Up until 3-4 months ago I was using my own custom installation of the OpenX ad server for ad serving on all my network advertisements. After some testing and some annoying problems with OpenX ( such as geo-targeting not functioning after reinstall/upgrades), I decided it was time to move to Google Ad Manager.
I’m going to document a simple implementation for one advertiser with several banners that will display on one ad zone, with some geo-targeting restrictions.
Step1: First you need to define an “Ad Slot”. An “Ad Slot” will be a placeholder for one banner/creative from your advertisers.
I recommend to name your ad slots using their properties : (WebsiteName)_(position)_(size). This is a subset of my ad slots:
I will be using the _Center_468x60 ad slot for the example. You simply go to “New Ad Slot” and insert your parameters in the form displayed.
Step 2: You must then create a “Placement”. A “Placement” designates an area on your website. Commonly, you will only have one “Ad Slot” for each “Placement”. If you have several banners grouped together in one area of your layout, you could add them in one single placement. This offers some nice opportunities like banner rotation for that group.
I also name Placements according to their position and size ( actually, I wasn’t that thorough below) :
For the example, “_Center_layout” is used as a placement for the “_Center_468x60″ ad slot. When I created the placement, I added this ad slot as inventory.
Step 3: We need some ads to link to our “ad slot”. We will change tabs to “Orders” and create a new order. Click “New Order”. I’ve created “Azoogle_MyFunCards” for the example:
Step 4: Creating line items. Each order contains one or more line items. Each line item contains (usually ) one or more ad creatives(banners).
You will place more ad creatives in one placement when you want the ad creatives to be rotated. This is an optimization method designed to help determine which banners are better, which have a higher CTR. ( I use “banner” and “ad creative” interchangeably, they nominate the same thing ).
MyFunCards is a spam/scam-like PPI(pay per install) program operated by the same company that owns webfetti and the smileys. Please don’t advertise this shit ( and you will excuse the language), as you can see it’s targeted at youngsters. I only use it as an example.
MyFunCards pays different rates for Intl, UK and US traffic. There are 3 different creatives, one for each country group. You will want to optimize delivery by placing some geo-targeting restrictions. For example : “display “Intl” banner if user NOT from US, UK”.
One option is to create 3 “line items”, each line item will contain one “Creative” with the respective ad code. For each “line item”, I will choose geo-targeting restrictions and connect it with our “Center_layout” placement for delivery. Don’t forget to connect “line items” with “placements”, this is the most important step.
You will also have to choose a “Delivery priority”. These are the options:
- Exclusive: Highest-ranking line item type for fixed-position and time-based campaigns. ( exclusive delivery also has options for undefined end date and unlimited cap )
- Premium and standard: For impression-based campaigns.
- Remnant and network remnant: For unsold inventory. Network remnants can have an unlimited daily cap and undefined end date.
- House: For unsold inventory.
This is how your “line items” should look:
Step 5: Create an “ad creative” for each “line item”.
That’s about it. You should test the code to ensure proper delivery. You can get your HTML code from “Inventory” > “Get sample HTML” ( pretty straightforward all the way ).
Some end notes on advantages and disadvantages:
- OpenX was unreliable. GAM is still somewhat in beta and has it’s moments ( I had an entire order disappear for about 10 minutes, it then magically showed up).
- Big advantages for GAM : no extra work/overhead for maintenance/upgrades; cost-reduction of about $100/month as the OpenX implementation was hosted on it’s own server.
- One disadvantage for GAM is that it normally serves ads only via “script” tags. This means that if one of your advertisers has some problems with their ad server, when browsers parse your code, your page will freeze until the broken ad will timeout. To overcome this issue, I have always used “iframe” tags. GAM doesn’t have “iframe” tags by default. I did manage to solve the issue: they do have iframe tagging available upon request and … I got approved and I’m currently using this beta-beta feature.
- With GAM, you have to wait about 10-15 minutes until your ads show up. I will surely want to test if my setup is correct, so I have to keep myself busy for 15 minutes with this in mind. It’s a bit annoying. With OpenX it was enough to clear it’s delivery-cache and you had a live look at what was going on.
- GAM has a very nice debugging tool. It’s enabled by appending a “?google_debug” query string to the pages that display the ad code. It offers some very nice reporting. The BIG downside is that not all the features of “google_debug” are available for the “iframe tagging” implementation.
- GAM doesn’t offer the option of grouping placements by “website”. Since I’m operating over 20 websites, this means I have a long list which I have to weed through. The placement naming scheme I use comes in handy (website name first), as the listing is alphabetical. OpenX didn’t raise this problem.
I guess that’s it. I jope it helps.
) and for the apprentices, this is a great chance to prove your worth and to test your abilities.
