Yeah I'm always a little hesitant about the pixel thing, when I can track things perfectly fine on my own.
Tracking Software For MediaBuying - Recommendations?
- Thread starter trinpol
- Start date
Getting the network to place a pixel is not really about tracking. On your end, yeah, you can track fine but the sites you're running on in the Ad Network are blind - you don't know where your traffic is coming from at the site level (on most networks, not all).
You need them to place a pixel so they can remove sites that aren't producing. You're nuts to run a campaign without it.
Yeah, they are used to direct advertisers who have backend and a higher LTCV. eHarmony for example has a house acquisition goal of $100. Margins can be tough to get with some offers. You need to go mass market.
This is why you MUST have a good rep who is willing to work with you and knows the traffic. It's not easy to get a good rep and most of them are used to dealing with branders who just say "show my ads as much as possible". Branders aren't even looking for clicks most of the time, they just want people to see the ad. They use banners more like billboard advertising.
The media buy industry (for CPM) is moving towards more transparency. You can see it in all the Ad Exchanges that are popping up that have page level transparency. Problem with most of these (IMO) is that you're competing in a real time auction like PPC and costs can get out of control due to people who don't know what they're doing.
The trade off is you pay closer to what the true value of the advertising is in exchange for lower barrier to entry and increased competition.
There's so much inventory though, there really isn't any true competition in the media buy space. You couldn't possibly buy all the traffic that will convert.
Is impression count, and billing really that big of an issue? What kind of % discrepancy do you see?
It's huge. Your tracking everything through your Ad Server (It's the equivalent of using something like Tracking202 Pro if you're doing PPC).
I've seen discrepancies as high as 35%. It's not going to happen most of the time but it can be a real big issue if you're running 50 different publishers with some of them independent sites who are using OpenX or something to deliver their inventory. Too many ways to screw with counts on a server that is owned by the Publisher. It all depends on where you're running your ads. You need your Publishers to prove themselves before you trust them. Same with Reps.
What you want to avoid: Your numbers show you in the money, their counts have you at a loss and you have to pay off their counts.
You can try to get around this with a discrepancy clause as well where you agree to pay xx% above your numbers.
3rd party actuals and discrepancy clauses will be the hardest clauses to negotiate. No one wants to give that up. There's a reason for that.
Under 10% is considered average. It adds up real quick. That's before you run into "actual" discrepancies.
Thanks for the nods guys, glad folks are getting some value out of the info. There are a lot of nuances and details not discussed here and I think that split testing (or, better yet, multi-variate) is a bit more intense when doing Display. Something to keep in mind.
One other thing that is not marketing related but is absolutely crucial is the ability to negotiate. Even if you don't think you have good negotiating skills now, know that like any other skill, it is something that can be learned.
Learn the terminology as well. Simply talking the talk can get 20% off your rates instantly.
The big publishers have more inventory to sell than they know what to do with and EVERYONE is going to quote you their worst bids in the beginning to make up for all the money they're losing on that inventory. Talk to a lot of Networks/Publishers and play them off one another. Tell them you want Agency Rates not standard Rate Card.
You'll probably get asked what your budget is on a monthly basis. Don't give em' numbers, tell them that if their traffic delivers acceptable ROI, you have an unlimited budget. Tell them you're a performance marketer and track to the penny. If the traffic doesn't convert or if the traffic is not optimized on their end, it'll just be a one and done. Tell them you need to test the traffic first and want to do a $5k or $10k test buy. Let them know that after a successful test you'll talk to them about a larger buy. With your eCPM in hand, you know exactly what you can pay. If they won't sell you targeted or guaranteed traffic at that rate, try remnant or tell them, thanks, cya. You'll find quite often that they'll be calling you in 24-48 hours accepting your rate. It's also a lot easier to get all your clauses accepted at that point.
Won't happen all the time - especially where there are a lot of Branders doing big buys but just wanted to illustrate that negotiating is key and with non-transparent traffic, it can be difficult to discover and pay the true value of a particular traffic source.
