Video
- IMA HTML5 SDK now supports Internet Explorer 11: Our SDK is now compatible with the desktop versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer, as well as the mobile versions of Chrome, Safari, and the default Android browser. Learn more at the Ads Developer Blog.
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Updated feature
Import and export creative templates: You can now export creative templates, work on them offline, and then import them as new templates or updated user-defined templates. Learn more about importing and exporting creative templates.
New feature
Audience
- Audience notifications: Some changes to first-party and third-party audience segments now trigger notifications if a segment is set to expire, is inactive, or if its price has changed. Learn more
Updated features
Creatives
- Improvement to creative "Start time": When a creative is uploaded after a line item has started to serve, the creative's "Start time" is now considered the date and time on which it was uploaded. Previously, a creative's "Start time" always equalled that of the line item, even if the creative was uploaded after the line item started to serve.
API
- Release of DFP API v201411: This release supports creating and updating VideoRedirectCreatives, enhances cross-sell via the new SharedAdUnitService, and adds an experimental Targeting field to the Line_Item PQL table. Learn more
Advanced video
- Sort video content table by ingestion date: You can now sort the video content table by "Import date."
As you are aware, our DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) ad server experienced a global outage on Wednesday, November 12, 2014 from 5:45am to 7:31am PST. This was the first DFP outage of this significance for many years and we take it very seriously. Our team’s first priority was restoring service and making sure the immediate issue would not recur. We are writing now to explain what happened and what we are doing to protect against future incidents.
The details:
- The DFP ad server relies on an internal service that began degrading in performance. This caused a cascading failure on DFP ad servers, leading to the outage.
- We designed our systems to gracefully handle performance degradation from dependent services. However, due to a misconfiguration, we were unable to prevent the outage.
- To restore ad serving and prevent cascading failures, we restarted the services by provisioning additional resources.
- We reproduced the failure in a test by degrading the availability of the internal service, proving the misconfiguration caused the cascading failures. We have since rolled out a fix to the configuration globally.
- We are conducting a complete review of all our processes and production configurations to prevent this from happening again.
As always, our goal is to provide a best-in-class product and the unmatched global scale and reliability you’ve come to expect from Google and DoubleClick. We value your partnership deeply and apologize for the disruption this incident caused to your business.
Best,
Neal Mohan - VP, Display & Video Advertising
Scott Silver - VP, Engineering
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Batch editing
Select multiple line items within an order and make the same change across all of them: You can now select multiple line items at once and bulk edit their priority, labels, frequency caps, and custom fields.
Updated features
GPT
- Responsive ads in GPT: Responsive ads now allow you to suppress (not show) ads for certain browser sizes. For example, you can show 1 ad on a mobile browser and 3 on a desktop browser, or you can create an ad slot that's only shown on tablets. You can also control the position of ads on different devices by limiting which slots are available to which browsers. Learn more about building responsive ads.
New feature
Forecasting
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See how manual adjustments affect your forecast: When you check the available inventory for a new line item (using the Check inventory button) or an existing line item (using the Delivery forecast tab), you can see how manual and historical adjustments affect the forecasting numbers. The window displays the number of matched impressions before adjustments are considered and then lists how many impressions were added or subtracted as a result of adjustments.
Updated features
Targeting picker
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Target the latest Apple operating systems: You can now target new operating systems iOS 7.1 and 8.0. Learn more about targeting a line item to mobile devices.
Network administration
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Suggestions for verifying advertisers: If you use Ad Exchange, you can add verified advertisers to your list of companies, create unified advertiser exclusions to block ads, and report on the revenue between DFP and Ad Exchange, broken down by advertiser. Now DFP will provide suggestions for existing DFP advertisers that might match a verified advertiser. Learn more about verifying advertisers
Q3 2014
September 29 Active View reporting for video / Export forecast results / Single-escaped video title macroHighlight
DFP Video
Active View reporting is now available for in-stream video ads for desktop and mobile web through the IMA 3 Flash and IMA 3 HTML5 SDKs. Reporting dimensions for Active View for video are consistent with those available for Active View for display. Learn more
New feature
Forecasting
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Export forecast details: When you check the available inventory for a new line item (using the Check inventory button) or an existing line item (using the Delivery forecast tab), you can now export the forecasting details to an Excel spreadsheet. You can then share this spreadsheet with clients or use it internally to keep a record of your forecasts.
