30 Nov 2021
A Complete Guide to Digital Ad Operations | Ekeeda
Ekeeda Moderator
Works at Ekeeda
Online businesses mostly rely on digital AD operations to generate revenue and book profits. After all, what's the use of a quality website if it's unable to make enough money for you.
In the online advertisement world, AD Operations are useful for both sides i.e selling side and buying side. The constant efforts from both ends will make the Digital AD campaign successful. Proper information provided by the customer's in the feedback and review column will help sellers better the product and meet the customer's expectations. The end goal is to provide the best product and book profits for the business.
Our blog will take you to Digital Ad Operations, various aspects, ad operations tools & platforms, digital ad campaigns, and more. Stay tuned for the next couple of minutes and get introduced to the exciting and promising world of digital ads with Ekeeda - India's top educational app for young and dynamic aspirants.
What Is Digital Ad Operations?
Digital Ad Operations also termed AD operations, AD ops, digital ads refer to the systems and processes that look after the management and display of advertisements through digital mediums. It includes a display (banner and rich media ads), videos, texts, search ads in Google & Bing, mobile advertising, app ads, and much more.
AD operations managers are responsible for the ad placements based on time zones, location & region wise, demographics, potential audience and that will in return create a revenue through ad campaigns.
In a nutshell, the AD operations managers are responsible to set up, run, manage, and testing the ad campaigns, For this, the team interacts with various platform including Ad exchanges, AD networks, AD servers, SSPs, DMPs and more.
Various Aspects Of Ad Operations
Irrelevant of whether the Ad Operations manager handles one publisher account or several publisher accounts, these are some of the major responsibilities:
Trafficking - This will involve monitoring and delivering across Ad exchanges, tracking third-party AD tags from several vendors, and also perform troubleshooting if required. An ad trafficker is a person who takes care of running an AD campaign, with the help of an AD server like Google AD Manager.
Scheduling - Timing of AD plays an important role in the success of an AD campaign. Thus, some ads are made active in certain hours of a day or night, and others for different times and countries (if it's overseas). For instance, special days such as Parent's day, teacher's day, bank holidays, weekends, festive offers, promotional offers, etc. also contribute towards efficient AD scheduling.
Optimization - Ads need to be well designed, SEO optimized, and altered according to the changing trends and standards. There are various other factors that will improve the CTR (Click-through rate), CPC (Cost Per Click) factors, which include the location of the banners. Depending on the particular website some space might be suitable for AD displays than others.
Demand Management - Most premium publishers have a great sales team responsible for fetching high demand from the website market. With multiple demands and more being added every now and then, publishers look for the best AD operations manager to meet operational goals. It includes understanding and noting down each contact, negotiation skill, and performance measurement.
Yield Management - Every Ad Operations team will focus on one thing i.e. revenue generation. The person taking care of yield management will search for various opportunities that will lead to better revenue through advertising. For instance, structuring websites based on user interactions, clicks, or impressions, and then allocating pricing for different parts of inventory for better profits.
What Ad Operations Jobs Are Available In The Market?
The Digital AD team has a multitude of AD Operations opportunities to perform, companies hire a variety of specialists in the field that perform different roles like Ad schedulers, AD traffickers, Inventory Management, Yield Management, Vendor Manager, and Technical Operations. In recent years, the industry has witnessed a shift from in-house AD operations jobs to companies specializing in Ad Operations delivery to publishers and agencies.
What is the Main objective Of the AD Operations Management Team?
Every AD Operations team is unique and special. Some are separate entities and others are departments within digital AD agencies or content publishers. Whether it's an individual agency or a distinctive part of larger firms or organizations, the end goal of the AD operations team is the same i.e to design a unique and best AD campaign.
What is the Role of Digital Ad Campaign?
To create brand awareness, build trust and last but not least earn revenue. Technically speaking, Ad operations implement the AD buy, the amount of advertising a client wants to run for a specific time, being run through an “Insertion Order” or IO. Ad Operations work with sales departments, advertisers, technology departments, and client feedback to ensure a smooth and efficient AD campaign launch. The good Ad Operations team will take care of the insertion order regularly by generating AD server reports. It will communicate a campaign’s status and directly inform the next move or step the team plans to take ahead.
AD Publishing & Campaign Management
Good advertising will always make an ever-lasting impression into the minds and hearts of people. It connects with their desires and belief thereby making them want or try your products or services. Successful Ad campaigns demand careful planning and calculated efforts & actions.
Here are the basic steps for a good AD campaign:
Set The Objective - Before you start anything, it’s important to define your goals with the campaign. Is it to increase profits? Is it for brand promotion? Is it for social awareness? Unless you don't define your goal it's unable to proceed further.
Select Appropriate Media - There are various platforms for reaching the potential audience such as email banners, social media – FB, Twitter, Instagram, video content-based websites -Vimeo, Reels, etc. Based on the AD copy or Ad message you can select the most suitable medium for the purpose.
