Ad manager admin homeThe ad manager module provides a single interface for managing ads from various providers.

Providers are modules written to bring in ad units from advertising networks such as DoubleClick, AdSense, etc.

Get started

Without ad providers the ad manager module will not do anything for a site, other than creating admin pages.

To begin using ad manager you should install an ad provider listed on the ad manager project page or develop your own.

Setting permissions

Once you have installed ad manager you should proceed to the permissions page of your site (admin/people/permissions) to enable the administer ad manager permission for any roles that should be able to create/edit/delete ad units or set provider settings.

Providers may supply their own permissions in addition to the administer ad manager permission. You should also check for any permissions your installed ad providers supply.

Configuring provider settings

Providers may supply a form on the ad manager settings page (admin/structure/ad-manager/settings) . Upon installing an ad provider it is recommended to check the page to see if there is any configuration that needs to be done, most modules will likely need at least an account identifier for the ad network the provider integrates.

Providers are not forced to supply a configuration form on the ad manager settings page. If you do not have any providers installed that make use of the settings page, the page will be blank with a submit button which does nothing.

Create an ad unit

To create ad units visit the ad manager list page (admin/structure/ad-manager) and click the + Add link.

The following page allows you to set the name of the ad unit and select the ad provider to be used for displaying the ad. Once satisfied click the continue button to proceed to the next step of editing the ad unit, the ad provider settings form.

Ad manager ad provider formOn this page you will be prompted to fill out a form that will control the display of the ad. The form is managed by the ad provider, thus if anything is confusing you should refer to the documentation for the provider module.

When finished with the ad provider form click the finish button at the end of the form.

Edit an ad unit

Editing an ad unit is nearly self explanatory with one potential hiccup for those unfamiliar with CTools multi-step forms.

When editing the ad unit the ad provider settings form is not immediately visible, to access that form you will find the following text above the name field on the edit ad form: Ad settings » Ad provider settings. To access the ad provider settings you must click the Ad provider settings link.

Place an ad unit

Placing an ad unit can be done in a variety of ways as the ad unit is simply a block, so you can make use of Drupal core's block handling, Context, Panels, etc. The name of the block will be Ad: ad_name_you_set.

If you wish to place the same ad unit twice on a page the Drupal core block handling will unfortunately not work, as a block can only be placed once, so a contributed module such as Panels should be used.

To programmatically place an ad unit you would do something like this in your code:
$vars['right1'] = theme('ad_manager_ad', array('name' => 'right1'));

Creating providers

To create your own custom providers visit the how to create providers documentation.