This is the 1st post in our 3-part series on How to Make Ad Targeting Work, in which we'll discuss various ways in which you can make your advertisers happy by helping them get the right ad in front of the right person at the right time – the Holy Grail of Advertising.

We'll start off with social and demographic targeting, which is all rage at the moment .

Next week, we'll discuss ways to make best use of geographic and language based targeting.

Finally, we'll round off with an in depth look at how to improve contextual and interest based targeting on your site.

Okay, let's get started.

So what exactly is demographic targeting?

Simply put, it is a technique that allows you to direct ads to the people who might be most receptive to it based on their profile or social information such as their age range, gender, income range, relationship status, religion, academic qualifications etc. The list is virtually endless.

The main advantage is that it helps advertisers create ads that don't suck.

For example, you don't want to show a hot dating ad to a couple who are happily married, nor does it make sense to show an Extreme Sports ad with Brody Wilson doing a motorcycle somersault 100ft in the air to my grandma.

Well, I take that back. My grandma might actually like that sort of thing.

Anyway, you get the point. So the next question is how do you get it to work?

Getting started – the advertiser's perspective

For advertisers, applying demographic targeting is a fairly simple process. If they've ever used Facebook Ads then they've probably familiar with it already.

The screenshot below shows what it looks like on Facebook.

Now here's a screenshot of what it looks like in the Trafficspaces Ad Manager.

Very similar indeed. Both systems let advertisers customize their ad targeting on a per-ad basis which is really cool because it allows them to do multivariate testing.

Multivariate testing is simply a way to test many ad targeting assumptions at the same time with a view to determine what works best.

Once the advertiser determines which combination of demographic targeting preferences works best with your users, they can really optimize their ad spend and get the best ROI (Return on Investment).

It's a win for you, a win for your advertiser, and most importantly, a win for your users.

Sounds fantastic. So, how do you set it up in Trafficspaces?

Getting started – the publisher's perspective

First of all, you have to switch on ad targeting in your system setup.

1. Go to the Setup->System->Preferences section
2. Switch on the ad targeting options that you wish to offer. Don't be tempted to switch on all the options because doing so may overwhelm your advertisers.
3. Click on Save Changes and you are good to go.

The second step is to integrate it with your site.

At the beginning of this article, you may have been thinking "How in the world is Trafficspaces going to know if the user is male or female?". Simple, with a bit of  Houdini-esque magic. Just kidding. The answer is "through integration".

When a user visits your site, their browser makes a call to fetch ads from the ad servers. This call contains information about the user, and the interesting thing is that you can customize the information on a per-user basis.

Like most sites on the web, your site is probably driven by a dynamic server-side programs written in PHP, ASP, Java etc. What this means is that if the user has signed in, then your server-side program will normally have access to extra information about the user that it will typically use in creating a customized page. That's pretty much how most social networks, dating or community sites work. If you also have snippets of profile info about your users, then you are in good shape to make use of demographic targeting.

The third and final step may be slightly technical so feel free to send it to your techies.

You'll need to install the advanced ad tag on your site. To grab it, go to the Setup->Ad Zones->Ad Tag->Advanced page. You should see something like the screenshot below.

As you can see, there is an attribute called TS_AdService.flags which contains arrays for each type of ad tageting you've switched on. To pass information about a female user, you can just set TS_AdService.flags.genders = ["F"]; It's pretty much that simple.

To download the full list of codes, go to the Setup->System->Preferences->Advanced section. You can also customize it with your own codes.

Conclusion

That's it. You don't have to spend a million dollars to provide demographic targeting that works beautifully. Create your own ad store and it comes out of the box.

It is the simple things that make the most difference. Allowing advertisers to improve their Return of Investment makes them happy and that's a good thing.
 

No related posts.

Hey guys,

What better way to welcome in the Summer season than to give the entire website a new coat of paint.

That's exactly what we've done. We've tinkered with the site's design and I sincerely hope you guys like the new look.

One of the major changes is the introduction of a new a fresher, bolder logo. We love the unapologetic use of vibrant natural colours and the confident use of leafy green throughout the site.

We've also introduced several new pricing plans and simplified the entire subscription workflow.

The free plan is still available and for new premium subscribers, there's a special surprise on the subscription page. 

Overall, we love the new look. It's bright, it's green and it's full of confidence.

We hope you like it.

Related posts:

1. Trafficspaces Exits Stealth Mode
2. The Free Trafficspaces Package is now available
3. Techcrunch Switches to Self-Service Ad Platform and Validates Trafficspaces’ Business Model.

We are pleased to announce that Trafficspaces now supports multiple currencies.

When we launched Trafficspaces, we only supported the US Dollar ($). However, after receiving an increasing number of requests to support support currencies like the Euro, British Pound and Aussie Dollar, we've finally done it.

How it works

Simple. When you setup your Trafficspaces ad platform for the first time, you'll be prompted to choose between over 20 currencies. The currency you choose will be your default currency. You won't be able to change it once you've created the platform.

Here is the full list of supported currencies.

