Google Ads made an announcement stating that as of October 31, 2023, they plan to shift predominantly towards real-time bidding auctions and will cease responding to multiple calls in mediation. Prior to this deadline, Google Ads might initiate a shift away from waterfall buying for certain multi-call requests.
Google Ads Move to Real-Time Bidding for Apps
What This Means For Publisher
Prior to this deadline, it’s advisable to explore utilizing a real-time bidding solution to tap into Google Ads demand. One option is to utilize Ad Exchange for bidding alongside Ad Manager yield groups. Ad Exchange encompasses demand from Google (including Google Ads, Display & Video 360) as well as third-party ad sources.
If you’re already integrating with Google Ads for bidding, there’s no immediate action required from your end. However, it’s worth noting that other third-party demand sources may have their own bidding protocols. Here’s a guide on how to kickstart your journey with real-time bidding.
Use Ad Exchange with Ad Manager Bidding
By utilizing Ad Manager yield groups, Ad Exchange is seamlessly integrated as a bidding source. Consequently, Google Ads participates in real-time bidding on your ad requests. This setup facilitates fair competition among your bidding ad sources within a unified auction. Ultimately, the highest paying advertiser wins the opportunity to serve their ad for any given impression.
To facilitate a smoother transition to real-time bidding, Google Ads will continue responding to multiple calls within hybrid waterfalls on supported partner platforms for a temporary period after October 31. Publishers can set up hybrid waterfalls by incorporating a bidding ad unit into their existing mediation waterfalls.
This interim measure aims to ease the transition for publishers as Google Ads phases out its response to multiple calls within waterfall mediation. In the coming weeks, Google Ads will start decreasing expenditure on multicall requests in waterfalls lacking a bidding ad unit. By October 31, Google Ads will cease purchasing on multicall requests in waterfalls without a bidding ad unit. However, Google Ads may still engage with mediation waterfalls that only make a single call to Google Ads demand.
Nevertheless, bidding offers superior access to Google Ads demand for publishers, alongside more efficient and competitive media buying for advertisers compared to a single call.
We advise publishers to implement a hybrid setup for all mediation waterfalls. Once a bidding ad unit is integrated into the existing mediation waterfalls, no further action will be necessary by October 31. Subsequently, Google Ads intends to gradually phase out its response to waterfall requests in hybrids, with the transition expected to conclude by early 2024.
If you have any more questions or need further assistance, please feel free to ask here. We’d like to help you.