DFP: to switch or not to switch?

Should smaller publishers take the plunge to DoubleClick For Publishers or not?

[chocobo]

Hello all, and happy holidays. I've been lurking these forums for a few months now, and visiting the site has become a part of my daily routine.

I've been tinkering with the idea of switching from adsense to DFP.

I've searched the forums, and have found older posts from 2010 and 2011 covering this, but I was wondering if anyone has any recent experience in switching and why it should or shouldn't be done.

I understand that it's kind of like the difference between driving in automatic vs standard, but it seems like a lot of work...

[netmeg]

I messed around with it, but the bottom line was, I couldn't afford the learning curve. If I had the time, I'd look into it more.

When I did play with it, it didn't seem very intuitive.

[chocobo]

it's (seems) insanely complicated.

[ember]

It is very complicated. It took two phone calls from a Google DFP expert for me to finally get it. It is also clunky. I don't really think it is worth all the hassle.

[Swanny007]

I use DFP to serve my own ads in my AdSense spot on one of my sites. It is so complicated I honestly wouldn't recommend it unless you're in my position - selling direct ads to a company or two and want something that works well with AdSense. Bonus is that you can "open in a new window" when someone clicks an ad using DFP ;-)

Considering how simple Google tries to make things for users, I'm surprised just how ridiculous it is to use DFP.

[chocobo]

Thanks for the input. I'll not switch to DFP, lol.

[farmboy]

Google seems to have a long-term trend of making things complicated.

Or is this just another case of the younger and smarter battling with the old timers?

FarmBoy

[ember]

Or is this just another case of the younger and smarter battling with the old timers

Ahem, I think you mean the older and wiser old timers.

[child please]

I guess I'm in the minority. I started using it about 2 1/2 years ago and at first it took a lot of time and energy to wrap my head around it. Was actually doing it inefficiently and then had a series of meetings with Google to optimize.

It has increased my revenue by at least 25% vs. standalone AdSense. Not to mention if you run other networks alongside AdSense, you get the added benefits there as well.

I absolutely LOVE DFP and I don't know what I'd do without it.

[netmeg]

Cool, you can teach all of us!

(ork ork)

[wrkalot]

I switched to DFP a couple of years ago. I own and run 7 small niche sites where I also sell ad space directly and managing it all with out DFP was a royal pain.

The learning curve is huge and I'm sure am way behind the curve, even today, BUT I do like the system overall.

[clammy77]

@child_please, I read your other response elsewhere about optimizing eCPM via several networks. I heard from my Google person that there is a way to increase Adsense revenue from 10%-30% just based on making adsense compete with itself in DFP.

from what I know it's creating several line items based on diff geo's RPM (get this RPM rate from adsense, and setting the RPM in line item to be a bit higher than the standalone adsense RPM), and making Adsense fallback compete with this RPM?

Is this the right way to do it?

[ember]

I heard from my Google person that there is a way to increase Adsense revenue from 10%-30% just based on making adsense compete with itself in DFP.

I've been told that, too, from a Google person. But another one told me that that doesn't really work. Never worked for me. But I am all ears if someone has that figured out.

[clammy77]

i'm doing test on our site w/ PV in Millions's daily, and I can confirm that the results are very strange.

I am benchmarking w/ an ad right below it, which usually has 90% of its revenue.

So, after doing "ad yield management", I've created line items for each of our primary revenue making countries, and I've set the CPMs to 1.2 of the avg. RPM for diff countries for the same unit. I'll run it for a day and I will confirm my results.

I've done it with just 1 setting, with 1 CPM setting for our major country, and the RPM in adsense (for the line item with 3rd party adsense code) dropped by 30% (even compared to the ad right below it), but however, the fallback Adsense from yield report shows a 250% increase, but that 2.5x is only for the 1/6 of the traffic. 2.5x is def nice, but too flaky for me. I need to know the exact formula or setup to make it consistently 10-30% more.

Also, just to clarify, my Google person (in HK) is not #*$!ting, she said it can be done. If can get AdX to compete w/ Adsense, the results are even better.

[poppill]

Hey Clammy,

Sounds like your pretty far ahead on how to use DFP appropriately, I hope you find the answer your looking for.

Since the thread is about dfp, its worthiniess, and how to overcome the learning curve. Can you share how you learned setting up line items, how it all works together etc. Was it just from a call with a google person? Or was there some learning resource you went through and found helpful?

[clammy77]

Sorry for hijacking this thread! I was hoping to get the answer I think a lot of people were looking for.

If you are looking for the basics, this site taught me how to set everything up: [dfptutorial.com...]

There are also some create content on that site that teaches you now to do a lot of things, such as inserting adsense into a line item.

DFP is pretty complicated, but you can see a Line item as a campaign sort of, so lets just say a network wants to buy ads on your site, you need to first create an ad unit under "inventory", and then create line items (like campaigns) under orders, and then you will create the ads from different line networks under line items, and they will compete over the same ad unit (which you need to place the code on your site).

That's the's the basics, and bth, there's a lot more, and I'm here to learn as well, hoping an expert can help clear things up.