Digital Advertising: Introduction to Yield and Ad Optimization Presented for General Assembly by Emry DowningHall, Cristina Calderin, Kristina Dzenis and Samuel Youn How we got here… 2007 2001 Neal and Darshan begin working EasyBib.com fulltime. I joined the team to handle the ad effort. 2008 After early success, we begin monetizing 100% of the ad inventory of our largest competitor. We acquire our 3rd largest competitor (BibMe.org) and now manage 100% of the advertising inventory of the top 3 online bibliography sites. Neal and Darshan created EasyBib.com as high schoolers to solve an annoying problem – handwritten bibliographies. 2012 2013 StudyBreak Media is now serving over 6 billion ad impressions a year and reaching over 85% of the students in the United States 2011 ImagineEasy Solutions forms StudyBreak Media as its digital media division. 2013 StudyBreak Media is recognized for excellence in programmatic yield optimization by Google. 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. 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 160x600/Wide Skyscraper 300x250/Box 728x90/Leaderboard 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 (Brace for clichés) • 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 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 Ad Network Ad Exchange A broker between publishers (websites) and advertisers Sells ad space (inventory) through an auction using RTB technology RTB Real Time Bidding, the technology that sells ad inventory in an auction-like manner to advertisers 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. Show off…. 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. What your site is all about – what makes it unique • We represent the largest 100% online student audience in the U.S., reaching over 85% of students in the nation. Who’s coming to your site? • 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. Traffic info from Google Analytics • 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 Ad units displaying on your site 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 From Talks to Technical, Now What?  <script type='text/javascript'></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://cdn.undertone.com/js/ajs.js"></script>  Ad Partner: Undertone Ad 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 Ad Server: a platform that hosts all operations related to displaying advertising creative on a website 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 Website Patrons Site Visitors Food Ad Creative/Ad Tag Chefs Ad Partner (Creates Ad Tag) Wait Staff Ad Server (machines behind the process) Restaurant Tables Ad Units Menu 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! Site, ad-free Create ad units Ad creative here 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 Data 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Goals of Optimization Optimization Metrics Analysis and Optimization Setup Principles of Programmatic/Auction Buying Optimization Guidelines 1. Optimization Goals 1. Monetize all available impressions 2. 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 AdX Total Impressions 100,000 Paid Impressions 50,000 Fill Percentage Revenue 50% Fill % = Paid Impressions / Total Impressions Revenue = CPM x (Paid Imps/1000) CPM = Revenue / (Paid Imps/1000) $50 CPM $1.00 4. Principles of Programmatic Buying Principles of Programmatic Buying There is an inverse relationship between the CPM price floor and the fill percentage. Fill Percentage Vs. CPM Price Floor 100% 90% 80% Fill Percentage 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% $- $0.10 $0.20 $0.30 $0.40 $0.50 CPM Price Floor $0.60 $0.70 $0.80 $0.90 $1.00 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. 2. 3. 4. 5. Optimize all inventory. Maintain a high fill percentage before raising price floors. Don’t be afraid to make changes. Give your changes time to adjust. Trust your data, make your own conclusions. Visit our Blog for more information! www.studybreakmedia.com/blog Questions? Contact Us Emry DowningHall Director [email protected] Cristina Calderin Kristina Dzenis Samuel Youn Digital Account Executive Ad Partners Section [email protected] Senior Digital Account Executive Ad Serving Process Section [email protected] Digital Account Executive Optimization and Yield Section [email protected] http://www.studybreakmedia.com Thank you!