Publisher FAQ

Trafficspaces is a hosted ad management service that helps publishers

1. convert more advertisers - through a user friendly self-service interface,
2. increase revenue - by helping to reduce ad network commissions to zero, and
3. manage their advertising services efficiently - through an automated ad workflow.

Click here to read about the benefits of using Trafficspaces.

Trafficspaces is very easy to use. The workflow is straightforward:

1. Choose packages - Select and purchase the packages that meet your ad requirements.
2. Setup your system - Create your setup.inventory. Setup a link to a payment gateway, and customize your system.
3. Process Orders - Book your direct sales orders. Approve and receive payment for self-service ads
4. Run Ad Campaigns - Track all the campaigns running on your site(s) from one dashboard.
5. Track Revenue - Get paid directly into your account.

It can cost as low as $9.99 per month. It all depends on your requirements. Trafficspaces is available in 4 packages:

Click here for a guide on choosing the right packages for your site.

Getting started is quick and easy.

1. Click here to purchase the packages for your site.
2. Once your order has been approved, we will setup a pre-customized ad platform for you.
3. Once, you've logged in, the next step is to setup your system and open your store front to advertisers.

It depends mainly on the number of ad impressions that your site(s) generate.
Use our Savings Calculator to determine which packages are appropriate for you, and how much you can save.

1. In the Setup section, click on the Appearance menu item
2. Click on any color item to change it. You can type in a color code or use the palette.
3. You can change any image by specifying the URL to a new image.
4. Finally, click on the Submit button to save your changes.

_{Note: If you do not see the changes after refreshing your window, hold the Control button on your keyboard and press F5.}

First of all, the new user needs to create an account on your login page.
Once that's done, you can assign one or more special roles to that user.

Steps:

1. In the Setup section, click on the Role menu item
2. Select the role that you wish to assign to the user.
3. Type the username on a new line inside the text area.
4. Finally, click on the Submit button to save your changes.

Steps:

1. In the Setup section, click on the Integration menu item
2. Choose one of the integration options described on the page follow its instructions.

You cannot create custom categories at the moment. We are currently working on a fix to remove this limitation. Please use a best fit approach for now.

An ad space is simply a fixed area of your site in which you want to display ads.

This is a multi-step process. Firstly, in the Setup section, click on the Inventory menu item.

Describing the profile

1. Click on the Profile lower menu item.
2. Select an ad space from the list or click on the New link to start creating a new one.
3. Fill the rest of the form. (To see short tips/guides, click on the label next to the input field)
4. Finally, click on the Submit button to save your changes.

Describing the context

1. Click on the Context lower menu item.
2. Specify the primary language of your content.
3. Specify up to three categories that describe your content.
4. Finally, click on the Submit button to save your changes.

Describing the demographics of your audience

1. Click on the Demographics lower menu item.
2. Type in percentages that reflect the distribution of your audience across gender, age range, income range or ethnicity.
3. Finally, click on the Submit button to save your changes.

_{Note: Describing the demographic distribution is optional. The information is useful to advertisers but only specify it if you have reasonably accurate data.}

Designing the color themes for text ads

1. Click on the Themes lower menu item.
2. Select a theme group from the Show theme from list to see the themes in that group.
3. Select a theme to preview it, or click on the Add link to create a new one.
4. Click on any color item to change it. You can type in a color code or use the palette.
5. You can also change the background image by uploading an appropriately sized image.
6. Finally, after making all your adjustments to the preview, click on the Assign Theme or Save and Assign Theme button

_{Note: You cannot make changes to the system themes.}

Setting the Price

1. Click on the Pricing lower menu item.
2. Specify the maximum number of impressions, clicks, or days that you wish to sell to self-service advertisers.
3. Specify the price per 1000 impressions, per click or per day.
4. Finally, click on the Submit button to save your changes.

Integrating the Ad Space with your web site

1. Click on the Generate Tag lower menu item.
2. Copy and paste the displayed tag in your web page.

Trafficspaces displays ads in a tabular format. By default, it displays one ad (in one row and one column). However you can display multiple ads by changing the number of rows and columns.

Steps:

1. In the Setup section, click on the Inventory menu item, then select the ad space.
2. Click on the Profile lower menu item.
3. Set the Display multiple ads field to Yes.
4. Change the number of rows and columns of ads you wish to display.
5. Finally, click on the Submit button to save your changes.

_{Note: Trafficspaces will only display multiple ads as long as there are enough ads available i.e. it will not repeat the same ad in a single ad space.}

Trafficspaces supports all the major IAB ad units/sizes. Additionally, you can create your own custom ad sizes.

