Best Practices for Ad Serving

Large Site Dilemma

[rogerd]

I've used a number of competent ad serving tools with good results. The dilemma that I see developing is that more complex sites demand equally complex ad control.

Typical software uses "groups" to place ads. So, a group might be "left skyscraper". If the site has two major sections, one could make a group for each one to allow serving different ads. The page template for each major section would be edited to include the different group codes.

But, if a site has, say, 15 sections, controlling the ads with separate group codes gets messier. Each section would need its own template, or would have to be edited to include a different file. It could get even more complex if, for example, an advertiser agrees to sponsor the home page for a section, but other ads will run in deeper pages.

Ideally, the ad serving program could be the central control for targeting different site sections. As different campaigns kick in, the ads fed to each section, or even key page, could be set. Touching the code of the pages would never be necessary, even if pages and sections changed their "group" allegiance.

I'm sure lots of sites are dealing with complex ad serving, and I'm looking for suggestions on the best way to accomplish this.