Digital Advertising: Introduction to Yield and Ad Optimization

1. Digital Advertising:Introduction to Yield and Ad Optimization Presented for General Assembly by Emry DowningHall, Cristina Calderin, Kristina Dzenis and Samuel Youn

2. How we got here… 2007 2008 2011 After early success, we begin monetizing 100% of the ad inventory of our largest competitor. Neal and Darshan begin working EasyBib.com full-time. I joined the team to handle the ad effort. We acquire our 3rd largest competitor (BibMe.org) and now manage 100% of the advertising inventory of the top 3 online bibliography sites. 2001 Neal and Darshan created EasyBib.com as high schoolers to solve an annoying problem – handwritten bibliographies. 2012 ImagineEasy Solutions forms StudyBreak Media as its digital media division. 2013 StudyBreak Media is now serving over 6 billion ad impressions a year and reaching over 85% of the students in the United States 2012 2013 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. StudyBreak Media is recognized for excellence in programmatic yield optimization by Google.

3. What are you doing here?

4. Course Goals Introduce you to, or increase your understanding of ad optimization. Take an introductory look at what ad optimization means, different ad partner types, ad serving and how to analyze your data. Answer your ad specific questions in as personal a manner as possible. We’ll be available as long as there are questions after class.

5. Digital Advertising. What’s the point? 728x90 placement 300x250 placement 300x250 placement

6. Standard Ad Units 160x600/Wide Skyscraper 300x250/Box 728x90/Leaderboard

7. 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

8. 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

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

10. ad partners: agenda • common types and brand names out there • what to communicate with introductions • ad chain – combining your ad partners to make money

11. Ad Exchange Ad Network RTB Sells ad space (inventory) through an auction using RTB technology Real Time Bidding, the technology that sells ad inventory in an auction-like manner to advertisers A broker between publishers (websites) and advertisers common types and some names we trust

12. how do you get them to notice you?

13. 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  Show off…. 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

14. friends with benefits…. • Setting mutual performance goals • Negotiating the right price • The right payment terms

15. 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

16. The Ad Serving Process

17. From Talks to Technical, Now What? <!-- begin Undertone Ad Tag for INT1319 - Medium Rectangle 300x250 - ROS-EasyBib--> <script type='text/javascript'><!--//<![CDATA[ varut_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--> Ad Partner: Undertone Ad Tag: EasyBib.com 300x250

18. Ad Serving: What We’ll Cover • An ad server, what? • Ad server features and how it works • From ad server to site: walk-through

19. a platform that hosts all operations related to displaying advertising creative on a website Ad Server:

20. 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

21. 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

22. Let’s put it all together… Your Website’s ads are like a Restaurant!

23. Your Website’s Restaurant, featuring: 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)

24. 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!

25. Ad-ding to Your Site! Create ad units Set up ad campaign Site, ad-free Set ad code to communicate between site and ad server (invocation code) Ad creative here

26. Why Use an Ad Server? • Stay organized • Serve with flexibility • Target specifically • Set baselines and accountability • Cost and features

27. Intro to Analyzing and Optimizing Data

28. Intro to Analyzing and Optimizing Data • Goals of Optimization • Optimization Metrics • Analysis and Optimization Setup • Principles of Programmatic/Auction Buying • Optimization Guidelines

29. 1. Optimization Goals • Monetize all available impressions • Maximize revenue for each ad unit

30. 2. Optimization Metrics • Total Impressions • Paid Impressions • Fill Percentage = Paid Impressions/Total Impressions • Revenue • CPM • Price Floor/Auction Floor

31. 3. Optimization Setup Fill % = Paid Impressions / Total Impressions Revenue = CPM x (Paid Imps/1000) CPM = Revenue / (Paid Imps/1000)

32. 4. Principles of Programmatic Buying

33. Principles of Programmatic Buying There is an inverse relationship between the CPM price floor and the fill percentage.

34. 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).

36. Optimization Setup

37. 5. Optimization Guidelines • 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.

38. Visit our Blog for more information! www.studybreakmedia.com/blog

39. Questions?

40. Contact Us Emry DowningHall Director emry@studybreakmedia.com Cristina Calderin Digital Account Executive Ad Partners Section cristina@studybreakmedia.com Kristina Dzenis Senior Digital Account Executive Ad Serving Process Section kris@studybreakmedia.com Samuel Youn Digital Account Executive Optimization and Yield Section sam@studybreakmedia.com http://www.studybreakmedia.com

41. Thank you!