1. U.S. Dollars — $
2. Euros — €
3. British Pounds — £
4. Japanese Yen — ¥
5. Canadian Dollars — $
6. Australian Dollars — $
7. New Zealand Dollars — $
8. Swiss Francs — CHF
9. Hong Kong Dollars — $
10. Singapore Dollars — $
11. Swedish Kroner — kr
12. Danish Kroner — kr
13. Polish Zloty — zł
14. Norwegian Kroner — kr
15. Hungarian Forints — Ft
16. Czech Koruny — Kč
17. Israeli Shekels — ₪
18. Indian Rupee — ₨
19. Nigerian Naira — ₦
20. Mexican Pesos — $
21. Brazilian Real — R$
22. Malaysian Ringgits — RM
23. Philippine Pesos — Php
24. Taiwan New Dollars — NT$
25. Thai Baht — ฿

We'll be adding more currencies shortly.

You just have to make sure your payment gateway supports your chosen currency.

If you will like us to support a specific payment gateway, just contact us directly.

Related posts:

1. New Feature: Conversion and ROI Tracking for Advertisers
2. Get a Self-Service Ad Manager In Your Local Language
3. Receive payments directly from advertisers with PayPal, Authorize.Net and USAePay

This is the seventh and last part of the How to Sell Ads Online series.

This final article builds on the last discussion on providing a self service system.

The concept is simple.

Since human beings take the path of least resistance, if you make it easy for advertisers to get their job done, they'll do it over and over again.

So how do you do it?

1. Standardised ad zones

The most popular ad units on the web are leaderboards, medium rectangles and wide skyscrapers. They work well for banner ads, text ads, and video ads.
There is a high chance that an advertiser will already have portfolio of ads in these sizes. Remember familiarity breeds acceptability.

2. Simple workflow
Your self service system needs to be easy to follow. Don't assume that because you think its intuitive, everyone else will. You'll often be surprised how people interact with web sites.

Test the system with non-technical person that represents your typical advertiser (like your grandma…no, just kidding) . If they can create a campaign in under 10 minutes without your assistance, then it's a winner.

3. Ad templates
These are pre-built ads that allow advertisers to modify colours, text, images etc. Having them on your system makes a new advertiser's job massively easier. Find a system that comes with its own templates and allows you to create new ones that are tailored to your advertisers.

4. Clear actionable reports
Information overload can be overwhelming. Information without clear advice on what to do next can be as useful as no information at all.

Your reports should communicate the most important things – fulfillment (how much of the requested impressions have been delivered), performance (click through and conversion rates) and if your ad server can do conversion tracking, then you should show their Return on Investment.

5. Rock solid customer service
Nothing beats great customer service. It doesn't matter if the advertiser is Universal Studios or Joe the Plumber.  Make everyone fill like they are equally important to you. Reply emails quickly and provide online help.

Summary

We wrote this series as free advice to all publishers out there regardless of experience. Hopefully you’ve picked up a tip or two along the way.

If you take one thing away, it should be that

more small business advertisers are coming online and you need to make it easy for them to advertise with you

One tool that can help you is Trafficspaces. Facebook has cracked the code, and so can you. Get started today.
 

Related posts:

1. How to Sell Ads Online
2. How to Sell Ads Online > Show Detailed Traffic Statistics (4/7)
3. How to Sell Ads Online > Have an Outstanding Product to Sell (1/7)

This is just a quick news flash to let everyone know that we've finally added support for conversion tracking into your favorite ad platform.

What is Conversion Tracking?

It is just a way for advertisers to determine how many of the people who clicked their ads actually went ahead and bought something on their site, or signed up for a newsletter, or performed the action for which they were advertising in the first place.

What is ROI Tracking

ROI is marketing speak for profit. It actually stands for Return on Investment i.e. how much profit did the advertisers make on the leads that you sent to them.

Why you need to care

Savvy marketers are really interested in these two metrics because it helps them determine which sales channels are working.

If you don't provide access to this information, how are you going to make a case for them to spend even more money advertising with you.

If their campaign works and they are hitting their targets, it's a no brainer – they are going to increase their ad spend with you.

On the flip side, if their entire campaign isn't performing well, then they can use the tools within Trafficspaces to determine which ads aren't working and which targeting rules work better.

How does it work

It is pretty straightforward.

For each campaign, advertisers can generate a tracking code, which should be added to the page that appears immediately after the intended action by the lead e.g. a signup or purchase completion page.

Trafficspaces handles the rest. Through the Campaign Dashboard, they'll be able to track everything from those who saw their ads, those who clicked, those who went all the way and how profitable their campaign was. Superb stuff.

We are quite proud of these two new features. Try it out in the demo in the Manage Campaigns section. Let us know what you think in the comments.

Related posts:

1. New Feature: Allow Advertisers to Pay in Your Local Currency
2. Receive payments directly from advertisers with PayPal, Authorize.Net and USAePay
3. Crenk.com Feature: Trafficspaces – the Self Service Ad Management Platform