In Google Ad Manager, inventory is the ad space on your website or app where you display ads. This inventory is what you sell to advertisers or buyers.
You create ad units to represent that ad space. Ad units can be grouped into placements, such as with a placement for sports content on a news site.
As part of creating an ad unit, you generate some code (such as a Google Publisher Tag). The code is then inserted on the pages of your website, or parts of your app. When a user visits your website or app, the code makes a request for an ad from Ad Manager. If there's an eligible ad campaign in your Ad Manager network, an ad is then shown on your website or app.
Inventory and targeting
The term inventory is often used more broadly by other Ad Manager users or across the digital ads industry. Often, "inventory" includes not just the space on your website or app but also targeting. Targeting can relate to:
- Where: Targeting allows you to limit where an ad shows on your website or app. Advertisers, for example, might only want to show ads on your homepage and not the rest of your website.
One important feature you'll encounter when thinking about where ads show is key-values. Key-values are versatile and are used in many ways in Ad Manager. For example, you can define where particular ad space lives on your website or app. Learn more in Structure your inventory.
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Who: Targeting can also limit who you show an ad to. For example, advertisers might find it more valuable to reach users on your website or app who are in New York City and between the ages of 18 and 32.
When you sell inventory, then, you're not just selling the ad space on your digital property, but you're also selling the targeting—the "where" and the "who."
Targeting is an important and robust feature of Google Ad Manager. To learn more, visit About targeting.
Inventory structure
You can define your networks' inventory structure in the "Inventory" section of your Ad Manager network. To navigate to this section of Ad Manager:
- Sign in to Google Ad Manager.
- Click Inventory.
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