Digital media can be frustrating sometimes, but looking it from a professional perspective, it helps us to come up with the next best business model ever. Agencies are always busy with thinking about coming up with strategies, products, and ideas. So the question is, how do these agencies improve themselves through using digital media?

Few agencies think that the best way to improve their agencies is through trading, planning or strategy which in the long run can attract mass amounts of clients. Although in the advanced digital media marketing world the most advantageous way to improve is through operation, i.e. digital operations.

Digital Ops team runs digital marketing technologies in order to operate digital campaigns effectively while collecting data. Furthermore, digital ops team provides technical assistance and bits of advice to go through the digital media market in today’s digital world.

So looking at this checklist, you will get notified what suggestions you should execute in order to navigate in today’s digital landscape

Digital Media Operation Team Should Be on Point

In a given agency, the digital operation team should be the most intelligent people and up to date with the digital media across the digital advertising landscape. Here we are not saying that the given agency should only focus on improving their digital operation team because an agency is also composed of other team members such as administration, customer support, and technicians. If one of these groups deescalates, the whole agency might suffer.

Have Different Groups of Tech Pros And Digital Media Op team

To become an expert in your field, the digital operations team needs to be the best in other fields. This includes traffickers, SEO experts. Following the order, the agency should also have an expert social media promoter and improve the ranking of the agency in the digital media spectrum.

Digital media Op Team Should Learn To Adapt

The digital operation team should realize that adaptation is key in surviving and advancing in today’s contemporary technology. Some basis should not be changed in order to keep a certain standard in this field. Technology can change thanks to the rapid discoveries in the tech world quickly, and what we should do is to build an effort to be on the first row in these epic discoveries.

These tips will help you to navigate through the world of ad trafficking. There is no time for trial and error because relatively it is time-consuming and can effect on your revenue. Our resources can assist you to increase your revenues, managing a successful campaign, and most importantly maintain a high standard on the market. By perceiving our catalog, if you are an expert on a newcomer to ad trafficking and ad operations, you might learn techniques that can come handy to you.

The Do’s of Ad Trafficking

1. Ensure that all line item data and orders, entered into the ad server, accurately match the IO (line item values, advertiser, naming conventions, CPMs, etc)

When running many indirect partners (network, SSPs, exchanges) check priorities, pass backs, network settings, CPMs.
2. Before booking campaigns, check available inventory. When the campaign is sold, instantaneously reserve ad server inventory.

3. Place all new creative/tags on a chosen test page, that impersonates your live environment, for thorough QA

4. After the campaign launch, within 1 hour check the ad server to confirm clicks are tracking, and the impressions are serving.

5. 24 hours after lunch, check 3rd party system, and compare deliverable with 1st party ad server

6. Take screenshots and send to advertiser immediately after lunch

7. Set up weekly 1st and 3rd party automated reports.

8. Set up campaigns to deliver evenly throughout campaign duration.

9. Approve all “performance optimizations” with advertiser/agency before making adjustments within the ad server.

10. Be active in pointing out campaign performance “highlights” and “lowlights” with an advertiser and provide suggested optimizations.

The Don’ts of Ad Trafficking

1. Don’t activate a campaign and let it run on autopilot

2. Do not set up “indirect” advertising as guaranteed inventory. Do not activate a campaign and let it run on “auto-pilot”.

3. Do not set up “indirect” advertising as guaranteed inventory.

4. Do not make revisions or optimizations without a new IO.

5. Do not serve 3rd party tags without testing.

6. Do not assume the agency/advertiser/network’s creative is up to spec.

Outsourcing has been a huge trend in online advertising field. For many companies, either small or big, outsourcing ad operations make a big leap in progressing in your business and encounter large revenues throughout executing objectives.

When should companies start outsourcing ad operations?

Managing ad campaigns can be very time-consuming and overwhelming for the accounting team. For that reason, campaign executions can be left for entry level employees so the higher professional team can handle higher level tasks. Also, when there is shortage of employees, outsourcing ad operations can be executed immediately

Analyzing a campaign is also a time-consuming procedure, similar to executing. There are two parts: analysis and reporting.

Similar to campaign execution, reporting consumes a lot of entry-level employee time. With the rising arrangements of online marketing, clients now are demanding more features of a campaign be supervised.

Campaign analysis necessitates the attention of high – level employees who are qualified and capable in online marketing. Also, Agencies have to spend a lot of their resources in order to stay prominent in online marketing data.

What functions should you start outsourcing in terms of ad operations?