Updated feature
DFP Video
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Video title macro is now single-escaped: The
%%VIDEO_TITLE%%macro now expands to the single-escaped version of the video title, making it possible to safely pass along the title in a redirect URL. Learn more about video macros.
Updated features
Data transfer
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Negative key value targeting: Custom targeting displays keys in the tag that matched line item targeting, which includes broad-matched keys, prefix-matched keys, or both. This field also displays keys which were negatively targeted by the line item in question.
Updated features
API access
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Service accounts: You can now add a service account user directly to DFP in the "Admin" tab. These are special Google Accounts that can be used by applications to access DFP through the API. Learn more
Query Tool
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Query Tool reports can now be exported to Google Drive. CSV file type can be exported to Google Drive via report exports or sharing reports generated by queries. This file is converted and appears as a Google spreadsheet in the Drive account of the user (owner) requesting the export. Learn more
Updated features
Creatives
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Preview creative templates: You can now click Preview while creating or editing a creative template, making it easier to confirm that your template is set up correctly without having to traffic a test campaign. Learn more about creative templates
DFP Video
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Multi-sized video companion ads: For Video (VAST) ad sizes, you can now enter multiple companion sizes for each master ad size.
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Unified advertiser blocking
You can now use DFP to block verified advertisers from selected inventory, including ads trafficked directly in DFP, ads that are delivered from Ad Exchange through dynamic allocation, and ads trafficked in DCM/DFA or a different DFP network. Learn more
You can also now choose whether to consider the impact of advertiser blocking and ad exclusions when checking available inventory. Learn more.
Updated features
Ad exclusions
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Ad exclusions without tag modifications: When you need to block ads with an ad exclusion, it's often an emergency situation where you need to act quickly. To make that easier, DFP now lets you apply ad exclusions directly to your inventory, without modifying your ad tags. The old system of tag modifications still works, but the new ad exclusion workflow is simpler, easier, and handled completely within DFP. Learn more
Reports
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Ad Exchange opportunity reports: We've improved Ad Exchange opportunity reports to provide you with even better data. The metrics have changed so that you can now see both filled and unfilled impressions competing. To see this new data, you'll need to create a new query with the "Historical" report type. You can still view old queries or create new ones with "Dynamic allocation opportunity" metrics under the "Business intelligence" report type, but we recommend that you create new queries to get the best data. Learn more
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comScore vCE in DoubleClick (Beta): You can now measure the reach and frequency of display and video ads across a number of demographic segments. For its initial release, comScore vCE reports only supports U.S. demographic data on desktop devices, and is only available to U.S. publishers. Learn more
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Notifications about shared reports: When you try to disable a user who has shared scheduled reports with other users, you'll now see a warning that the scheduled reports will no longer be delivered. If you then go ahead and disable the user, DFP will send an email to the other users to let them know which scheduled reports will no longer be delivered.
DFP Video
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VAST 3: The third version of the IAB’s video ad serving template represents the latest video ad serving standards. VAST 3 contains a multitude enhancements, including standardized support for multiple ads in a single VAST response, granular VAST 3 error codes, enhanced support for adaptive bitrate creatives, and many others. Learn more
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Track app installs in DFP
You can now track app installs in DFP conversion reporting. With the Conversion Tracking SDK, you or your advertisers can include a small snippet of code in apps that pings DFP upon the app’s first launch. If a user has recently viewed and/or clicked one of that advertiser’s ads in a DFP publisher’s app, DFP will count that as an app install conversion. Learn more about incorporating the SDK in the developer documentation.
Updated features
Workflow improvements
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Inventory tab navigation: To make the Inventory tab easier to navigate, we've improved the left-hand navigation panel. Click on a heading in the navigation panel to see a list of related pages.
Audience
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Audience pixels in apps: You can now use audience pixels in apps to build first party segments. Before this release, you could only build first party segments in apps by serving ads to ad units. Learn more.