You can show text ads with an optional 110x80 JPEG, GIF or PNG picture. The picture will be resized to fit.
Additionally, you can show conventional banner ads. The ads can be JPEG, GIF, PNG or Flash, and they can be loaded from 3rd party ad servers.

Yes, you can. You may need to do this if you want to test an ad space or simply wish to reserve it for your direct sales team.

Steps:

1. In the Setup section, click on the Inventory menu item, then select the ad space.
2. Click on the Profile lower menu item.
3. Set the Include in search results field to No.
4. Finally, click on the Submit button to save your changes.

Yes, you can. Chaining multiple ad spaces involves showing another ad space automatically if ads are unavailable for the viewer of the first ad space.

Steps:

1. In the Setup section, click on the Inventory menu item, then select the ad space.
2. Click on the Generate Tag lower menu item.
3. Copy the ad tag.
4. Click on the Profile menu item, then select the first ad space.
5. Set the Default Display field to Another Ad Tag / Javascript.
6. Paste the second ad space's tag in the text area.
7. Finally, click on the Submit button to save your changes.

Note: By default, Trafficspaces shows a blank space if there are no ads to display after 10 ad spaces have been chained.

Trafficspaces can show alternative ads if there are no ads targeted to the viewer of your ad space.

Steps:

1. In the Setup section, click on the Inventory menu item, then select the ad space.
2. Click on the Profile lower menu item.
3. Set the Default Display field to Another Ad Tag / Javascript.
4. Paste the ad network's ad tag or URL to the default ad in the text area.
5. Finally, click on the Submit button to save your changes.

You will need to create multiple versions of the same ad space with different payment models, and chain them together.

For example, if you want to sell a 300x250 ad space on a CPM and Pay Per Day basis such that pay per day sales have priority over CPM sales, you can

1. Chain the CPM ad space to the Pay Per day ad space,
2. Install only the Pay Per Day ad space's tag on your website.

When no Pay Per Day ads are available, the CPM ads will show instead.

We recommend that you name your ad spaces in a way that makes it easy for anyone to determine

1. The site on which it will be placed (if you are managing multiple sites), and
2. Contextual location on the site

You don't have to worry about describing the page position or dimensions of the ad space. Trafficspaces displays that information automatically.

The name can be up to 64 characters and contains alphanumeric characters, spaces, and other printable characters.
Here are some examples:

1. MySite.com: Gadgets Section
2. HomePage
3. Forum -> Politics

You cannot create custom categories at the moment. We are currently working on a fix to remove this limitation. Please use a best fit approach for now.

Describing the demographic information is optional. Whilst the information is useful to advertisers, you only need to specify it if you have reasonably accurate data.

Nonetheless, there are steps you can take to start collecting demographic information e.g

1. Encouraging visitors to register and provide basic demographic information.
2. Running demographic polls on your site.
3. Gathering information from independent site analytics aggregators like QuantCast.

See How do I create / edit an ad space.

Don't worry. Many people experience this problem. Here are some steps you can take:

1. Divide the monthly cost of hosting your site by 30 days to determine your minumum Pay Per Day price.
2. As you get more demand from advertisers, increase the price incrementally until you strike a balance between demand and your price.

A Self-Service Advertiser is an advertiser who logs into your system, creates their own ads and manages their ad campaigns by themselves.

A Managed Advertiser is an advertiser whose ad campaigns you (or your direct sales team) wish to manage directly (i.e. they do not use the self-service advertiser interface) and to whom you wish to send automated campaign reports.

To create one,

1. In the Setup section, click on the Managed Advertisers menu item.
2. Select an advertiser from the list or click on the New link to start creating a new one.
3. Fill the rest of the form. (To see short tips/guides, click on the label next to the input field)
4. Finally, click on the Submit button to save your changes.

You will now be able to create/upload ads for the advertiser whose account that you've just created.

An Ad Campaign is a collection of related ads that you wish to use collectively in an ad campaign.

1. In the Ads section, click on the Manage Ad Campaigns menu item.
2. To open an existing ad campaign, select the relevant advertiser, then select the ad campaign. Alternatively, click on the New link to start creating a new one.
3. Fill the rest of the form. (To see short tips/guides, click on the label next to the input field)
4. Finally, click on the Submit button to save your changes.

You will now be able to add ads into the Ad Campaign.