Quality assurance in an ad server is a major factor for outsourcing because top qualified companies contain experts who can execute the job smoothly. So handling outsourcing to adequately picked companies will help you not to lose even a single penny, because once you manage underqualified people, you will lose revenue while trying to teach them ad trafficking.

Benefits of outsourcing your ad operations

To scale professionally, an agency should not only focus on attracting new businesses but also meet the needs of our new clients. Hiring every business that we encounter can damage the company in the long run.

Concerning revenues, when highly leveled employees spend their time on such low-level tasks, agencies would not receive any benefits in return because they are busy with such operations. So these kinds of operations should be handed to entry-level employees, and revenues will inevitably go up.

The internet marketing business is complex with its beauty, but it’s exciting for those who are curious to keep up with its trends. Each year, new companies and industries always try to adapt to the newest technologies in order to make sure they reach their target audience. And those who adopt, they have the upper hand. This year seems amazing for internet marketing, and with these internet marketing tips, it will give you a clue how the digital world would look like.

Internet marketing tips – attention! Smartphones will dominate personal computers (PC):

Last year Google announced that mobile traffic overtook desktop traffic in most developed countries, This means that most optimized websites only for smartphones are acceptable for Google. Looking back at previous years, newly created websites should be based on desktop-optimized websites in order to satisfy Google’s terms. But as we can see now, most of us today substituted smartphones with desktops which made website developers to make websites more compatible with smartphones, rather than desktops.

Internet marketing tips – video ads will dominate

We have all seen video ads on Youtube that keep popping up every time we try to play our favorite videos. Since Youtube is a social platform, it promotes hosting billions of advertisements such as Facebook and Twitter. Thus Youtube soon will overtake Facebook in hosting ads with its users getting more compatible in using Youtube with its ads. On top of that, now Google owns Youtube so expect infinite ads in the upcoming years!

Internet marketing plans – new optimization will be lead by digital assistants

The classic way to promote your website and get seen by others is the usage of search engine optimization (SEO) and Pay per click (PPC). With the rapid development of the digital market, most users are now utilizing other searching methods such as Cortana and Siri. The key here is to make your website compatible with these digital assistants to make sure your website is accessible in every way possible.
Internet marketing plans – Mobile App indexing will lead

2016 will be the year where most website owners will seek other mediums to get access to their crowds. Google permits mobile friendly website even without having a desktop version of it since people now tend to use smartphones. In that matter, mobile apps will even take over mobile friendly websites in the upcoming years because it’s easier to navigate and more efficient to use.

Ad inventory has significant importance if a publisher wants to monetize his/her website online. So the question is, what is an ad inventory? And why it is necessary to make revenue out of it. Ad inventory is the number of advertisements or the number of ad space you have on your website so that advertisers who have similar and relevant items can advertise on your site. Ad inventory can be calculated differently regarding traffic or ad clicks that the website publisher can deliver to the advertisers.

Ad inventory – Ad Space

You have always seen random advertisements located on the top, bottom, or side of websites. The places that the advertisements are placed are called Ad space. More ad space you have, more money you can make from the advertisers because there will be more space for them to post their advertisements. Web pages can contain one or multiple ad display spaces, and the format of the space can vary.

Ad inventory – Page impressions

Ad inventory is often calculated by the number of page impressions a website has. In other words, impressions are the number of clicks your page’s advertisements get thus the publisher can demand money from his/her Ad space from the advertisers.

Ad inventory – Ad Value

However, the calculation of ad value has countless complex variables. The possible ad value of your website is the page impressions multiplied by the average number of your ads on your web page. Your ad location is another variable that can effect on the value of your Ad spaces. Not all Ad spaces have similar rent values on your website, for example, banner Ads at the top of the pages cost more compared to side Ad spaces because the top page ads are always visible, and there is no need to scroll down to view it.

Ad inventory – ATF (Above the Fold)

The term above the fold (ATF) refers to the content of the website that is visible without further actions. The opposite of it is below the fold (BTF) when the area of site is visible after scrolling down. Statistics show that in some cases above the fold is more valuable and receives visitors’ attention. On the one hand, the portion located below the screen is sometimes ignored. But on the other, you can enrich your content on each page with keywords, thus increasing impact on SEO.

Here you saw the basis of Ad inventory and how it seems more complicated than it is perceived. For more information and expert training for DFP, contact our consultants.

 “CPA, or cost per action, is the Holy Grail for targeted advertising.”

                                                               -Marissa Mayer, President and CEO, Yahoo

Over the last decades, the internet has become an important and main source for advertising. Online advertising took over the advertising medium and according to statistics only in US advertisers spend more than $31 billion on online advertising.