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Conversions
Cost per action (CPA) line items: You can now create line items with a pricing model that is based on actions, also known as conversions. Learn more
Updated feature
Reporting
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Code served metrics: Code served metrics can now be used in combination with campaign-related dimensions such as line items and and creatives. Data is available from June 26. We recommend that you begin with July, as this is the first full month of data. Learn more
API
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DFP API v201408: The new version of the DFP API, v201408, will be available on August 19, 2014. This release features the addition of a new table to the Publisher Query Language service, some changes to the LineItem.Goal object, enhancements to Sales Manager services, and changes to server endpoint and scope URLs. Learn more
Updated features
Targeting
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New OS, browser, and device targeting: You can now target line items to the following operating systems, browsers, and devices:
- Playstation4
- Xbox 360
- Xbox One
- Wii U
- Firefox (27.x)
- Firefox (28.x)
- Firefox (29.x)
- Firefox (30.x)
- Firefox (31.x)
- Galaxy S5 (SM-G900A)
- Galaxy S5 (SM-G900F)
- Galaxy S5 (SM-G900L)
- Galaxy S5 (SM-G900P)
- Galaxy S5 (SM-G900V)
- URBANO PROGRESSO KYY04 for KDDI (KYY04)
- Optimus it L-05D for DoCoMo (L-05D)
- ELUGA V P-06D for DoCoMo (P-06D)
- ELUGA power P-07D for DoCoMo (P-07D)
- Galaxy SIII LTE (SC-06D)
- Xperia GX SO-04D for DoCoMo (SO-04D)
- Galaxy Note II International (GT-N7100)
- Galaxy Note II USA (SGH-I317)
- Galaxy Note 10.1 (GT-N8000)
- Galaxy Note 3 (SM-N900T)
- Nexus 4
- LG NX550
Audience
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Segment re-approval grace period: Until now, if a third party changed the price for an audience segment, the segment was immediately deactivated pending approval of the new price. Starting today, you'll have a 30-day grace period during which the segment will stay active at the old price. As soon as you re-approve the segment, the new price will take effect. Learn more
Workflow improvement
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Switch to Ad Exchange account: You can now easily switch from DFP to your Ad Exchange account. In the upper right of the UI, click on your username and then select your Ad Exchange account.
New feature
Audience
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Audience explorer: If you're using DFP Audience, the new audience explorer module gives you insight into how much network traffic you receive from various segments, as well as the cost of each segment. This information can help you to decide which segments to target, how best to sell particular audiences to advertisers, and how much you should charge. Learn more
Updated feature
Workflow improvements
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Select multiple items: Throughout DFP, you'll find various fields where it's now easier to add multiple items. When you click into a text box and start typing, you'll see a list of suggestions, along with checkboxes. Click multiple checkboxes to select multiple items.
New feature
DFP Video
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Google Media Framework: This open source video player framework makes online video and video monetization with the IMA SDK easier than ever. The Google Media Framework (GMF) is available for iOS and Android, and we have a Video.js plugin for web based video players. Visit the Ads Developer Blog to learn more.
Updated feature
Browser support
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Internet Explorer support: Starting today, DFP supports only versions 10 and 11 of Microsoft Internet Explorer. Earlier versions are no longer supported, and you'll get a notification if you're using an unsupported version.
Updated features
Workflow improvements
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Change history redesign: The change history has been redesigned to make it easier for you to find the information you need. Columns provide a clearer organization for change history information.
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Geo-targeting: We've added neighborhoods to geo-targeting for major cities, such as New York City. We've also added new targetable cities, universities, regions, and postal codes.
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Active View metrics
Active View is a feature in DFP that tracks the viewability of ads served via Google Publisher Tags (GPT). 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 publishers and advertisers assess the value of an impression. Learn more
New features
Admin
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Custom fields: Use custom fields to organize objects in reports, add comments, and for other workflow purposes. You create them from the Admin tab, and they can be applied at the line item, creative, or order level. Learn more.
Google Publisher Tags (GPT)
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GPT's new API method lets you control the creation of a new correlator ID for ad requests, which effectively allows you to define the start of a new page for dynamic websites. Visit the developers site to learn more.
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Data protection report
The new data protection report shows who is cookieing ads on your site broken down by advertiser, order, line item and creative. It also details the specific technology vendor from which the cookie originates. Learn more.
New feature
Publisher University
Everything you need to know about product training, including access to online trainings and details about which trainings are right for you, can be found at the Publisher University. As your one-stop training destination for all publisher-facing products, the materials have been designed to suit a variety of roles and skill levels. Whether you’re starting out as a trafficker or you’re a seasoned manager, there’s a learning path suited to your needs. Visit g.co/PublisherU to kick-start your training and learn more about what's offered.
