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Google wants its DoubleClick advertising service customers to reap even better results from their online ads in Google Search and elsewhere, so Google has just launched a new DoubleClick for Advertisers (DFA) Academy to provide more advice and self-paced training.
“We’ve heard from DFA users that they need more customized learning based on how they use DFA,” Sarah Payne, a Google DFA product trainer, wrote in a Sept. 10 post on the Google DoubleClick Advertisers Blog. “When you’re in display advertising, school is always in session. And now is the perfect time to build your skills.”
The online academy will provide help for general questions as well as more detailed, specific inquiries, wrote Payne. “For example, if you’re an ad trafficker, you might need a broad understanding, ranging from the basics all the way to troubleshooting. If you’re an analyst, you might not need to know all the details a media planner might be responsible for but you might still like to know how conversion data is tracked and counted.”
The online DFA Academy is an “easy-to-use, self-paced learning path designed to guide you through core help articles and online training courses,” wrote Payne. The course is designed around “checklists” that participants can use to mark their progress and new competencies before moving on to the next lessons and skills.
The lessons include the basic core curriculum, including DFA Fundamentals eLearning and certification, as well as details on how to implement a new DFA account or advertiser, wrote Payne. Also detailed are topics such as using and troubleshooting tags, creatives and more, as well as information for expert users through the DFA Personal Trainer for Advanced Users.
The advanced topics include details on integrations with DoubleClick Bid Manager and Google Tag Manager, as well as other features. Lessons on tips and best practices for trafficking DoubleClick Rich Media in your DFA account are also included to help users get as much from their DoubleClick investments as possible, wrote Payne.
“Since DFA Academy covers a lot of material, we’ve set it up in checklist format so you can track progress by checking the boxes at the end of each step,” she wrote. “Your progress will be saved so if you have to take a break, you can come back anytime and pick up where you left off.”
The DFA Help Center is only available to current DFA users, who will need to sign in with the Google accounts they use for DFA, according to Payne.
In June, Google bolstered its DoubleClick digital advertising and marketing platform with some key upgrades, including a new ad campaign manager and social media integration with Wildfire. The new features were aimed at helping online advertisers use digital media more effectively and successfully, according to Google.
The first part of the improvements was the replacement of the former DoubleClick for Advertisers interface with a new DoubleClick Campaign Manager, which Google called the biggest upgrade to the platform’s core ad server in the 15 years since it was begun. The new social media features have been added to the DoubleClick platform through integration that’s being built using Wildfire’s social media platform, which Google acquired in 2012.
Also planned this year is a new tool to help marketers connect with consumers through the new Google Web Designer tool, which is slated as an HTML5 creative development tool that helps users create cutting-edge advertising as well as engaging Web content, including sites and applications, according to Google.
Google Launches Online Course to Help Advertisers Use DoubleClick
Google acquired DoubleClick after making a $3.1 billion bid for the company back in 2007. Acquiring DoubleClick provided digital ad and search leader Google with plenty of new firepower, including the ability to serve graphical display ads in addition to the company’s text-based links.
DoubleClick’s technology lets advertisers and publishers deliver ads once they have agreed to terms, and provides statistics relating to those ads. Privacy and Internet advocates were not happy about the acquisition of DoubleClick and its approval by the Federal Trade Commission at the time; they cited concerns that it would give Google too much power over the data around search.
When DoubleClick was first on the market in 2007, reports circulated that Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL were also interested in buying the company, according to an earlier eWEEK report.
Google often provides courses and education in various fields for developers.
Earlier in September, Google announced a free online course that will teach Web developers and designers how they can make their Websites more accessible and friendly for blind and visually impaired users. The course, “Introduction to Web Accessibility,” will run from Sept. 17 to 30 and will offer a host of practices and design elements that will allow sites to serve visually impaired users who wish to have better access to the online world. The two-week online course will include support from Google engineers.
In June, Google created a free online course, “Mapping with Google,” to provide a self-paced online course for users and developers to improve their use of the new Google Maps, Maps Engine Lite and Google Earth. The participants were then eligible to complete a Google Maps or Google Earth project using the skills they learned in the course so they could earn a certificate that showed their accomplishments in the class using Maps. The course included a combination of video and text lessons, activities and projects.