Tracking Software For MediaBuying - Recommendations?

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trinpol

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Nov 1, 2008
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On a beach somewhere :)
hey guys,

Im just getting into media buys now and I was wondering what you guys use for media buy tracking?

Is prosper202 still the best way to go?
My problem with prosper is that its a bitch to incorporate with google's website optimizer.

I need a tool that will track conversions in detail. Ie which image ad the lead came from and which website the lead came from.

Thanks in advance.


-Andrew
 


You don't want to use OpenX. Completely useless for anything that involves more than one site or campaign.

It's alright to get your feet wet with, but just keep in mind that you will need to look for a proper solution down the road.
 
gopher said:
You don't want to use OpenX. Completely useless for anything that involves more than one site or campaign.

It's alright to get your feet wet with, but just keep in mind that you will need to look for a proper solution down the road.
Click to expand...

gopher,

In your experience you found OpenX to be useless, what do you recommend using instead?
 
Most will require that you use something like DART from doubleclick, I haven't heard of any advertisers using openx for cpm networks like fastclick or casale.
 
with clicky you can create campaigns which are matched by query strings or referring domains and then set conversion 'goals' per campaign.
 
trinpol said:
gopher,

In your experience you found OpenX to be useless, what do you recommend using instead?
Click to expand...

We are currently testing multiple ad servers.

Stopped keeping track of all the issues, because they don't give a fuck, but here's some things to look forward to:

Weight for a creative is assigned on the campaign level, not placement level. Media/Technology cost has been broken for a year now, and instead of fixing it they removed it with 2.8. Instead, the only way to assign cost is now on a campaign level. Yes. Have fun with that one. Image tags have been broken since at least march. Magic macros have been broken for close to a year. The home page has been broken on and off for over a year.

The statistics overview is ordered by id, the website list by name. Once you go down to a placement level on the statistics page, the website name isn't shown anymore. Now imagine yourself trying to compare stats in one and editing banners in another window. You can't change the default value for the most used features, ones where you'll be spending 90% of your time on. When trafficking tags, there is no way to change the default for url target, or whether to include some garbage adsense click tag code or not. Also, by default banners are added by campaign. This can't be changed. Whenever you are logged out, it is reset. Once you accidentally add a campaign with 50 banners, you'll appreciate OpenX even more.

Basically, OpenX is a glorified adsense rotator. Bugs aren't being fixed, support is non-existent, future versions are being dumbed down and usability is a joke. I'd be surprised if anyone that works on OpenX ever used it on anything other than a personal blog.

ayzo: Not that I consider CPM networks media buys, but we've had no issues running OpenX tags with small publishers all the way up to Microsoft.
 
If you are going to be doing media buys you need to be using an Enterprise level Ad Server. You need to have auto-optimization for eCPM and eCPA. You need post click tracking. Anyone who tells you otherwise doesn't know what they're doing and is leaving a ton of money on the table whether they're doing direct site buys or ad network traffic.

If you are going to buy traffic from the networks it is crucial that you have an IAB Certified Ad Server so that you can be billed off of your own actuals. THIS IS CRUCIAL. If you were ever able to see the discrepancies you would be shocked. You think you're in the green and their numbers have you in the red. You need fill proofing so that you can tell when an ad is not fully loaded in the viewers browser as well so you don't get charged for those impressions.

Major networks and publishers will not let you bill off of OpenX, Ad Juggler, Ad Butler or any other low end platform. You don't need DART, Atlas or Mediaplex although those tools have insane targeting and optimization capabilities.

You also need an ad server that optimizes for eCPM at the ad level. Many will only do CTR optimization for ads which is not what you want since the ad with the best CTR may not be the one with the best ROI.

Your best bet in my opinion is to use a platform like Zedo, Open Adstream, Adtech (though they have lower initial minimums and setup fees, they also have a limited platform and charge extra for PCT). They are going to be 12 month contracts and will be about $1500 to set up and $1000 a month minimums. They charge on a CPM rate as well. More volume, lower prices.

You also need to keep in mind that Ad Servers are designed for people selling inventory on their own sites, they are not designed for Direct Advertisers so you have to adapt the functionality to what you are doing.

I know a lot of people here rip Traffic Tactics from Carlos and Lupe Garcia but their publisher training is the most comprehensive and detailed outline of how to negotiate, optimize and manage large buys ever released to the public. If you can get your hands on that material, you'll be way ahead of the game.
 