Updated features
Workflow improvements
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Persistent system messages: When DFP shows you an error message or a system alert, you no longer have to worry about it disappearing. The message will stay in place until you click Dismiss.
DFP Video
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New double-escaped video description and video referrer macros
- Use
%%DESCRIPTION_URL_ESC_ESC%%(double-escaped) when the macro is inside a URL, and use%%DESCRIPTION_URL_UNESC%%(unescaped) in other contexts. In redirect ad tags, expands to the description URL parameter from the original GPT ad tag's description_url query parameter. -
Use
%%REFERRER_URL_ESC_ESC%%(double-escaped) when the macro is inside a URL, and use%%REFERRER_URL_UNESC%%(unescaped) in other contexts. This macro expands to the referrer URL (the URL of the page where the video player is located) in redirect ad tags. It does so in the following manner: DFP parses the ad tag's URL query parameter, isolates the referrer URL, and replaces the macro text with that URL.
- Use
DFP visual redesign
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Cosmetic improvements: You've probably noticed that DFP looks different lately. We've rolled out a new look and feel to make DFP more consistent with the rest of your Google products. Over the next several weeks, you may notice additional small changes as we complete the visual transition. These changes won't affect functionality. All of your features and workflows will stay the same.
Help Center improvement
Improved DFP apps documentation
Did you know you can also use DFP for apps? Learn more.
Q2 2014
June 30 Better audience pixel creation / Cosmetic improvements / Geo-targetingUpdated features
Audience
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Better audience pixel creation: You can now create an audience pixel on the page where you define it, making the workflow easier. Learn more
DFP visual redesign
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Cosmetic improvements: You've probably noticed that DFP looks different lately. We've rolled out a new look and feel to make DFP more consistent with the rest of your Google products. Over the next several weeks, you may notice additional small changes as we complete the visual transition. These changes won't affect functionality. All of your features and workflows will stay the same.
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DFP visual redesign
DFP is rolling out a new look and feel. It's part of an ongoing redesign of Google products, including Search, Gmail, and AdWords. With the new design, DFP is more consistent with the rest of your Google products. Functionality hasn't changed. All of your features and workflows will stay the same.
New features
Reporting
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Full release of future sell-through reports: Future sell-through reports predict the availability of impressions for your network and help you manage your inventory and forecast availability. Use these reports to:
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Help direct sales efforts, to see what is and isn’t sold.
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View a breakdown by line item if you want to know how many impressions some line items are predicted to receive.
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Show your partners how much inventory they will have reserved or available.
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Export line item data to spreadsheets: You can now export data about a filtered list of line items, or all of the line items in an order, to spreadsheets. Learn more
Updated features
Reporting
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Capturing unattributed impressions: Sometimes DFP records an impression for your network, but can't attribute it to a particular ad unit. For example, if you have a suggested ad unit at the top level that isn't yet approved, DFP can't attribute those impressions to any particular parent ad unit. Now, when you run a query on the ad unit dimension, these unattributed impressions will be listed under a "Default" ad unit. Impression totals for ad unit queries will match impression totals without the dimension.
Help center improvements
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Troubleshooting: We've released a new troubleshooting section that will help you quickly find the tools and answers you need when you need to solve a problem.
New feature
Audience
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Batch upload Apple IDFAs: You can now batch upload Apple Identifiers for Advertising (IDFAs) to audience segments. Learn more
Updated features
Workflow improvements
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Choose the default tab in line items: When you open a line item, the "Settings" tab is displayed by default. Now you can change that default to the "Creatives" tab if that's more convenient for you. Click on your username at the top of the page in DFP, then click User settings. On the user settings page, you can choose the line item default tab from a dropdown list, and that's the tab that will be displayed first when you click into a line item. If you're an admin, you can also change this setting for other users.
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Better delivery diagnostics: When you run the Google Publisher Console and visit the "Delivery diagnostics" page, DFP now shows the IP address and geographic location of the browser where the line item under review was served. Learn more
DFP API
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New DFP API release: We've launched v201405 of the DFP API. This release brings better OAuth2 standards, consolidates line item goal information, and adds a lot more report fields. Learn more
Help center improvements
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Better getting started: We've updated and simplified the Getting started section of the help center to ensure that it's focused on the information you need to get new users up and running quickly on DFP.