At the beginning of the online advertising technology, advertisers were mainly using the simplest pricing model called CPM or cost per thousands of impressions. This strategy means that advertisers pay a specific amount of money for every thousand displays of their advertisements. CPM became very popular after it was adopted by the Google-owned technology called DoubleClick.

Performance-based pricing

With the advances in online advertising technologies, advertisers and publishers started to use performance-based pricing. The first pricing model of performance-based pricing is CPC or cost per click. In this setting, advertisers are only paying if the viewers click on their advertisement. Leading companies like Google and Yahoo adopted this model as well,and it became popular rapidly.

Now, a new performance-based pricing is being introduced: CPA

This new model is called CPA or cost per action. Cost per action manages advertising payments when specific actions are taken. These actions include email sign-ups, downloads, purchases and much more. In other words, advisers pay every time a third-party click on his advertisement AND sign up for a trail of his product, download, register or purchase a product.

So, how is CPA beneficial for advertisers?

• CPA is less risky!

The main advantage of cost per action pricing model is that it is less risky than any other online advertising model. Because advertisers pay only when a lead or a sale is made, it eliminates the chances that advertisers will waste money on advertisements that do not benefit the business.

• No frauds!

Cost per action pricing model also completely removes the possibilities of getting involved in frauds. Nowadays, many auto-clicking software and tools are developed that flood pay per click schemes with frauds. However, with cost per action model, there are no chances of getting tricked.

•  CPA ease the process of planning the budget!

 With CPA, advisers have freedom to choose how much they are willing to pay to publishers. Advisers can manage their budget based on their preferences and priorities. If it is important for advisers to have more subscribers, they might consider raising the price for every subscription. CPA enables advisers to manage each action this way!

With the increasing popularity of online advertising, one of the most important things to keep in mind when using digital advertising as key strategy for your business is the deliberate audience targeting.

Nowadays, online advertising has become an important way to create brand awareness, increase sales and maximize revenue. One of the reasons that online advertising has become so popular is its ability to share product information with anyone without any geographical boundary. Nonetheless, this freedom to spread information that online advertising allows is not always beneficial.

The market for almost every product has become unimaginable versatile and differentiated. Thus, implementing general approach by assuming that all audience segments can be equally interested in the product that you offer is no longer an option.  Trying to deliver product to every available niche is incredibly difficult and inefficient.

On the contrary, the right audience targeting gives clear ideas as to whom you business should serve and what message it should deliver.

For example, social media allows you to target audience based on demographics, location, hobby, and behavior. Groups are created based on users’ internet surfing history, and only ads that are relevant to their interest are shown. This results in higher yield for lower cost and thus increase the return on investment.

Here is another example of targeted advertising, that engage the most relevant audience by choosing users based on their online behavior. Imagine that your company only specializes in selling eBooks. For you, the most efficient way to manage your advertising spend will be to target your online advertisement to only those who visit websites like Goodreads or Scribd.  This will not only significantly increase the sales, as only already interested customers will approach your website, but will also reduce your advertisement spending.

There is yet another reason why the audience targeting maximizes revenue.  It allows saving time, energy and money significantly while writing content for advertisement. If you know more about the audience for whom you are going to write, the writing process itself becomes easier and requires fewer people and consequently less money.

Therefore, the audience targeting is beneficial for both companies that advertise their product, and customers that are interested in the product. It increases the effectiveness of online advertising and enables a better use of advertisement spending.

If you are running an ad campaign, you are most certainly thinking how to increase the popularity of your online ad. One of the most important elements of your online ad is surely the creative. However, writing a persuasive and engaging copy for the banner of the ad is quite challenging.

Here are the 6 ways to increase the popularity of your online ad with the help of a good banner ad copy.

#1 Clearly define what you are selling

In order to present your product to the audience that does not have any idea about you and your company, you first need to understand your product yourself. Increase the popularity of your online ad by thinking what your actual product is and what services it has to offer.

#2 Imagine that you are the person reading the ad

Putting yourself in the shoes of one reading your ad is a great way to understand your audience. After understanding the emotions and concerns of your audience, you will be able to write an ad that will catch attention right away.

#3 Evoke curiosity

To make your ad more engaging, you can use phrases like “How to…” or “How do I …” in the headline of your banner ad copy. This way reader will be willing to continue reading your ad and might also consider purchasing your product. Do not forget to include words like amazing, super, excellent that express strong emotions.

#4 Write about the benefit

If you want the audience to purchase your product, you need to define clearly the benefits that they will receive.  Customers want to know what the direct benefits from your product are, and thus including it in your banner ad copy will most certainly increase the popularity of your online ad. However, you also need to be cautious, as credibility is another factor to increase the popularity of your online ad. Offer and write about servic you can actually provide.