1. In the Ads section, click on the Manage Ads menu item.
2. To open an existing ad, select the relevant advertiser, select the ad campaign, then select the ad. Alternatively, click on the New link to start creating a new one.
3. Fill the rest of the form. (To see short tips/guides, click on the label next to the input field)
4. Finally, click on the Submit For Approval button to request final editorial approval of your ad. Alternatively, if you still want to edit your Ad, click on the Save and Continue Editing button.

We recommend that you name your ads in a way that makes it easy for anyone to determine

1. its purpose e.g. promoted product, campaign duration etc, and
2. editorial version

You don't have to worry about describing the format or dimensions of the ad. Trafficspaces displays that information automatically.

The name can be up to 64 characters and contains alphanumeric characters, spaces, and other printable characters.
Here are some examples:

1. Motorola Razr Jan 2008 v1
2. IphoneStore.com 15% Off Till June 09 v2

To show all ads awaiting approval,

1. In the Ads section, click on the Review Ads menu item.
2. Clear the Username field
3. Set the Ad Campaign field to "All Ad Campaigns"
4. Set the Status field to "Awaiting Approval"
5. Finally, click on the Submit button to show the ads.

You can preview any ad by clicking on its name link.

To approve or reject multiple ads at once,

1. Select the checkbox next to each of the ads
2. Finally, click on the Accept or Reject button to process the ads.

_{Note: The ads that you create for Managed Advertisers are approved automatically.}

When you create an ad, the system will allow you to specify a Targeting Plan.
A Targeting Plan is a set of rules that help the system target each ad to the intended viewer.

You can set

1. Contextual keywords so that your ads appear around content related to those keywords or when users search for related information. Read more about how geographic targeting works.
2. Geographic locations that to which you prefer to target the ads. Read more about how geographic targeting works.
3. Demographic groups to which you prefer to target the ads. Read more about how demographic targeting workds.
4. Web domains and IP Addresses to which you want to restrict your ads.
5. Hours of Day or Days of Week on which you want to show your ads.

Yes you can reuse it as often as you wish.

The system can determine the location of each person that views your ad by examining their IP address. Your ad may only be shown to that person if their location matches the targeting preferences that you set.

You can target users by country, state, city or town. For example,

1. You can choose to show ads to users in the U.S and Canada only, or only to users in the European Union.
2. You can also show ads only to users in California or Paris, or within specific cities or towns therein.

_{Note: As the geographical area gets smaller, the accuracy of the targeting decreases and your ad may be shown to a smaller number of people. To get the broadest reach, you should target ads at the country level in markets in which you are interested.}

The system can determine the context in which each viewer views your ad in two ways:

1. It detects the search engine keywords brought the user directly to your page.
2. It allows you to specify keywords as parameters in the ad space's tag.

The system can determine the demographic profile of each viewer views your ad if you pass special parameters describing the user to the ad space's tag. This is usually only possible if the viewer is registered on your site and has specified their demographic information.

An ad campaign is a promotion designed to increase awareness (or sales) of a product or service.

To create an Ad Campaign or book insertion orders,

1. Add the ad spaces on which you want to run the campaign into the cart.
2. In the Store section, click on the Create Ad Campaign menu item.
3. Select the relevant advertiser, then select the ad campaign that contains the ads they wish to run. Alternatively, click on the New link to start creating a new one.
4. Type in their maximum budget.
5. Specify the start and maximum end date of the Ad Campaign.
6. Click on any of the Continue button to proceed to the Confirmation page where you can review the details of the Ad Campaign.
7. Finally, they can click on the Finish button to create the Ad Campaign on the selected ad spaces.

Note:

• The budget will be allocated automatically (using a best-fit approach) to all the ad spaces in the cart. You can edit the allocations manually to suit the advertiser's requirements.
  

To create an Ad Campaign, Self-Service Advertisers follow these steps,

1. Add the ad spaces on which they want to run their campaign into their cart.
2. In the Store section, click on the Create Ad Campaign menu item.
3. Select the ad campaign that contains the ads they wish to run.
4. Type in their maximum budget.
5. Specify the start and maximum end date of the Ad Campaign.
6. Click on any of the available Checkout buttons to specify their payment information.
7. The payment gateway will collect their information and redirect them back to the Confirmation page to review the details of the Ad Campaign.
8. Finally, they can click on the Finish button to create the Ad Campaign on the selected ad spaces.

Note:

• The budget will be allocated automatically (using a best-fit approach) to all the ad spaces in the cart. They can edit the allocations manually to suit the their requirements.
  
• The system will only show Checkout buttons for the Payment Gateways with which the publisher has integrated the system.

This feature will be available soon.

Yes you can reuse it as often as you wish.