Pre-release announcement: DFP visual redesign
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On June 23, 2014, DFP will have a new look and feel. It's part of an ongoing redesign of Google products, including Search, Gmail, and AdWords. With the new design, DFP will be more consistent with the rest of your Google products. Functionality won't change. All of your features and workflows will stay the same.
Updated features
Query tool
- Include or exclude child ad units: When you filter a query by ad units, you can choose whether to include data for child ad units. If you do, the metric values for ad units will include totals from any child ad units, as well as the selected ad units. If this option is not selected, the metric values will show data only for the selected ad units, not child ad units. Learn more about query tool filters
Audience segments
- Check competition against segments: When you run the Google Publisher Console and visit the "Delivery diagnostics" page, you can now include audience segments in the adjustable targeting criteria when you rerun competition. Learn more
Google Publisher Tag (GPT)
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Updated GPT API reference guide: The Google Publisher Tag (GPT) API reference guide is now hosted on the Google Developers site. References have been updated, making it easier for developers to work effectively with Google Publisher Tags.
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Mobile app targeting and reporting
You can now specifically target and report on mobile apps in DFP. This feature is particularly useful for publishers that use the same ad units for their mobile web and mobile app inventory but want to traffic different campaigns to apps and the web, and also want to see app-specific data in reports.
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Targeting: From the line item’s settings in the DFP UI, go to the Add targeting section. Select Devices > Device capability > Mobile Apps, and then click Include.
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Reporting: In reports, app traffic is broken down in the targeting dimension, under DeviceCapability=serves on apps.
New feature
Workflow improvement
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Select columns: On tables throughout DFP, you can click Select columns to choose which columns to show or hide, making it easier to see the information you need, and to hide the stuff you don't need to see.
Updated feature
Audience
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Assign categories to segments: Categories allow you to organize and filter your audience segments. You can assign up to 5 categories from a list of audience segment categories. Learn more
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Better design for inventory targeting
We've made it easier for you to include and exclude inventory from line item targeting. Previously, you could only exclude inventory that was already included in a targeted placement or parent ad unit. To make trafficking easier, we've removed that limitation. You can now mark any inventory unit as excluded from a line item. The look and feel of inventory targeting has also been updated. Learn more about inventory targeting.
New features
Line items
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Make multiple copies of line items: You can select one or more line items, choose More actions > Copy to, and choose how many copies you want to make of each line item. You can make up to 60 new line items at once. Learn more
Query Tool
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See the third-party vendor in the Query Tool: You can now add Third-party vendor as a dimension attribute for creatives. The attribute shows the third-party vendor detected from the ad tag trafficked in the "Code snippet" field. If the code snippet is not recognized by DoubleClick, this value will be "Unknown vendor". See a full list of dimension attributes.
Updated feature
Reporting
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The DSM Unified Revenue Report (URR) now uses 28 days of historical data: These reports now use a sample of the last 28 days (they previously used only 7 days of data). This means the numbers will more closely match the DFP inventory forecasts and future sell-through reports.
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Sticky table searches, filters and paging
When you're looking at a list in DFP, you often need to search, filter or scroll through to a particular page. But when you click on an item, then go back to the list, your search, filters and paging are gone.
We've fixed that. Now, when you go back in your browser, DFP will remember your table searches, your filters. You can even bookmark a particular search, filter and paging setup — all of the information is stored in the URL, so you can always find your way back, and you can share your deep links with others as well.
Today we're rolling out these improvements for standalone lists of orders, line items, creatives, creative sets, and creative templates. In the coming weeks, we plan to roll them out for lists of line items within orders and creatives within line items, as well as for audience segments and segment approvals.
Updated features
Workflow improvements
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Archived entities removed from search: To make search results more relevant, archived orders, line items, ad units, and placements are no longer included in general searches. You can choose to view archived items by using the left-hand navigation panel. For orders and line items, you can also use filters in the table that lists them.
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Sort orders by impressions and clicks: Click on the Impressions or Clicks column heading to sort orders.
New features
Editable ad unit names
Until now, once you set the name of an ad unit, you couldn't change it because it was used in the ad tags. There were also a lot of restrictions on which characters you could use in the name (no spaces!) because it needed to meet the requirements of an HTML tag.
