How to setup GAM ads for newsletters

This post was most recently updated on January 20th, 2022

Newsletter ad monetization can be intimidating because the implementation is not very straightforward and there is a lack of online resources available for reference. For publishers looking for additional revenue streams, particularly those with an email subscription base, this is worth the read.

Below is the simplified version of the entire process of setting up GAM ads in a newsletter.

Need help designing your newsletters? Be sure to check out this list of newsletter ideas from Mail Munch.

Ad unit

You first have to decide on the ad sizes you are going to run for newsletters. Have your creatives handy.

1. Log into Google Ad Manager (previously ‘Doubleclick for Publishers’/DFP)
2. Go to Inventory > Ad Units
3. Create a new ad unit as you normally would for regular banners
4. Save and create as many ad units as necessary.

Order & line items

Decide on how you’d like to organize your Orders and Line items. For a more granular reporting and ease of optimization, we suggest creating a separate Order per advertiser.

1. On Google Ad Manager, go to Delivery > Order
2. Create a New Order and give it a name + specify Ad Network name
3. Create the line item
4. Give it a name and define inventory size/s
5. Set line item type and all other relevant settings
6. Under ‘Add targeting,’ target the ad unit you created in the previous step for newsletters
7. Save and upload creative

Generating Tags

A few facts regarding newsletter tags:

1. Must use simple URL tags since we are implementing on a non-JS environment.
2. Generating tags in Google Ad Manager as you normally would, is not going to work.
3. Most of the email clients block iframes
4. You need to have the banner as an image tag

Use this tag as a template and just modify the parts as broken down in the table below:

Testing

To test it, do the following:

Open the URL tag in your browser > right click > Inspect

Click on the Network tab

It should show Content-Type: image/png

Conclusion

As you can see, monetizing your newsletter with DFP ads (now Google Ad Manager) is not as complicated as it seems. Need help setting up ads in your website, running header bidding, or optimizing your ad inventory? Sign up for a Professional account at MonetizeMore today!

Kean Graham

Kean Graham is the CEO and founder of MonetizeMore & a pioneer in the Adtech Industry. He is the resident expert in Ad Optimization, covering areas like Adsense Optimization,GAM Management, and third-party ad network partnerships. Kean believes in the supremacy of direct publisher deals and holistic optimization as keys to effective and consistent ad revenue increases.