The network setup process

This article describes the four major phases involved in setting up a Google Ad Manager network, which include gathering requirements, designing and validating the network, testing and building the network, and launching the network. 

On this page

• Learn and plan
• Gather requirements
• Prepare your team ad campaigns
• Launch your new Ad Manager network
   

Learn and plan

• Review this article and others in the Set up Google Ad Manager topic.

Gather requirements

Business requirements: Decide what features and use cases your business needs from Ad Manager.

1. Review your organization's targeting, trafficking, sales, forecasting, and reporting needs.
2. Compile a list of both commonly sold ad products and edge cases. You'll use the list to validate your network design, develop functional requirements, and create a testing plan.

Technical requirements: Assess which teams will need to develop tagging and other integrations.

1. Learn about the Google Publisher Tag and decide which GPT mode to use.

2. Review SDK integrations and additional tagging considerations for mobile and video. You can use the Google Mobile Ads SDK (Android and iOS only) to deliver directly sold ads into applications. The Google IMA SDK is needed for some video formats.

3. Review Google Ad Manager API integrations with your order management system, billing integration, invoicing, or any custom APIs you use, based on any requirements you have that Ad Manager can't handle through its user interface.

4. Learn about creative templates to learn if the system-defined templates will meet your needs, or whether you'll need to create custom templates that use your specific code modifications.

Decide on an Ad Manager Network design

• Create a basic plan for how Ad Manager inventory units, such as ad units and key-values, correspond to your website or mobile app inventory. The goal is to ensure that every sales scenario, targeting profile, and reporting requirement can be met through the proposed structure.
• Validate your network design by testing it against the targeting, reporting, and other business requirements you gathered.

Create a test and launch plan

• Develop a thorough test plan to ensure that your technical and business requirements are met and validated. If necessary, build and configure a testing environment.

• Develop a launch plan to transition your site to Ad Manager tags. Decide whether you'll switch to Ad Manager's forecasting immediately, which means waiting long enough for the forecasting system to get a complete data set, or whether to pre-tag your site to build forecasts before you launch.

Build and test

Set up the basics

• Configure your network settings, such as currency, time zone, and the network name.
• Create users and user roles
• Create companies

Set up inventory in Ad Manager

• Create ad units, placements, and key-values
• Create user-defined creative templates

Set up requests to Ad Manager on your webpages or mobile app

Configure your content management system and your content to request ads from Ad Manager.

• Use Google Publisher Tags for desktop and mobile web inventory.
• Use the Google Mobile Ads SDK for mobile apps.
• Use the Google IMA SDK for video players.

If needed, develop and test API utilities or API-integrated third-party software.

Test your network

Create an order and line item to use for testing.

• Tagging and delivery testing
  Test Google Publisher Tags on your sites with each layout and page template. Use troubleshooting tools to resolve delivery problems and better understand of ad delivery patterns.
• Systems and user acceptance testing (UAT)
  Test your end-to-end workflow with campaigns, using your test environment if that makes the most sense. Make sure that creatives, including custom templates, render correctly, that your sales lifecycle works the way it should, and that reports are providing the data you expect.
• Reports testing
  Set up the standard Ad Manager reports you will need most often.

Prepare your team and ad campaigns

• Encourage others who will be using Ad Manager to complete the training materials in this Help Center.
• Create new orders and line items for upcoming ad campaigns, or those you’re currently running.

Launch your new Ad Manager network

1. Switch live content to use your new Ad Manager ad requests.
2. Test to ensure that everything is working correctly.