Today, DFP is separating the ad unit name from the ad unit code.
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The ad unit name is an editable field that can include spaces and special characters. It's used in targeting and reports. You can change it at any time, even after you've saved the ad unit.
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The ad unit code is what's used in DFP ad tags. It has limitations on special characters, can't contain spaces, and can't be changed once you've saved the ad unit.
For existing ad units, the ad unit code will be the same as the current ad unit name. You don't have to make any changes or updates, but the ad unit name is now editable. Changing the ad unit name won't affect your tags or ad serving.
Learn more about creating ad units, including rules for ad unit codes and ad unit names
AdMob line items
- The new AdMob line item type allows AdMob to compete for mobile app inventory via dynamic allocation, potentially improving your monetization. (This feature is only enabled for publishers that are serving AdMob campaigns.)
Administration
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Verified advertisers: You can now edit and associate verified advertisers from the "Companies" table in the Admin tab. Learn more
Updated features
Workflow improvements
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Bulk upload creatives in zip files: You can now directly upload zip files to DFP as a way to add new creatives in bulk. Learn more
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Comma-separated inventory search: When you're targeting inventory in a line item, you can now enter more than one inventory unit in the search box, separated by commas, making it easier to select exactly the inventory you need.
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Automatically refresh ads on a mobile app
The new refresh rate setting allows you to have ad units on mobile apps automatically refresh at a specified interval. In other words, the app user will see a new ad every 30-120 seconds. This is useful for apps where users stay on one screen for long periods of time — such as games — to allow you to maximize ad revenue. Learn more
New feature
Inventory
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DFP Audience segment sharing: You can now share your DFP Audience segments with Ad Exchange by linking your Ad Exchange account to DFP. Learn more
Updated feature
Smarter breadcrumbs: When you click on an advertiser name in the breadcrumbs, you are now taken to the Orders page, filtered to show orders that belong to that advertiser.
Notification
The change to editable ad unit names, announced on April 21, 2014, is not currently enabled. It will be available on May 12, 2014.
New feature
Advanced video
- Session ad rules: You can now define when pre-roll ads show on a section of your site. Unlike standard ad rules, session ad rules are frequency-based and apply across multiple video streams. They control how long a visitor can watch content across streams before an ad shows, and how many ads that visitor sees. Learn more
Updated feature
Forecasting
- Improved forecasting numbers when the historical data contains large user sessions: When you run a forecast to predict the future inventory of a line item, DFP uses a sample of the last 28 days of your network’s impression activity as a basis to model future traffic patterns. When that sample includes large user sessions with many impressions, we’ve significantly improved the variance for forecasting of line items. In other words, the forecasting numbers are now much more consistent, with fewer unrealistic highs and lows.
Notification
The change to editable ad unit names, announced on April 21, 2014, is not currently enabled. It will be available on May 12, 2014.
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Editable ad unit names
Until now, once you set the name of an ad unit, you couldn't change it because it was used in the ad tags. There were also a lot of restrictions on which characters you could use in the name (no spaces!) because it needed to meet the requirements of an HTML tag.
Today, DFP is separating the ad unit name from the ad unit code.
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The ad unit name is an editable field that can include spaces and special characters. It's used in targeting and reports. You can change it at any time, even after you've saved the ad unit.
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The ad unit code is what's used in DFP ad tags. It has limitations on special characters, can't contain spaces, and can't be changed once you've saved the ad unit.
For existing ad units, the ad unit code will be the same as the current ad unit name. You don't have to make any changes or updates, but the ad unit name is now editable. Changing the ad unit name won't affect your tags or ad serving.
Learn more about creating ad units, including rules for ad unit codes and ad unit names
New features
Reporting
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Device category dimension (query tool functionality): You can now distinguish between mobile and web inventory in query tool reports by including the "Device category" dimension. This dimension can also be used to filter your reports. Learn more
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Query tool released to all publishers: Premium publishers using the legacy Reports tab will now be upgraded to query tool functionality. Learn more about reporting with the query tool in our Introduction to query tool functionality.
Updated features
DFP Video
- HTTPS support for DFP-hosted assets: You can now provide full SSL compliance on your pages while using DFP's hosting and transcoding. Learn more about DFP-hosted linear creatives.