One other thing that is not marketing related but is absolutely crucial is the ability to negotiate. Even if you don't think you have good negotiating skills now, know that like any other skill, it is something that can be learned.
Learn the terminology as well. Simply talking the talk can get 20% off your rates instantly.
The big publishers have more inventory to sell than they know what to do with and EVERYONE is going to quote you their worst bids in the beginning to make up for all the money they're losing on that inventory. Talk to a lot of Networks/Publishers and play them off one another. Tell them you want Agency Rates not standard Rate Card.
You'll probably get asked what your budget is on a monthly basis. Don't give em' numbers, tell them that if their traffic delivers acceptable ROI, you have an unlimited budget. Tell them you're a performance marketer and track to the penny. If the traffic doesn't convert or if the traffic is not optimized on their end, it'll just be a one and done. Tell them you need to test the traffic first and want to do a $5k or $10k test buy. Let them know that after a successful test you'll talk to them about a larger buy. With your eCPM in hand, you know exactly what you can pay. If they won't sell you targeted or guaranteed traffic at that rate, try remnant or tell them, thanks, cya. You'll find quite often that they'll be calling you in 24-48 hours accepting your rate. It's also a lot easier to get all your clauses accepted at that point.
Won't happen all the time - especially where there are a lot of Branders doing big buys but just wanted to illustrate that negotiating is key and with non-transparent traffic, it can be difficult to discover and pay the true value of a particular traffic source.
I've started dabbling in some media buys & direct buys, so this info couldn't come at a better time. Seriously. Many thanks, good sir. Ever do any consulting?
Hey DickArmy,
I've started negotiations on remnant pricing with a well known media source, and they have told me the following about their 'dynamic pricing'
"Typically, media is bought and sold at fixed prices, in a static environment, at a flat CPM. All impressions are treated the same, regardless of their distinct value to you, requiring you to pay the same price for each impression.
If you want to buy on a straight CPM, then we can certainly execute that as well."
So are they essentially saying no to any kind of price negotiations? Haven't received this kind of response before, lol.
Also I pm'd you with a few questions if you have time, I would appreciate it thanks!
I've started negotiations on remnant pricing with a well known media source, and they have told me the following about their 'dynamic pricing'
"Typically, media is bought and sold at fixed prices, in a static environment, at a flat CPM. All impressions are treated the same, regardless of their distinct value to you, requiring you to pay the same price for each impression.
If you want to buy on a straight CPM, then we can certainly execute that as well."
So are they essentially saying no to any kind of price negotiations? Haven't received this kind of response before, lol.
Also I pm'd you with a few questions if you have time, I would appreciate it thanks!
Thanks for all the PMs and AIM requests guys. I don't do coaching, consulting or any other kind of instruction. The info in this thread should get you going. Hopefully some of you will do some buys and come back to post your insights and tips as well.
I'll leave you with this last tip (which really isn't a secret):
Test your ass off. If you go for the low cost CPMs, you're probably not going to have a ton of targeting included (usually). The only way you're going to get that to work is to test a shit load of ads, landing pages and offers. Ads can have a really short lifespan. Also, the more ads, offers you have, the more money you need to spend to get enough data to know what works (like most other forms of online advertising).
Master Multi-Variate testing - when you start doing big buys, you can optimize some landing page based campaigns in 48 hours if you take the time to set everything up correctly (it's time consuming but worth it). For those using DART, invest in Test & Target - ridiculous tool.
I'll leave you with this last tip (which really isn't a secret):
Test your ass off. If you go for the low cost CPMs, you're probably not going to have a ton of targeting included (usually). The only way you're going to get that to work is to test a shit load of ads, landing pages and offers. Ads can have a really short lifespan. Also, the more ads, offers you have, the more money you need to spend to get enough data to know what works (like most other forms of online advertising).
Master Multi-Variate testing - when you start doing big buys, you can optimize some landing page based campaigns in 48 hours if you take the time to set everything up correctly (it's time consuming but worth it). For those using DART, invest in Test & Target - ridiculous tool.