A few months ago, I started using Google’s Double Click for Publishers (DFP), which is an ad serving solution for website owners. Google DFP is a bit overwhelming at first and it took me few days to get around to using it. However, I have now made a successful transition to using Google DFP and serve all the ads using it.

In my experience Google DFP is a bit complicated at start, however, it does have several advantages over traditional way of adding advertisements to your website. In this series, I will talk about the benefits of using Google DFP and also how to effectively use it on your own website with some handy tips and tricks thrown in.
Advantages of Using Google DFP
There are several advantages of using Google DFP over traditional ad insertion. I will list a few here which I have found beneficial to me and might come in handy to you too.
Less Code and Easy to Maintain
Once you start using Google DFP, you will notice that you are dealing with much lesser code while inserting or positioning advertisements. This is one thing I have found beneficial as I am able to insert ads into code with just a single click.
Create Once and Use Forever
Unlike traditional advertisement code, you can create a line item and insert it into your theme. The next time you want to display advertisements from a different network, you don’t need to create new code and that can be handled within the DFP interface itself. This makes it much more easier to experiment with different networks and quickly remove/change them if you are not satisfied with the revenue. I will talk about this in more detail in the future parts of the series.
Geo and Demographic Targeting
One of the best features of DFP is that it allows you to geo-target your ads. Using this feature you can display different ads to different locations to maximize your revenue. Another good feature is demographic targeting which allows you to target people using certain browsers or operating systems.
Demographic targeting can be very useful when you want to say advertise a certain browser; for example Google Chrome; to users using Firefox, or want to pitch Windows 7 to someone using Linux or Mac OS X.
Serve Your Own Ads/Promotions Without Worries
With the help of Google DFP you can serve your own promotions or promote your own content without having to worry about delivery or assets. You can create custom In-house ads on Google DFP and upload images etc. to Google’s servers and directly display them on your website.
In addition to that, you can also serve ads that you have directly sold on your site and provide advertisers with detailed statistics along with tracking clicks and more.
Track and Compare Impressions
Sometimes advertising companies may not show correct impressions. With the help of Google DFP, you will be able to cross-check and verify impression counts displayed by advertising networks against your own inventory.
Target Ads To Advertisers
Google and Double Click have a huge advertiser base. When you use Google DFP, you will be able to target your ad-slots to these advertisers and sell your inventory to them.
Google AdSense Integration
Using Google DFP, you will easily be able to integrate Google AdSense in your ads and maximize your revenue. In the future parts we will talk about how to do this and also create Link units for Google AdSense and serve them using Google DFP.
Rotate Ads and Banners
With the help of Google DFP, you will be able to easily rotate ads and banners without having to worry about logic. I will talk about rotating ads using Google DFP in the next part of the series.
Concluding Part I
As you can see, there are several advantages of using Google DFP over traditional advertising code. In my experience, managing advertisers has become more easier. With the ease with which I can target specific users, I am able to maximize my revenue and almost fill-up the entire inventory.
In the next part of the series, we will take a dive into Google DFP and learn how to create and manage ads using the service. Do feel free to ask questions/doubts if you have any.