#5 Define your strengths

Understand how your product is different from the one of your competitors, and why do consumers need to purchase yours. Brainstorm about all the possible characteristics that describes your product. Sit down with the blank sheet of paper and write down everything that comes to your mind. You can also look at articles, magazines or books to come up with some ideas.

#6 Combine all of the steps above

Take your time to work through all of these steps and do not worry if you come up with more than one banner ad copy idea.  Writing a good copy is a challenging and time-consuming process, with this steps and diligent works, however, it is definitely feasible to increase the popularity of your online ad.

Video advertising is gaining popularity day by day. Although video ads take only 6% of the total internet ad revenue, it is quite a promising field. The digital video ads have gained popularity with the introduction of digital video ad type called in-stream advertising.

In-stream video advertising is similar to TV commercials and is used to target younger generations that no longer actively use television. The idea is similar to TV commercials, however, in-stream video advertising is usually shorter. They appear before, during or after a particular internet video. In-stream video ads interrupt’s the online video only for 15 to 30 seconds.

There are 3 main types of in-stream video ads:

• Pre-roll
• Mid-roll
• Post-roll

As you might have already guessed, Pre-roll video ads are shown before the video loads. Mid-roll ads are similar to commercial breaks and are shown during the video content. These ads do not need to be shown only once, and they can repeat depending on the length of the online video. Finally, post-roll ads are shown only after the internet video.

Obviously, the Post-roll in-stream video advertising is the least effective one, as the viewer is no longer engaged in the content and can easily skip the ad.  Pre-roll video ads are more effective, as they obligate viewer to wait for the content to start. The most beneficial one, however, is the Mid-roll video ads as they completely pause the video, and the viewer is more likely to watch the whole ad in order to continue watching the content. Moreover, because there is an option for Mid-roll ads to appear in video overlays that are inserted in the top of the video, Mid-roll ads are considered to be more efficient.

You might ask “What are the benefits of In-Stream Video Ads?”

Well, the biggest benefit is that it looks less like usual advertising. This way viewers are willing to engage with the content more. In-stream Ads, just like any other advertisement, also benefit the video provider.

Because In-Stream Advertising is only about 15 to 30 seconds, they are a great way to brand the product. However, there is also usually an option to skip the ad after 5 seconds, so the ad must have a short message, and engaging content.

You can also direct traffic your ads to content on your website and get customers to engage further with your brand. But again, it is important for the traffic to be a director to relevant pages. Otherwise, the viewer would not want to continue researching your website.

In-stream Advertising is considered to be a future of digital advertising. It has all the potential and benefits of TV Advertising.

Digital Ads have forgone a significant advancement since their introduction. They have transformed to a type of art that marketers experiment with trough creative processes. Nowadays, there are three major types of digital ads that marketers are using to spread the awareness of their products.

These are the types of Digital Ads that every digital marketer should know:

• Concept Ads
• Content Ads
• Commerce Ads

Let’s first discuss what are the Concept Ads and what role do they play in digital advertisement

Concept Ads are used to boost interest and drive awareness of the advertised products. They are the first thing that digital marketers do to engage consumers. They make the first impression of the product and are meant to be memorable and create the desire to purchase the product. The forms of concept ads can be various:

• Pop-up ads
• Videos
• Commercials
• Billboards

Based on studies conducted to measure the efficiency of the concept ads, the longer the ads are in view of the target audience the more efficient the brand lift will be. It is also shown that this way it is more likely for consumers to remember and recall the brand.

Another type of digital ads that every marketer should know is called content ads

Content Ads are the continuation of the concept ads. Their primary role is to turn the interest generated by the concept ads into desire. Content ads help consumers to understand the product thoroughly by providing content that is easy to engage with. They are often delivered in

• Stream of assets in a vertical ad format
• Stream of content (social media like Facebook )

The effectiveness of content ads is measured by page views, social actions and the time consumers engage with it. However, to gain the best out of this ads, marketers usually pair content ads with other types of digital ads.

The last type of digital ads that every marketer should know is Commerce ads

Commerce ads are the dominant ones in digital marketing. You will certain come across one while browsing the web. They are usually not so creative or engaging, but they offer specific content to the targeted audience. It is argued that commerce ads are the most effective types of digital ads, as their effectiveness is easy to see. The success of commerce ads are based on the amount of clicks that the ad received and the times the product was purchased.

It is hard to judge which type of digital ads is the most efficient one. It is also difficult to say which one the marketer should choose. However, the one thing is certain—the combination of concept ads, content ads and commerce ads is the beneficial solution.