This week, Google announced its decision to get in on the act on curation, launching a new capability within Google Ad Manager to help agencies to identify and purchase publisher inventory and audiences.
The ‘curation’ capability enables agencies to connect with curation partners to explore inventory packages and activate data segments. The aim is to deliver more accurate forecasting and increased match rates for agencies.
“Marketers face the challenge of reaching the right audiences across a fragmented internet. This fragmentation is amplified with inventory like Connected TV, where cross-device viewing and a lack of unified identity signals make it harder to effectively reach desired audiences. To help brands navigate this, agencies can benefit from new ways to buy audiences and curated inventory,” said Peentoo Patel, Director, Product Management for Google Ad Manager, in a blog post announcing the launch.
“That’s why we’re launching curation, a new capability that simplifies how agencies discover and activate their ideal inventory.”
Partners at launch are Audigent, Integral Ad Science (IAS), LiveRamp, Lotame, Multilocal, Permutive, PrimeAudience, and Scope3.
Jay Stevens, Chief Commercial Officer at Permutive, said: “Curation might be the best way to navigate audience signal loss, but it only works if both the buy side and sell side benefit, and that’s been a sticking point to date. Google’s scale and reach gives them a unique vantage point to create an offering that moves the needle for everyone. That’s why we’re excited to work with Google on curation enablement that gives agencies an unmatched toolkit to reach the right audiences through premium publisher inventory.”
Krystian Żółtowski, Senior Product Manager at PrimeAudience, added: “Curation is fast becoming a cornerstone of modern ad tech, and Google’s entry into this space shows just how pivotal it’s become. At PrimeAudience, we’re excited to bring our AI-powered audiences into Google Ad Manager’s curation ecosystem, helping drive impactful, curated media strategies.
“While Google may be late to the curation party, they have the scale and reach to quickly match the competition among other major SSPs. This approach to curation gives publishers a powerful new layer to manage their yield, without needing a large salesforce to sell out their premium inventory. As the industry matures, we expect that curators who bring the most value to the supply chain will be rewarded most.
“PrimeAudience data from a survey run in September 2024, based on 501 UK and US marketers, reveals that 89% of brands already use curated deals in their programmatic advertising campaigns, and a further 8% plan to in the coming months. Given that marketers are clearly well adept to curation, it will be key that they choose the right partners to help them reach their goals as this technology becomes fully integrated.”
*This article features clients of Bluestripe Communications, owned by Bluestripe Group, publisher of NDA
