OPTIMIZING CAMPAIGN - VERSION 1
NOV, 2008
KENNY GRANT - KENNYGRANT.CA
Instructions 1
Summary – Bad CTR, and running behind
Mission – Increase delivery, and improve click thru rate
We need to look at the daily max and budget and determine if we’re actually behind, on pace, or catching
up. Campaigns that are slightly behind should use Instructions 2 – Bad CTR, delivery on pace. Only
proceed with the following instructions if we’re far behind and aren’t reaching daily max.
We can’t optimize a campaign without inventory. Once we have the impressions, we have room to play
with channels, time of day, frequency, publishers, creative, and landing pages.
-check hourly/daily max, is everything correct?
-can we extend delivery to 24 hours?
-does the frequency cap make sense?
-do we have the inventory available?
-what other campaigns are running in the same area/location/channel? Do those campaigns end soon? If so,
will that release inventory for this campaign? Can we remove/pause the location from other campaigns
(talk to other campaign manager for permission).
-can we add more publishers or channels? Refer to Insertion Order and advertiser before making changes
-can we extend map location or geo rules?
-do we have new publisher joining us with traffic in these areas?
-can we scale buy to meet expectations?
-can we use 3rd party ad servers to fulfill buy?
Instructions 2
Summary – Bad CTR, and delivery on pace
Mission – Improve click thru rate
We need to look at performance and figure out how quickly the budget is spent. If we’re burning through
budget quickly, we might want to set lower frequency to reach more people. We might want to remove
heavy publishers to allow distribution amongst other publishers for optimization data gathering. Here are
some ideas to get you going:
Are there any clicks? If none (or a sudden decrease in clicks), ensure creative works and is counting clicks
properly.
Run traffic summary report, determine and remove the worst performing channels, publishers, and creative.
It’s important to view all publishers within a channel as the overall performance for the channel could be
terrible, but certain publishers could hold strong CTR. Remove the channel, and add the best performing
publishers to each campaign.
Review creative and call to action, does it make sense? Good copy, fonts, imagery, value proposition, etc..
Other options:
-Wait more time
-Consider asking client for new creative
-Consider drastically changing the targeted channels or publishers (advertiser approval)
-talk to advertiser, determine if creative is working on other ad networks/publishers
Instructions 3
Summary – Good CTR, and running behind
Mission – Improve delivery without damaging performance
We need to review the campaign settings and budget to determine how far behind we are. If we’re only
slightly behind, we should only make small changes and possibly extend the campaign end date. If we’re
really far behind, we might need to shrink buy with insert_your_publisher_name or drastically add
locations and publishers. Here are some steps to get you going:
-check hourly/daily max, is everything correct?
-can we extend delivery to 24 hours?
-does the frequency cap make sense?
-do we have the inventory available?
-what other campaigns are running in the same area/location/channel? Do those campaigns end soon? If so,
will that release inventory for this campaign? Can we remove the location from other campaigns (talk to
other campaign manager for permission).
-can we add more publishers or channels? Refer to IO and advertiser before making changes
-can we extend map location or geo rules?
-can we extend campaign end date
-scale buy to meet client expectations, reduce media buy with insert_your_publisher_name
-seek new publishers/ad networks, dsp
Instructions 4
Summary – Good CTR, and delivering on pace
Mission – Improve performance and up sell customer
This is a great, happy, and warm place to be. We want all of our campaigns in this area at all times.
-Run a traffic summary report, can we improve the performance by removing poor performing channels or
publishers?
-Contact Advertiser to up sell media buy
-Ask Advertiser for media buy (large brands or outstanding performance)
-Note possible reasons for campaign success, apply these key learnings to current and future campaigns
Instructions 5
Summary – Bad conversion rate, and running behind
Mission – Improve delivery, and improve conversion rate
How far behind is the campaign? If the campaign is slightly behind, you will want to read these instructions
as well as Instructions 6 to make the best decisions from both sets of instructions (each campaign is slightly
different, and will require creative solutions).
The fact a campaign is running behind is not the real issue, we need to get conversions!
Take a look at these two campaigns, they both have poor conversion rates and are running behind.
Example A – 100,000,000 impressions
Example B – 100,000 impressions
When reviewing both campaigns we should be aware of total impressions. If Campaign A has 40% budget
complete and 50% time complete, we shouldn’t worry about the campaign delivering on pace – we should
worry about the conversion rate! With 40% of the budget used (40,000,000 impressions) we have enough
data to determine if the campaign is going to work. In this example we should focus on the conversion
process, we’re seeing lots of clicks but no one is getting through the conversion process. Focus on why?
If Campaign B has 2% budget complete and 15% time complete, we shouldn’t worry about conversion
rates – we should worry about increasing delivery to allow us to optimize and improve conversion rate.
With 2% budget used (2,000 impressions), we don’t have enough data to determine if the campaign is
going to work. In this example we should focus on delivery, and seek additional channels or publishers.
