Operating and managing ad campaigns can be a difficult task, but it doesn't have to be. There are many free ad operations tools available that can make the process much easier. In this blog post, we'll take a look at the top free tools for ad operations. Whether you're looking for a tool to help preview ads, test ads, debug ads, or look at ads in other geos, there's something here for everyone!
Chrome Dev Tools: One of the most essential tools for ad operations is Chrome Dev Tools. This tool allows you to see how your ads are performing in different browsers and on different devices. You can also use it to debug any issues with your ads and use it to manipulate the elements on the page to do things like injecting ads on the page for ad screenshot purposes.
Google HTML5 Validator: The Google HTML5 Validator is a great free ad operations tool for testing your HTML5 ads based on Google's rules. It will help you find any errors in your ad code and fix them.
PreviewAds.com: This is a great tool for quickly previewing your ad tags, HTML5 ads and VAST tags. For previewing HTML5 ads it will link to your Google HTML5 validator scan, preview the live ad (client-side), display each frame of the animation as individual images, record a video of the HTML5 ad, and capture the ads network performance. For ad tags, you'll also get landing page info such as a screenshot, URL, and query parameters. Plus, you can share these ad previews with clients to get feedback or fix issues.
Test-a-Tag: Great for previewing MRAID ads or just a simple ad tag preview.
Google Tag Assistant: Google Tag Assistant is a great tool for debugging your Google tracking scripts on any page. It will help you find any errors in your tracking code and fix them.
YouTube VAST Validator: The YouTube VAST Validator is a great tool for testing your VAST tags. It will help you find any errors in your VAST tag.
Google Ads Editor: The Google Ads Editor is a great tool for managing your Google Ads campaigns and presenting them to your clients. It allows you to make bulk changes to your campaigns, preview the changes before they go live, and Undo/Redo any changes you make.
Charles Proxy / Fiddler / Firebug: All three of these tools are great for debugging issues with your ad tags. They allow you to see the request and response headers, as well as the actual ad tag code. The UI is much to be desired, but they’re go-to classics.
Geopeeker / Geo Screenshot / Geo Browse: All three of these free ad operations tools are great for previewing how your websites and the ads being displayed in different geos. Great for ensuring your geo-targeting and messaging is working correctly.
Canva: Canva is a great tool for creating visuals for your ads. You can create image ads, HTML5 ads, and much more.
Punchlist: Punchlist allows you to share creative files with internal and external stakeholders so that you can get feedback on what needs to be changed. We use this in combination with PrevewAds.com to give feedback on ads.
YouTube Masthead preview: This tool allows you to preview how your ad will look on the YouTube Masthead for desktop, mobile, and TV.
YouTube Mockup: Mock up a YouTube ad on different devices. It’s useful to show a client what their ad will look like on YouTube.
SellerCrowd: Join 25k+ sellers sharing contacts, news and tactics about brands & media agencies. Ad sellers will share buying info on companies and contacts. There’s also lots of info on ad-related job openings.
Ad Buyer & Vendor Database: Find info on thousands of ad buyers and vendors. They have lots of great filters for finding companies you want to work with.
Ads.txt Validator: Validate your ads.txt file to make sure it's correctly formatted.
Ad Reform Resources list: A list of books, publications, and news sources covering ad tech.
