building an ad server to optimize house (internal) ads
DESCRIPTION
Want dynamic CTAs on your blog, but dont want to shell out the cash for marketing automation software like HubSpot? Don't sweat it. Fire up an ad server (like a monetized blog would) and use it to serve only house (your own) ads. - Rotate creatives and optimize by CTR - Target and segment your audience to show specific ads depending on position in the funnel - Create a modular employee structure. - Easily track and manage creative assets. - Test creative assets internally before publishing them extenally. - All for free! Another easy way to get customers? Setup a referral marketing program. My company Ambassador makes it easy to track and manage referrals. https://getambassador.com/schedule-a-demo/TRANSCRIPT
BUILDING A HOUSE AD SERVERLeverage the power of Google’s algorithms to boost CTR
on your blog.
CHALLENGE
• Efficiently rotate and A/B test creatives.
• Serve appropriate creative based on funnel position.
• Create a modular employee scope for growing organization.
ALTERNATIVES• Rotate creatives manually.
• Marketing automation software (HubSpot)
• A/B testing tools (Optimizely)
• Plugins?
ROTATE CREATIVES MANUALLY• Pros
• Easy
• No software to research/configure
• Content manager has access
• Cons
• Slow and cumbersome
• Not easily rotated (a/b tested)
• Content manager has access
MARKETING AUTOMATION (HUBSPOT)
• Pros
• Powerful
• Integrates with email
• Set rules to display ads
• Cons
• Cumbersome
• Expensive
• Made to be ‘easy’
A/B TOOLS (OPTIMIZELY)• Pros
• Easy to use
• Separate roles
• Good data
• Cons
• Lots of experiments
• Slow to scale up
• Expensive
SOLUTION?
GOOGLE DFP& HOUSE ADS
WHAT’S AN AD SERVER?• Sell impressions on your website directly to
advertisers
• Cut out the middleman.
WHAT ARE HOUSE ADS?• Imagine you have 100,000 impressions/mo
• You sell 9 packs of 10,000 impressions
• What to do with the unused inventory?
• AdSense or…
HOUSE ADS• …you can fill the unused ad space with “House
Ads”
• House ads are ads served by the publisher (house).
• “Your Ad Here” billboard is a house ad.
THE HACK:• Fire up an ad server.
• Only serve house ads. Act as the publisher and the advertiser.
• Benefit from powerful ad serving features for free.
GOOGLE DFP (AD SERVER)• Rotate creatives based on optimization (CTR)
• Set per asset rotation limit. Show the same creative to the same user no more than x times.
• Advanced targeting. Target ads by behavior, demographics, etc…
• Free!• Easy asset management.
• Build rich media assets.
WHY DFP?• Allows for house ads.
• Powerful targeting features.
• Powerful asset management features.
• Hosted
• Not going anywhere.
• https://google.com/+jordanskole
• @jordanskole
• Message me and I’ll ping you when the complete guide is ready.