Yes you can. See How do I stop an Ad that is already live for guidance.

1. In the Ads section, click on the Manage Ads menu item, and select the ad.
2. Click on the Edit This Ad button.

This will cause the ad to stop playing.
_{Note: it may take 15 minutes for the changes to take effect.}

1. In the Store section, click on the Reports menu item.
2. Select the checkboxes next to the Ad Campaigns that you wish to pause.
3. Finally, click on the Pause button to pause the campaigns.

_{Note: it may take 15 minutes for the changes to take effect.}

When you stop an Ad Campaign, you can transfer any unused credits to another Ad Campaign.

To do this,

1. In the Store section, click on the Reports menu item.
2. Click on the name link of the campaign that you wish to adjust to open up the Campaign Detail view.
3. In the Campaign Detail view, click on the Add Unused credits button to open the Add Unused Credits dialog.
4. In the Add Unused Credits dialog, set the number of credits you wish to add to the campaign.
5. Finally, click on the Submit button to save your changes.

_{Note: it may take 15 minutes for the changes to take effect.}

1. In the Ads section, click on the Manage Ads menu item, and select the ad.
2. Make the desired changes to the targeting plan.

The changes you make will affect all ads using the targeting plan.
_{Note: it may take 15 minutes for the changes to take effect.}

1. In the Store section, click on the Reports menu item.
2. You can display broader or more specific data by changing the settings in the form.
3. Finally, click on the Run Report button to display the new report.

1. Status - indicates the state and the progress of the ad campaign
   1. Playing - the ad campaign is being actively targeted to the appropriate viewers.
   2. Pausing - the ad campaign is being paused. This may take up to 15 minutes to complete.
   3. Paused - the ad campaign is not active but may be restarted.
   4. Stopping - the ad campaign is being stopped permanently. This may take up to 15 minutes to complete.
   5. Stopped - the ad campaign has been stopped permanently and cannot be restarted.
2. Ad Campaign - shows the ad campaign that is running and the ad space on which it is running.
3. Requested - show the amount of ad inventory (impressions, clicks or days) booked to the ad campaign.
4. Delivered Impressions - shows the number of impressions that have been logged for the ad campaign.
5. Delivered Uniques - shows the number of unique visitors that have been logged for the ad campaign.
6. Delivered Clicks - shows the number of clicks that have been logged for the ad campaign.
7. Revenue / eCPM - Shows the amount spent on the ad campaign at the top, and the effective CPM (CPM equivalent price) at the bottom.
8. Run Time - Shows the number of days during which the ad campaign ran.

1. In the Setup section, click on the Managed Advertisers menu item, then select the advertiser.
2. Change the Email Campaign Reports field to Yes.
3. Finally, click on the Submit button to save your changes.

Advertisers can pay via credit card, or PayPal Express Checkout.
They choose an ad space they like, add it to their shopping cart, pay for it, and their ad campaign starts.

Trafficspaces can be integrated directly with your existing payment gateway account.
All payments from the advertiser are paid directly into your account.

You can either track it through Trafficspaces or through your payment gateway's dashboard.

To track it through Trafficspaces:

1. In the Store section, click on the Earnings menu item
2. Select either the Self-Service or Direct Sales revenue account to see the earnings for that type.

You can pay via credit card (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover), or PayPal Express Checkout.
We renew your subscription automatically when your packages expire, unless you disable auto-renewal.

Trafficspaces uses 3rd party payment gateways to process all payments. Both payment gateways use the industry standard Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol and other commercially reasonable efforts to keep your payment information secure, including verifying and storing all credit card information in an encrypted format.

Your ad may not be showing because of multiple reasons. Here is a checklist of reasons to consider:

1. Your campaign may be very new. It may take up to 15 minutes before it starts to show.
2. The Targeting Plan may be too restrictive. To fix this, remove or relax some of the restrictions. For example, You can use more keywords or none at all. Remove city-specific or state-specific geographic restrictions.
3. Your Ad Campaign may not contain any ads suitable for the ad space. To fix this, create ads that match the ad space's ad format and size.
4. The suitable ads in your Ad Campaign may not have been approved. To fix this, inspect all the ads to ensure that all have been approved. Re-edit them if necessary and resubmit for approval
5. There may be too many ads contending for the ad space. You can increase the priority of the ad campaign manually, or you can increase the daily spending limit.

This is probably because your ad space has not been setup correctly. Here is a checklist:

1. Make sure you've set a price for the ad space.
2. Set at least one content channel (category) for the ad space.
3. Make sure that the Include in Search Results option is set.