digital advertising: introduction to yield and ad optimization presented for general assembly by...

Digital Advertising:Introduction to Yield and Ad

Optimization

Presented for General Assembly by Emry DowningHall, Cristina Calderin, Kristina Dzenis and Samuel Youn

2008After early success, we begin monetizing 100% of the ad inventory of our largest competitor.

Neal and Darshan created EasyBib.com as high schoolers to solve an annoying problem – handwritten bibliographies.

2001We acquire our 3rd largest competitor (BibMe.org) and now manage 100% of the advertising inventory of the top 3 online bibliography sites.

2011

ImagineEasy Solutions forms StudyBreak Media as its digital media division.

2012

To help manage the increased ad inventory and to scale the business the SBM team expands from 1 to 7 employees. Sites expand from 3 to 9.

2012StudyBreak Media is recognized for excellence in programmatic yield optimization by Google.

2013

StudyBreak Media is now serving over 6 billion ad impressions a year and reaching over 85% of the students in the United States

2013

2007Neal and Darshan begin working EasyBib.com full-time. I joined the team to handle the ad effort.

How we got here…

What are you doing here?

Course Goals

1. Introduce you to, or increase your understanding of ad optimization.

2. Take an introductory look at what ad optimization means, different ad partner types, ad serving and how to analyze your data.

3. Answer your ad specific questions in as personal a manner as possible. We’ll be available as long as there are questions after class.

Digital Advertising. What’s the point?

728x90 placement

300x250 placement

300x250 placement

Standard Ad Units

300x250/Box

728x90/Leaderboard

160x600/Wide Skyscraper

Why Is Ad Optimization So Important?

• Direct ad relationships with brands and agencies are rare and do not scale

• Unlike direct deals, solutions and relationships scale with your audience

• It allows you to maximize the full value of your website’s audience

• The ad industry as a whole is shifting towards a programmatic approach which requires optimization

Ad Optimization: What You Should Know

• Communicate: Share your experiences in the space, positive and negative

• Don’t be greedy: There’s plenty of premium inventory to go around!

• Testing a solution’s performance is the only way to be certain it will work for your site

• Trust your ad partners but draw your own conclusions from their ad data

• Mistakes will happen, that’s fine. Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hour rule applies

(Brace for clichés)

ad partners: who they are and how to work with them

ad partners: agenda

• common types and brand names out there• what to communicate with introductions• ad chain – combining your ad partners to

make money

common types and some names we trust

A broker between publishers (websites) and advertisers

Ad Network

Real Time Bidding, the technology that sells ad inventory in an auction-like manner to advertisers

RTB

Sells ad space (inventory) through an auction using RTB technology

Ad Exchange

how do you get them to notice you?

Subject: MarketPlace| EasyBib Ad Inquiry

Hi John Smith,

My name is Cristina, and I'm an advertising rep at EasyBib.com. I'd love to discuss the opportunity to work with MarketPlace.

Here's a bit of background on EasyBib:

• EasyBib is an online bibliography generator, providing research tools to students since 2001. All our content is 100% brand safe.

• We represent the largest 100% online student audience in the U.S., reaching over 85% of students in the nation. 

• Every month, EasyBib attracts 10 million visits, 5 million unique visitors, and over 80 million pageviews. Our average user session is 8 pages per visit, with 10 minutes duration per session.

• Ad units include 728x90, 300x250, and 160x600 all above the fold

Please feel free to contact me via email or phone. I look forward to speaking with you soon!

Best,Cristina 

What your site is all about – what makes it unique

Who’s coming to your site?

Traffic info from Google Analytics

Ad units displaying on your site

Show off….

friends with benefits….

• Setting mutual performance goals

• Negotiating the right price

• The right payment terms

putting them all together in an ad chain

Partner 1 - $3.00 rate

Partner 2 - $2.00 rate

Partner 3 - $1.00 rate

Partner 4 - $0.50 rate

The Ad Serving Process

<!-- begin Undertone Ad Tag for INT1319 - Medium Rectangle 300x250 - ROS-EasyBib--><script type='text/javascript'><!--//<![CDATA[ var ut_ju = 'http://ads.undertone.com/aj'; ut=new Object(); ut.zoneid=45867;//]]>--></script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://cdn.undertone.com/js/ajs.js"></script>

<!-- end Undertone Ad Tag for INT1319 - Medium Rectangle 300x250 - ROS-EasyBib-->

From Talks to Technical, Now What?