Once we increase delivery, we can optimize the campaign.
-Do we have enough sample data? When was the campaign flighted?
-Review the campaign details and determine if enough impressions have been served to begin optimizing.
After 50,000 impressions you should have a good sense of a good CTR and how many people usually
convert from the clicks.
-Are there any conversions recorded? If not, ensure the pixel is implemented properly within the
Lat49/insert_your_publisher_name dashboard and the confirmation page. If this checks out, review the
landing page and booking form. Does the page render properly, can you access and complete the booking
form?
-If we see conversions, we know the booking form and conversion pixels are working properly.
-Run a traffic summary report and determine what creative/publishers/channels are sending us the most
conversions. We want to take a look at conversions over clicks and impressions. Remove poor performing
segments.
Review product and purchase considerations against friction (are there too many fields in the booking form,
spelling mistakes on page, copy contains swear words, etc)
-Talk to advertiser, is the conversion rate acceptable?
- Use A/B Testing on landing page, change creative, change value prop, seek other alternative including
running creative on different channels or publishers (good creative with nice CTR but the quality of traffic
is poor, we can run the same creative on a different publisher and drive quality traffic that will actually
book)
-Consider waiting more time
-Consider ending contract with advertiser (campaign is not suitable for Lat49/insert_your_publisher_name)
If the campaign is REALLY far behind, we need to look at delivering settings and determine if we can
increase delivery. Once we have ample delivery, we can start to remove poor performing channels,
publishers, and creative.
Instructions 6
Summary – Bad conversion rate, and delivering on pace
Mission – Improve conversions, scale back if needed
Some campaigns and publishers require a time period for users to purchase the product, or sign up for more
information. We need to be very careful when removing channels and publishers as some publishers may
hold a low CTR but drive more conversions vs a site that drives tons of clicks without any conversion.
Unfortunately with conversion tracking there are many variables that need to be considered before editing a
campaign.
Example A – Campaign to drive newsletter signups are a direct response with users making a direct
decision to sign up on the first visit. For this campaign we would not require a significant amount of time
before removing channels/publishers/creative as users should make a direct response.
Example B – Campaign to purchase a television online is a potential lengthy process, where users will
spend up to a few weeks researching a product before making a commitment.
Here are some questions you should ask yourself when optimizing this set of campaigns:
-Do we have enough sample data? When was the campaign flighted?
-Review the campaign details and determine if enough impressions have been served to begin optimizing.
After 50,000 impressions you should have a good sense of a good CTR and how many people usually
convert from the clicks.
-Are there any conversions recorded? If not, ensure the pixel is implemented properly within the
Lat49/insert_your_publisher_name dashboard and the confirmation page. If this checks out, review the
landing page and booking form. Does the page render properly, can you access and complete the booking
form?
-If we see conversions, we know the booking form and conversion pixels are working properly.
-Review campaign details, how quickly is the budget used?
-Run a traffic summary report and determine what creative/publishers/channels are sending us the most
conversions. We want to take a look at conversions over clicks and impressions. Remove poor performing
segments.
Review product and purchase considerations against friction (are there too many fields in the booking form,
spelling mistakes on page, copy contains swear words, etc)
-Talk to advertiser, is the conversion rate acceptable?
- Use A/B Testing on landing page, change creative, change value prop, seek other alternative including
running creative on different channels or publishers (good creative with nice CTR but the quality of traffic
is poor, we can run the same creative on a different publisher and drive quality traffic that will actually
convert/book)
-Consider waiting more time
-Consider ending contract with advertiser (campaign is not suitable for Lat49/insert_your_publisher_name)
Instructions 7
Summary – Good conversion rate, and running behind
Mission – Improve delivery, without damaging performance
Review campaign details and IO. Can we expand the area? Can we extend hourly delivery times? Can we
add more publishers or channels?
Determine if other campaigns with the same target rules are ending soon, if so, we can deliver more
impressions once those campaigns end.
Some additional ideas:
-Talk to Biz Dev for more publishers in this region
-Talk to advertiser, extend end dates, add more publishers, slightly reduce media buy with Lat49
Instructions 8
Summary – Good conversion rate, and delivering on pace
Mission – Improve conversion rate, up sell client
This is a great, happy, and warm place to be. We want all of our campaigns in this area at all times.
Here are some steps to help drive more conversions and ultimately a better conversion rate. It’s important
to note, some campaigns and publishers require a time period for users to purchase the product, or sign up
for more information. Before making changes to the campaign, ensure enough time has passed to capture
user activity (example – don’t remove publishers on the first day of a campaign, or a publisher, or creative
that has only served 1000 impressions).
-remove poor performing channels/publishers/creative (run traffic summary report, determine if a channel
or publisher with enough impression data is dragging down performance)
-consider contacting advertiser/agency to increase media buy with Lat49/insert_your_publisher_name
-consider case study for strong brands and exceptional performance
-note the campaign details, and apply these practices to future campaigns with poor conversion rates