How to Set Up Open Bidding in Google Ads Manager

Key takeaways

Open bidding lets third‑party exchanges compete in real time, helping you prepare partners and inventory so they can take part in unified auctions.

• Open bidding lets multiple third‑party exchanges compete for your inventory through a single coordinated auction that helps increase its value.

• Google Ad Manager networks with contracts signed before January 2020 must complete a Google Open Bidding addendum before activation.

• You can set up Open Bidding by creating a Google Ad Manager account, adding an open bidding addendum, creating yield groups, and adding yield partners. 

Learn how to use Open Bidding to connect with third-party ad exchanges. When you’re ready to take the next step and learn more about digital marketing, consider earning your Google Digital Marketing & E-commerce Professional Certificate. This beginner-level series will help you learn skills like display advertising, email marketing, e-commerce, and more. You could be ready for a career as a marketing coordinator or e-commerce associate in as little as six months. 

What is Open Bidding?

Open Bidding in Google Ad Manager allows you to invite third-party ad exchanges to compete to purchase the ads you have available. Open Bidding is a unified auction that allows for real-time interactions and lets you connect with multiple partners at once to place more ads and get the best value for your digital assets.

How to set up Open Bidding on Google Ad Manager

You will need to set up a Google Ad Manager account, add an open bidding addendum, create yield groups, and add yield partners. To understand how it works, let’s break it down step by step.

1. Create a Google Ad Manager account.

On the Google Ads manager homepage, sign in to Google with the account you would like to use to create an Ad Manager account. You can have up to 20 Ad Manager accounts associated with one email. Next, click Sign In.

You will need to add a name for your Ad Manager account that will be visible to clients, and set the time zone, currency, and other settings. 

2. Create yield partners.

You will need to add each company you signed a collaboration agreement with to your Ad Manager account. The third parties you work with are “yield partners.” To add them, click Admin > Companies.

Next, click New company > Ad network. You will need to enter a unique name to identify how the partner will appear in reports and select an ad network. You will have additional options to choose from, such as whether you will enable mediation for mobile apps for this partner or their credit settings. 

3. Add yield partner to Open Bidding.

Next, you will need to add your partner to Open Bidding. Click Delivery > Bidders.

Next, click Open Bidding > New bidder. You will need to select the bidder and the company.

Last, you will need to click Acknowledge. Doing so indicates that you have an existing contract with the third party and will notify the partner of the changes you’ve made to their account status. 

4. Add yield groups.

Now that you have buyers added, it’s time to add something for them to buy. You will add your inventory as yield groups. To begin, click Delivery > Yield groups.

Next, click New yield group. You will also enter a name for the group, an ad format, and an inventory type.

You can choose additional optional customization, such as device category, geography, and other targeting. Last, you will add the yield partners who will have access to this yield group. 

Open bidding vs. header bidding

Open bidding runs auctions on the server side, reducing publisher maintenance, while header bidding executes in the user’s browser and requires managing wrappers and partner integrations. Header bidding offers greater transparency and granular control, with all demand partners competing equally. Open bidding relies on the ad server’s ecosystem, offering simpler operations and delivering streamlined, albeit sometimes less detailed reporting.

Read more: What is Business Reporting

Google Open Bidding addendum

If you signed a Google Ad Manager contract before January 2020, your account manager must sign an Open Bidding addendum. It only needs to happen once for each account, and you will be able to use Open Bidding two to three days after your account manager processes the contract. 

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