New features
Trafficking
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Auto-name creatives You can now set up a default format so that new creatives will be automatically named. It can include information about the creative, such as the size, the advertiser name, the creative type, and so on.When you add a new creative to DFP, the default creative name format is applied. You then have the option of changing the name manually. Learn more
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Creative SSL compatibility When you serve creatives to secure pages which use SSL — typically pages whose URLs begin with
https://— it's important to be sure that the creatives are compatible with the pages' security settings. If you use a creative type that can include content hosted on a third-party server, such as custom, third-party, or DoubleClick tag creatives, DFP now checks the creative for SSL compatibility. Learn more
Updated features
Creatives
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Improved workflow for dynamic allocation creatives: You no longer need to specify size parameters for dynamic allocation creatives in snippets. That information is automatically pulled from the line item and creatives. Learn more about Ad Exchange and AdSense line items
Updated feature
Forecasting
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Improved consistency across forecasts that cover the same date range: When you run a forecast to predict the future inventory of a line item, the numbers of a forecast with a larger target date range will now more closely match the sum of multiple, smaller forecasts that cover the same date range. For example:
- Run a forecast from April 1-14.
- Then run 14 forecasts — one for each day from April 1-14 — and add the forecasting numbers.
The sum of the 14 smaller forecasts will now match the bigger forecast much more closely than in the past. Learn more about how this works and why the numbers may not exactly match.
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Improved accuracy of manual forecast adjustments: We’ve greatly reduced the number of forecasting errors as a result of manual forecast adjustments. In particular, DFP now updates the number of matched impressions more accurately when you add non-overlapping manual forecast adjustments.
Q1 2014
March 31 Future sell-through reports now use 28 days of historical dataUpdated feature
Reporting
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Future sell-through reports now use 28 days of historical data: Future sell-through reports (currently in beta) now use a sample of the last 28 days of your network’s impression activity to determine future projections. This means the numbers will match inventory forecasts much more closely (future sell-through reports previously used only 7 days of data).
In addition, we’ve improved the freshness of booked line item data in future sell-through reports. It’s now updated twice a day instead of just once.
New features
Orders
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Archived orders: To ensure that you can find your active orders easily, DFP will now automatically archive orders that haven't delivered any impressions for the last 365 days, if your network has more than 5,000 orders total. Active and pending orders won't be affected. You can always view and reactivate archived orders if you need them. Learn more
Reporting
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Report on unfilled impressions by ad request size (query tool functionality): To provide you with more insight into your unfilled inventory, you can now pull a report showing where unfilled impressions are serving, by ad request size. Learn more
Advanced video
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Content bundles: You can now group videos into targetable content bundles that you assemble based on filters or by selecting individual videos, or both. Bundles are automatically updated as new metadata that matches their criteria is ingested. Learn more
New features
Account administration
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Access billing information: Users with a system defined admin role can now access the "Billing" tab in DFP. This tab allows you to view and download your invoices, change invoice settings, and view transaction history. Learn more
Tagging
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Google Publisher Tag (GPT) event listeners: You can now use the Google Publisher Tags (GPT) API to register an event listener notifying you when an ad slot finishes rendering. This can be used to obtain details of the ad delivered, such as if the slot was unfilled, size of the ad, creative ID and line item ID. Learn more
Creatives
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Flash click tracking: You can now override the clickTAG in Flash files, ensuring that your Flash creatives click through to the right place and that DFP can track clicks even if the Flash clickTAG is missing or set up incorrectly. Learn more
Reporting
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SDK mediation metrics (query tool functionality): You can now report on impressions and clicks for networks that use SDK mediation. These metrics will help you understand the performance of your ad network partners. Learn more
Updated feature
Line items
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Line items now open to the Settings tab by default: Previously, when you navigated to a line item, it would default to the Creatives tab. Most publishers look to update their settings first, and this improvement saves them a click.
