Mobile publishers and wireless carriers can learn a lesson from Google, which just opened its doors to third-party ad serving. If you want to scale, open up and get third-party vendors working for you.

The Google Content Network lacked support for agencies until now. The open network makes running a campaign on Google much easier for advertisers as they can not only serve display ads, but also track them, including rich media ads, across the Google content network through AdWords. This is designed to give them more options, flexibility and control over advertisers' campaigns.

"For Google, opening up the network may represent a lesson learned both from itself and from competitors," said Amit Rahav, vice president of marketing at Eyeblaster. "Google's search dominance owes a lot to external providers who built technology and services on top of the Google search inventory. It is only sensible to try doing the same in display, where Google is still up-and-coming.

"On the other hand, competitors Yahoo and Microsoft became display advertising powerhouses, in part, by adopting an open partnership approach," he said. "Google, by not supporting buy-side ad servers, excluded itself from a huge part of the large scale display campaigns that rely on such agency technology."

Ad servers, rich media ad agencies and research firms can go through a certification process that ensures the advertiser service and user experience.

In fact, advertisers and agencies now have the ability to serve ads and measure performance through certified third-parties such as DoubleClick, Mediaplex, DoubleClick Rich Media, Eyeblaster, EyeWonder, Interpolls, PointRoll, Unicast, Dynamic Logic, IAG Research, InsightExpress and Factor TG.

Google plans to certify more third-party partners in the future.

"A significant share of Microsoft and Yahoo's display success had to do with their long-standing strategy of openness to display-ad partners," Mr. Rahav said.

"That very same strategy -- of being an open platform -- is what built Google's search dominance and can now do the same in display inventory," he said.

So advertisers may benefit from the openness of the content network.

For publishers, this program offers a way to expand their advertiser base and enable advertisers to better understand the value of their inventory. They will also be able to serve more compelling display ads to their visitors.

"As mobile advertising evolves and matures, advertisers will demand consistent, in-depth analytics and immersive consumer engagement frameworks," Mr. Rahav said. "Service becomes critical as campaigns grow in complexity and here too these providers will add value to mobile inventory.

"All said, allowing partners to serve to your mobile inventory is not without its issues," he said. "To be able to retain client confidence and quality of user experience, Google defined a process for certifying trusted partners like Eyeblaster and other companies. Defining such rules of engagement creates the win-win ecosystem that helped scale Web advertising and stands to do the same for the mobile world."