Create the Right Message - The entire campaign should be centered across one strong message, that should be clear and define the objective.
Measure Performance & Tweak - Post the AD campaign release, analyze the result, and re-configure the campaign if required based on the client's interests, and other demographic factors.
Ad Operations Tools and Platforms
To book profits through your digital Ad campaigns, it's important you have some cool toolkits in place. There are a variety of powerful software and mediums that you can use. Mostly they are free to use.
HerderBID Expert
It is a free Chrome extension that will allow you to see the number of header bidding partners active on a webpage. This can also be used to see the time taken by every partner to bid on inventory and use optimizations tips to improve the time to run better auctions.
Ad Manager Tag Generator & Tester
This tool can help you generate GPT Tags, Passback Tags, AMP Tags, and non-JS tags. You can also customize ad tags without manually editing the code. It is simple to use. Visit DFP Tag Generator, select the type of tag, and enter your network ID. You can turn on ‘Advanced Options’ if you wish to include additional parameters like size mapping, page-level exclusions, etc. Enter your AD unit codes, corresponding AD sizes, size-mapping details, and all the relevant information about the ad unit (as entered in your GAM setup). Finally, click on Generate Tags.
Google Publisher Console
This is a debugging platform by Google AD Manager that will help you find delivery-related errors by examining the line items. The audit includes checks in terms of AD tags, Page Latency, Ad Delivery Speed, And Demand Performance Checks.
Video Tag Validators
To make sure your ADs function without any problem you need a reliable Video TAG Validator. For instance, Tremor’s Video VAST/VPAID Tag Validator allows you to test and verify the expected behaviours of a specific ad tag. You can use it for different kinds of video players, and compare banner ad sizes to optimize your website accordingly. JW Player has also developed its Ad Tester for VPAID ads. You can use the tester tool to check whether the tag will work with JW Player. Choose HTML5 for Playback mode and select the desired VPAID mode. Enter your ad tag and click on Apply to start the test.
Google VAST Inspector
The Google VAST (Video Ad Serving Template) Inspector is a good tool that will allow you to verify your video ads. It allows you to enter the video URL to monitor its working. You can also use the IMA SDK for HTML5 to test your VAST tags. Just enter the tag, select the advanced controls if you want to test the tag with a specific video format, and click on Test Ad. You can check whether all the ad events like AD loading and impression tracking are as expected or not, along with the master and the companion ads
HTML5 Validator
Before you take the HTML5 ad creative live, you should check whether it’ll load as expected or not. Check if there are any errors in the file. Whether the landing page is valid or not. For all these needs, you can use the HTML5 validator. Go to the tool and upload your asset (ad creative) in zip format. Once uploaded, the tool will analyze your creative asset and give you the results based on various tests it performs. Now you can fix the errors if there are any.
What Is The Difference Between In-House Vs Outsource AD Operations
In-house Ad Operations includes a team of AD operations manager who takes care of the entire inventory of a publisher or website. All their targets and strategies are designed keeping the website in mind. However, when it comes to partnering with other networks, exchanges, or agencies; publishers/websites end up taking help from outside agencies for AD Operations.
Outsourced AD Operations will bring advanced strategies to the table. To get the best of both worlds, most medium-to-large organizations opt for in-house and outsourced Ad Operations. While In-house AD Ops give them a sense of security & trust; Outsourced Ad Operations will help them improve their profits by getting better demand.
Publishers with AD trafficking in millions of rupees are reluctant and tensed while managing the potential audience. In such a scenario, they will divide the traffic between in-house and outsourced agencies that will help create better demand, book profits without involving them too much optimization for every impression or click.
On A Concluding Note -
A successful Digital Ad Campaign seems to be two different definitions from publishers' & advertisers' point of view. While publishers want to generate more revenue by giving a flawless and fantastic user experience, on the other hand, advertisers look to reach the potential audience, show them a unique and great AD, and convert them to leads and permanent business ahead.
This is where AD operations are useful and come into the picture from both ends, do all the brainstorming financial and creative copy side. They create strategies and execute them in the right fashion to satisfy their AD goals and requirements.
Without Ad Operations, publishers' AD inventory will become just a boring layout with not enough testings. Therefore, having an Ad Operations team is a must and an integral part of any Ad industry or agency across India. You need top AD operations managers on board to execute the best plans.
Digital AD Ops is not so complicated as it appears from the top. Once you enter the dynamic you will realize the key is to get a thorough understanding of various aspects related to it and make efficient and right use to deliver results. Once you have understood the basics and created a strong foundation, you will easily make your way up for some lifetime reference goals.
To master the art of Ad operations, sign up with Ekeeda – India’s top technical educational platform. Learn what is AD operations, what is digital advertising, how to design an efficient digital ad campaign, and know the top ad operation tools through video lectures anytime, anywhere! Get access to PDF notes and make a strong digital foundation.
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