Attracting more display network advertisers/placement targeting

Any tips to share?

[macavity]

Does anyone have any tips on attracting more display network advertisers for advertising on their site using placement targeting? I've tried the following, but met with fairly limited success so far:

- Segmented my site into custom channels so that advertisers can target sections of the site by both subject matter and ad type/location.

- Created a downloadable PDF guide with step by step instructions on how to target the site using the above channels.

- Added a prominent "Advertise Here" button to the site.

- Radically improved the site design to make it more attractive to potential advertisers.

- Specified the appropriate details for the site on DoubleClick/AdPlanner.

Is there anything I've forgotten to do? Any other suggestions I can try? The site in question attracts a significant number of high net worth individuals that I know the larger financial institutions like to target but they all use advertising agencies to do so (rather than running their campaigns in house) - has anyone met with any success contacting the larger advertising agencies directly to encourage placement targeting for example?

Any thoughts and suggestions gratefully received. Perhaps we can compile some kind of checklist for everyone here in the forum.

[farmboy]

Added a prominent "Advertise Here" button to the site.

What happens if an advertiser clicks on that - is it an active link?


FarmBoy

[macavity]

What happens if an advertiser clicks on that - is it an active link?

It links to the advertising overview page with full details about the various opportunities available and how to take advantage of them (e.g. brief instructions on targeting via AdSense or Doubleclick, but the more detailed PDF download is also available from this page).

[farmboy]

It links to the advertising overview page with full details about ...

There used to be, and probably still is, a prohibition in the Terms about publishers not communicating with advertisers. You might want to check on that.

In general, as with all things Google, their plan seems to be that they will take care of those things you're trying to accomplish.

When you consider all the sites an advertiser has to consider, I doubt many will spend time reading individual instructions and advertising information from individual sites vs. just getting that information from Google on the AdWords side. Maybe some of the advertisers that read this forum can comment on that.

I'd check on those Terms and Policies right away, you don't want to put your account at risk.

My experience is if you have a site where advertisers want to advertise via Google, they will find you.


FarmBoy

[macavity]

Appreciate the concern over the T&Cs, and I will double check just to be sure, but certainly it's not something which raised any red flags with them when I discussed it directly.

[GrahamJ]

Best way in my opinion is to set up your custom channels to be targetable in Adsense. If I am correct, in the targeting types report, these advertisers will show as "placement"

[DaStarBuG]

If you go through all this trouble why do you suggest AdWords to your Advertisers?

If they are already on your website and want to advertise then sell them your ad inventory directly.
You will get much higher CPM prices then AdSense RPM.

Create a mediakit with information about your site and information about statistics and placement opportunities and ask them to contact your for pricing information.
Then set up an ad server which serves third party ads if available and use AdSense as fallback if no third party inventory is available.

That is how many (most?) of us here do it

[macavity]

In response to that last question, it's simply a question of resources (specifically time). We do use an ad server and we've been through a period when we sold inventory directly but with the size and breadth of the site invoicing/chasing payments/responding to advertiser questions quickly becomes unmanageable.

We haven't ruled it out entirely though, and in fact we do still publicly state that that kind of relationship with advertisers is available for those who prefer not to use AdWords, but we set the CPM bar pretty high to ensure it's worth the effort that it entails.

[DaStarBuG]

I do upfront payments and have a no refund policy after the campaign started to avoid most of the trouble you are describing.

[macavity]

I agree that's one solution but it won't fly with most of the larger advertisers in my sector (more the upfront payment issue rather than the refunds).

[wheel]

All the large advertisers I work with won't pay upfront. More specifically, the ad agencies working with the large advertisers won't work upfront.

You've got a choice, either work with adsense, or go around it. If you're using adsense, I suspect most of the advertisers don't have a clue how to target a specific website - I certainly don't (not that I'm a large advertiser). In other words, you're probably better looking at non-adsense solutions.

I'm not sure why your customer service became unmanageable. I deal with 2 or three advertisers and there's virtually no customer service. They send me the ads and the impressions, and at the end of the campaign I send them a bill. Once in a while I generate a report, but most of the time they're doing the tracking on their end.

[macavity]

All the large advertisers I work with won't pay upfront. More specifically, the ad agencies working with the large advertisers won't work upfront.

Yep, that's exactly my experience too.

You've got a choice, either work with adsense, or go around it. If you're using adsense, I suspect most of the advertisers don't have a clue how to target a specific website - I certainly don't (not that I'm a large advertiser).

Agreed, and even when you try to explain things step by step it turns a lot of people off. I still maintain that AdSense/AdWords could do with a much more streamlined process to make it easier for advertisers to target a specific site (or sections therein). In fact they displayed an "Advertise on this site" link at one stage in AdSense ads, I seem to recall, which was a good start (although the process it led to thereafter was still too complicated for most) but they abandoned it after a while. I'm still not sure why.

I'm not sure why your customer service became unmanageable.

It's a combination of factors, primarily the breadth of the content covered by the site and the potential number of advertisers involved, and the mentality of a lot of the agencies. If we were talking one or two advertisers, no problem. Multiply that by 10, 20 or 50 and even basic process and support issues become unsustainable.

I appreciate other people's mileage may vary.