Ad Partner: UndertoneAd Tag: EasyBib.com 300x250

Ad Serving: What We’ll Cover

• An ad server, what? • Ad server features and how it works• From ad server to site: walk-through

a platform that hosts all operations related to displaying advertising creative on a website

Ad Server:

An Ad Server, the Ad Machine• An ad server brings the ads from the website’s back-end to live on site• Like operating a machine, you’re in control and need to tell it what to do• What to serve• Where to serve• When to serve• Who to serve to• In what priority (rank, preferred order) to serve

Ad Server Features

An interface to run your ad solution• Create advertising units• Host advertising creative• Deliver the ads you want to display• Determine delivery time: over what

period, where to, who to, etc.• Prepare campaigns and creative to serve

Let’s put it all together…

Your Website’s ads are like a Restaurant!

Your Website’s Restaurant, featuring:

Your Website’s Restaurant Digital Advertising Term

Restaurant

Patrons

Food

Chefs

Wait Staff

Restaurant Tables

Menu

Website

Site Visitors

Ad Creative/Ad Tag

Ad Partner (Creates Ad Tag)

Ad Server (machines behind the process)

Ad Units

What’s Available/Ready to Serve (Ad Inventory)

Restaurant in motion!

Chef (ad partner) prepares the food (ad tag)

Wait staff (ad server) brings food (ad tag) to patron (site user)

The patron (site user) enjoys his food!

Ad-ding to Your Site!

Ad creative

here

Site, ad-free Create ad units Set ad code to communicate between

site and ad server(invocation code)

Set up ad campaign

Why Use an Ad Server?

• Stay organized• Serve with flexibility• Target specifically• Set baselines and accountability• Cost and features

Intro to Analyzing and Optimizing Data

Intro to Analyzing and Optimizing Data1. Goals of Optimization2. Optimization Metrics3. Analysis and Optimization Setup4. Principles of Programmatic/Auction Buying 5. Optimization Guidelines

1. Optimization Goals

1. Monetize all available impressions2. Maximize revenue for each ad unit

2. Optimization Metrics

• Total Impressions• Paid Impressions• Fill Percentage = Paid Impressions/Total Impressions• Revenue• CPM• Price Floor/Auction Floor

3. Optimization Setup

Ad Partner Total Impressions

Paid Impressions

Fill Percentage

Revenue CPM

AdX 100,000 50,000 50% $50 $1.00

Revenue = CPM x (Paid Imps/1000)

Fill % = Paid Impressions / Total Impressions

CPM = Revenue / (Paid Imps/1000)

4. Principles of Programmatic Buying

Principles of Programmatic Buying

There is an inverse relationship between the CPM price floor and the fill percentage.

$- $0.10 $0.20 $0.30 $0.40 $0.50 $0.60 $0.70 $0.80 $0.90 $1.00 0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Fill Percentage Vs. CPM Price Floor

CPM Price Floor

Fill

Perc

enta

ge

Remember!

The end game of our optimization efforts is to achieve maximum total revenue for each ad unit (not maximum revenue for each individual ad partner).

Optimization Setup

5. Optimization Guidelines

1. Optimize all inventory. 2. Maintain a high fill percentage before raising price floors.3. Don’t be afraid to make changes. 4. Give your changes time to adjust.5. Trust your data, make your own conclusions.

Visit our Blog for more information!

www.studybreakmedia.com/blog

Questions?

Contact Us

Emry DowningHallDirector

emry@studybreakmedia.com

Cristina CalderinDigital Account Executive

Ad Partners Sectioncristina@studybreakmedia.com

Kristina DzenisSenior Digital Account Executive

Ad Serving Process Sectionkris@studybreakmedia.com

Samuel YounDigital Account Executive

Optimization and Yield Sectionsam@studybreakmedia.com

http://www.studybreakmedia.com

Thank you!