New features
Monitor delivery
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Enhanced dynamic allocation: We are changing the way DFP interacts with Ad Exchange and AdSense. Called “enhanced dynamic allocation,” our ad servers now optimize the distribution of Ad Exchange and AdSense impressions throughout goal-based line item delivery, without compromising reservation goals. Prior to enhanced dynamic allocation, DFP did not make a bid request to Ad Exchange or AdSense before delivering a goal-based line item, missing out on potential revenue. Learn more
Trafficking and targeting
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Targeting presets: Instead of reentering the same set of criteria again and again, you can save time, minimize errors, and keep your campaigns consistent by saving targeting criteria to a preset. Learn more
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Secondary currencies: You can set up secondary currencies to make it easier to enter line item pricing information. This can be useful if you sell inventory in more than one currency. You can set the currency for the line item when you're creating it; once the line item has been saved, you can't change the currency later. Learn more
User role administration
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"Invite contacts" permission: A new permission has been added to roles: "Invite contacts." Previously, in order to invite a contact, a user needed the "Edit users, roles and teams" permission plus the "Edit contacts" permission. Now, the "Invite contacts" permission has been separated from "Edit users, roles and teams," giving you more granular control over what users can do.
There will be no change in what existing users and roles can actually do. If you could invite contacts before, you still can; if you couldn't, you still can't. That also goes for any new users you add to your existing roles, unless you make changes those roles. If you don't have any concerns about how your users have been inviting contacts (or not inviting them), then there's nothing you need to do. However, if you've wanted to control which of your users and roles can invite contacts, now you can. Learn more about roles and permissions
Reporting
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Run default queries (query tool functionality): You can now use default queries as templates for commonly used reporting configurations. These templates allow you to easily set up reporting queries and adapt to your own needs. Learn more
New feature
Google Publisher Toolbar
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View ads on this page: The "Ads on this page" section, added to the Account Overview popup, provides a summary of all Google ads. Scroll to a specific ad by clicking on the bullseye icon or open an "Ad Details" window directly from the popup. Learn more / Get the Toolbar
New features
Line items
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Prevent automatic line item activation: To make it easy to traffic line items, DFP automatically activates them once you've added a creative of each specified size. However, if you want more precise control of when line items become active, you can require that all line items be activated manually. Learn more
Help center improvement
Testing recommendations: Check out new recommendations on how to test your network and sites as you're rolling out a new network, site, or campaign.
New features
DFP Video
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DFP now supports the
%%DESCRIPTION_URL%%and%%REFERRER_URL%%macros to pass these parameters from the DFP ad tag to third-party ad networks. Google Publisher Tags are required for this feature. Learn more -
"Skippable video skip time" can now be customized at the network level rather than hard-coded to 5 seconds. This customization requires the use of VAST 3. Ask your account manager for details.
Mobile
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Creative orientation lock - For creatives that can serve in mobile applications, you have the option to lock the creative’s orientation to ensure images are not cropped when a device is rotated. This is particularly useful for interstitials that need to be displayed in portrait format even when the device is rotated to landscape (or vice versa). Learn more
Help center improvement
The DoubleClick for Publishers help center has a new look. With this new design, we've reformatted our content to help you resolve your questions quickly and achieve your goals efficiently.
Highlight
Play Services SDK for DFP and Ad Exchange launches
The Play Services SDK with support for DFP and Ad Exchange brings a couple of benefits to DFP Publishers:
- Android Ad ID - a privacy-safe, resettable identifier for advertising that has the potential to improve monetization on dynamic allocation via Ad Exchange and AdMob.
- Automatic updates - all apps on devices with the Google Play Store will always have the latest version of the SDK by virtue of being part of Play Services.
New or updated apps submitted to the Play Store must upgrade to this new SDK by August 1, 2014. Ad serving to existing apps will not be affected. Minor code changes are necessary to take advantage of the new SDK. Visit the Play Services Migration Guide for more information.
New features
Trafficking
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Line item defaults: Specify default settings for line items. When someone creates new line items in your network, they'll start out with the default settings you set. Learn more
Reporting
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Data transfer files now include a unique identifier for events, out-of-page (interstitial) detection, and device category.
DFP Video
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Template pods: You can now create standard pods with ads of different durations. (Previously all ads in a standard pod had to have the same duration.) Learn more
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DFP video now supports VAST 3 and VMAP in beta, including the IMA SDK. Specifically, if you’re on IMA 3, you don’t need to make any SDK changes. Ask your account manager for details on how to join this beta.
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Query Tool now includes dynamic allocation in conversions and video error rates.
Help center improvement
Inventory forecasting FAQs
This new article answers some of the most common questions about inventory forecasting, including questions about data differences.
