With the purchase of AdMeld, Google has effectively upped the ante in the online advertising space. One of the largest media companies in the space is coming ever closer to assembling the elusive technology “stack” that everyone seems to be whispering about these days – myself included.
But there are still questions surrounding what kind of stack Google is actually assembling, and whether or not it will serve publisher’s needs in an easy-to-use fashion.
First, let’s look at what stack really means in this sense. By definition, a technology stack is a set of components or layers in a software offering that provides broad functionality. Microsoft Office is an easy example. The combination of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Exchange improves personal productivity for billions of people.
In our industry, the stack is usually defined as the collection of tools publishers or advertisers need to drive efficiency. For a publisher, this suite could include sales order management, inventory forecasting, data management, rich media tools, an ad serving engine (for display, mobile and video), yield management, remnant optimization and analysis tools, all rolled into one place. Think about that — one offering that provides all the functionality needed to manage an online business.
The agency stack might be a little different. It would probably include tools that provide functionality around media creation, media buying, audience segmentation, verification, performance, delivery (across multiple channels) and a host of others.
Given the relative infancy of our industry, individual companies provide almost all of these components separately. The company that can offer the broadest suite of tools usually wins the market share battle and therefore exerts the greatest influence on the market. Again, look at the way Microsoft Office owns the desktop and drives market features.
By acquiring AdMeld, Google is even closer to delivering the full stack of technology that publishers need, and reaching this lofty perch that will drive the market.
However, it’s not clear how Google plans to integrate these pieces. Technology is a tricky thing, and innovative companies usually build products and components to solve one specific problem. Most technology companies don’t plan on being bought, so they rely on their own systems and infrastructure. The underlying architecture they utilize is vastly different from the products with which they’ll be integrated after the acquisition is complete. Data flowing between two previously disparate systems must be normalized, or else these two systems won’t work together.
Another key issue is the distinct user interface associated with each product. Ideally, all the products joined together in a stack have one simple UI so that users don’t have to log into multiple systems to utilize all of the new functionality. That’s the logic behind creating the stack in the first place. This is a major undertaking, of course, but Google’s one of the few companies with the chops to get it done.
In a perfect world, a technology company can build one platform that provides the functionality needed across a business. As each new component is built, it utilizes the existing data structure and architecture to simply add in the necessary functionality. The perfect stack solution also needs a single UI to access all of the functionality available in the platform.
Google has shrewdly leapfrogged everyone in our space, and the search giant now presents formidable competition for other companies looking to enter online media. Google now owns and operates technology on both sides of the demand and supply fence. The key benefit for them is that this technology is already widely adapted across the marketing landscape, putting Google in a unique position. The next thing to keep an eye on is how they increase the communication between their tools — and whether or not they improve usability across the stack.
With the purchase of AdMeld, Google has effectively upped the ante in the online advertising space. One of the largest media companies in the space is coming ever closer to assembling the elusive technology “stack” that everyone seems to be whispering about these days – myself included.
But there are still questions surrounding what kind of stack Google is actually assembling, and whether or not it will serve publisher’s needs in an easy-to-use fashion.