Part 2 of 3: Exploring the technical approaches to self-serve advertising

In the first part of this series I addressed the problem and opportunity that online publishers face in servicing smaller ad orders. In summary, a self-serve advertising platform is a very effective solution for processing ad orders under $5000. In part 2 of this 3 part series, I will identify to the two primary types of solutions available to publishers today.

Self-serve via JavaScript

This type of solution is integrated into the publisher’s ad server via JavaScript and will require a bit more human involvement. Publisher’s ad ops team will have to set up a campaign for the self-serve solution similar to how they set up an ad network in the ad server. Therefore a specific amount of inventory must be allocated and will need to be monitored on an on-going basis.

Self-serve via API

This type of solution is integrated directly into the publisher’s ad server via an API. With this type of solution no specific inventory needs to be allocated since inventory availability is determined when the advertiser is ready to buy.

The automation factor of a self-serve advertising platform is key to maximizing publisher’s revenue from advertisers with smaller ad orders. An API based solution is fully automated with one exception; each campaign requires approval from ad ops before going live (for quality control purposes). All other aspects happen without human involvement including sales, campaign trafficking, reporting and payment. Whereas a JavaScript based solution, as mentioned above, requires ad ops team members to create a campaign, allocate inventory and monitor.

The API based solution also offers advertisers full targeting capabilities, which is a great incentive for advertisers with smaller budgets; most value for their dollar spent. This is not the case with a JavaScript based solution, which unfortunately does not have the same targeting functions. For example, it lacks ability to use key value pairs to target ads.

Why the different technical approaches?

Vendors using the JavaScript approach are typically an ad network offering self-serve as a value-add solution or come from an ad network background, they will also cross-sell other sites using their solution. The API based solutions, on the other hand, are pure-play advertising technology companies focused on solving a pain point for publishers while giving them maximum control and flexibility.

I hope you found this information valuable and would love to hear your thoughts on self-serve advertising. Feel free to comment below – let’s get the conversation started.

Also published on the AdMonsters Blog

Part 1 of 3: Importance of targeting smaller advertisers

A majority of online publishers primarily focus their ad sales efforts on agencies and large brand advertisers via their direct sales force. The cost of operation for this sales channel often requires them to set a minimum ad buy per campaign. In conversations I’ve had with multiple online publishers in North America we have heard that the cost of running an online campaign ranges from $2,500 to $4,000 per campaign. This includes the sales, operations and finance costs. As such you will find that minimum ad buys are set between $2,500 and $10,000 per buy.

With that said, advertisers seeking to purchase smaller ad orders are unable to work directly with online publishers because of these minimums. In most cases, smaller advertisers will spend their advertising budget on solutions like Google AdSense. The limited amount of options for smaller advertisers has a direct effect on online publishers; either they will only generate a small amount of revenue from ad networks or it will all go to companies like Google.

Although their ad orders are of a smaller dollar value, the number of potential advertisers in this segment of the market far exceeds those of large brands; according to Borrel, SMBs make up for 95 percent of all local advertising online. Therefore, it is illogical for publishers to not seek a more effective solution to serve the smaller advertiser market. The potential to generate a higher eCPM than you would from an ad network or exchange is there; it just needs to be considered.

In my 15 years of experience in the digital media world, I have explored this topic in depth and feel there is one option that is simple enough for advertisers (without experience) to work with and provides publishers with a decent return: self-serve advertising platforms. With a self-serve solution, publishers can automate the sales, operations and finance components of running a campaign thereby making the process of servicing smaller advertisers less costly and more profitable. There is no human involvement from the perspective of an online publisher, which can be the most costly component.

Obviously a solution like this will not work if it is not properly promoted, but if done well, can make a big impact on publisher’s ad revenues. But don’t take my word for it; try it out for yourself! Most solutions work on a revenue sharing model so it’s free to get started.

Anyone out there try a self-serve solution yet? If so, I’d love to hear about your experience. Feel free to comment and let’s get the conversation started!

Also published on the AdMonsters blog.

With the popularity of iPhone apps and now iPad apps, mobile advertising has become a very exciting growth market. To monetize that mobile traffic, apps are today relying on mobile ad networks such as Google’s adMob, mobclix and soon Apple’s iAds.

While eCPMs on the iPhone have been better than traditional online eCPMs, they never get near direct-sales ad rates (card-rates)Â since app owners are running their ads through ad networks. Â That is where Shiny Ads’ self-service advertising platform can help.

While most of our publishers operate large online web sites, our platform can also handle mobile advertising in apps and to showcase how you can accomplish this, I’ll give you an example of one of our publishers who also has an iphone app;

Dogbook released an iPhone app that has similar functionality to their famous Facebook app. Â They chose to monetize it with a 320×48 ad unit at the bottom of their application. Â This ad unit is being served by the same OpenX ad server that serves their online ads. Â This has the benefit of allowing Dogbook to change their ads in real-time and not have to release app updates whenever they change ad networks or paid campaigns. Â They are planning on an iPad version too and the only change that they will need to do, is to create a new ad unit with a size of 640×50.

Since this ad unit is being served up by a traditional ad server, they created a new ad zone in Shiny Ads that allows smaller advertisers to purchase the iPhone ad unit. Â These ad campaigns get served up instead of the ad network ads and monetize at a much higher revenue level. Â When a user clicks on the ad, a new Safari full-page window opens up with the destination URL.

If you don’t run your own ad server, you can still use Shiny Ads’ ad serving code in place of your traditional ad network code. Â Just point your mobile ad unit to our ad serving code and place your ad network’s ad serving code as the default ad in our publisher interface. Â That will ensure that when you receive an advertising order, it will be displayed instead of the ad network’s remnant banners.

For the last 3 weeks, our self-serve advertising interface has been asking advertisers specific questions about the ad purchase process. Shiny Ads has been metrics tracking in places for months now, but until now we didn’t know why users “dropped off” the sales cycle.

Today, we made available 3 key pieces of feedback so that our publisher can make the appropriate changes to their pricing and media kits and increase their conversation rates:

• Was there enough information in the media kit?
• Was the price reasonable?
• Was the pricing options easy to understand?

The advertiser interface is now capable of being viewed in Spanish and soon other languages will be available.

An advertiser can now select their geo-targeted cities by using our auto-suggester input field. The cities correspond to the cities available in the OpenX MaxMind geoIP database; 2.2 million cities.

This allows local advertisers to geo-target the correct cities and not worry about spelling mistakes.