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I'm very happy with using prosper 202 and media buying. The main benefits are that it's easy to use, gives me most of the data I need, Spy View shows live incoming clicks, and its free. Right now it's handling around 15,000+ clicks/day without any problem.

If you intend to use prosper 202 with media buying, I suggest you get at least a dedicated virtual server (I'm using mediatemple, $100 rage server). Ensure you have p202 set up on mySQL 5.1 and enable memcached on your server. This will speed up reporting time significantly.
 
f8L said:
I'm very happy with using prosper 202 and media buying. The main benefits are that it's easy to use, gives me most of the data I need, Spy View shows live incoming clicks, and its free. Right now it's handling around 15,000+ clicks/day without any problem.
Click to expand...

So you're doing 10's of millions of impressions a day and not using an ad sever?

Insane.
 
I agree with OpenAds i think now its OpenX... its pretty simple to set up and its VERY accurate.
 
why not install both and test some campaigns on each. the only way you know you like something is by using it. they are both great tools.

way back openx was also called phpadsnew, this is what i started with then upgraded to openads. now i use prosper and i don't find the two even comparable since they are so different. to me, openx is better as an ad server.
 
Depends if you're buying direct honestly. If you are then you need an ad server. If you're working with aggregators/networks just get the pixel and let them worry about optimizing out the conversions.
 
smaxor said:
Depends if you're buying direct honestly. If you are then you need an ad server. If you're working with aggregators/networks just get the pixel and let them worry about optimizing out the conversions.
Click to expand...

That's if you can even get them to do the optimization.

If your rep sucks - so will your return.
 
If you're doing small buys directly with (clueless) webmasters, free platforms are fine but if you're running over 1 million impressions a day with Ad Networks or large, high profile sites, you definitely don't want them to just take your pixel and optimize and run everything off their numbers and their ad server. That's crazy.

1) Get a good ad server that you can get your Publishers to accept billing off of. Give them logins so they can see their numbers.
2) Get a good demographic to target. Not an offer, not a market, a demographic.
3) Negotiate a test buy at $5k, even delivery, 1 per day cap targeting that demographic. Remnant traffic $1.5 or less CPM.
4) Get 5 offers with EPC's at or above $1 on your networks that are aimed at that demographic. This obviously isn't bullet proof but it's the best guess you're going to get.
5) Get at least 3 ad versions per banner size (if doing banners)
6) Set up your ad server to rotate all 5 offers/ads evenly for 100 clicks and then have the optimizer make the offers compete, showing the highest eCPM offers more until you have a clear ranking of 1 through 5 for what is bringing you the best profit. It is unlikely that the network will be able to optimize back to your CPA goal with a $5k buy even delivery so asking them to do it on a test buy is not going to be too effective. You are looking for the offer AND AD that has the highest eCPM.
7) Negotiate a full buy (1 m+ impressions per day over 30 days). Try to do retargeting.
8) Run your top offer (and keep your #2 and #3 offers on deck)
9) Ask the network to then optimize to 50% of your CPA payout (at $1000 a day, they should be able to do this in about 5-7 days. If it takes a lot longer, you are getting screwed or have a lazy rep).
10) Create more ads and get them approved by the vendor if you're direct linking and compete with your control.
11) Reserve 10-20% of your traffic for testing other offers/ads
12) Negotiate a quarterly IO and ask for 35% lower CPM.
13) Start loosening your daily cap 1 impression at a time to ramp your traffic.
14) Tell your rep that if they have excess inventory (remnant) that they can GUARANTEE for your targeting, you'll take all of it.
15) When your #1 offer dries up, run #2, then #3 and any others that had decent margins. Optimize your ads to get better ROI.
16) Repeat and bank hard.

Direct linking works better for Network Buys. CTR on landing pages is freaking tough to get above 40%. With .4% CTR on banners as an average, it's tough to get a high enough conversion rate for good ROI.

All your tracking and optimization is in the ad server and it does it automatically. Having one also allows you to know your ROI at all times.
It makes the "throw and stick" method of finding offers that work hands off. You do need some good $$$ to get enough data on 5 offers with 3 ads a piece though. If you're new, the Networks can be tough to deal with and the Ad Server companies even tougher.

If there's a discrepancy between you and the Network's ad server though and you don't bill off of your numbers, you are giving them a license to steal.

Word
 
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Dickarmy

Although I am not doing any mediabuys, it looks like you have provided some very good information. I am bookmarking this thread. Thanks.

+rep
 
I am building my own custom ad server script. Media buy networks are affiliate handicapped. Their system were designed for large brand name exposure and not CPA setups.
 
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