DoubleClick Ad Planner

DoubleClick Ad Planner is a free research and media planning tool offered by Google that lets media planners build ad campaigns to run in Google’s Display Network (Previously referred to as the Google Content Network). The Google Display network is comprised of Google AdSense publishers, DoubleClick Ad Exchange publishers, Google Properties (YouTube, Maps, Gmail, Blogger, Finance, etc), mobile ad platforms (Admob) and other partner sites. Search sites such as Google.com, Ask.com and AOL.com are not part of the Google Display Network. The Google Display Network supports text, image, rich media and video ads.

Ad Planner is setup like a wizard allowing you to first define your audience by identifying your customer demographics and interests based on geography, keyword, site category and ad specs. Next you can search through an inventory of relevant websites within the Google Display Network, in addition to the AdSense network, that meet your previously defined audience characteristics. You can also drill down to review traffic and other key statistics for each web property.

Once you have identified your targeted websites you can save them into your media plan and export your plan to Google Adwords. The video below will show you how to achieve this. Here’s a quick overview video to get you started.

Once your ad plan is imported into Adwords you manage your campaigns via CPC or CPM bids. From the Adwords interface you can upload or build your ad creative, set daily campaign budgets, establish time of day and day parting criteria, set geographic targeting options and manage your targeted keywords if applicable. You can also link your display ads to your conversion goals to track the ROI of each placement if you have this feature enabled in your Adwords account.