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Best Practice : Reviewing Advertisements
Article ID: #000143

Reviewing Advertisements

Assumption: You are using keywords to deliver ads on search and content based matches.

Your advertisers are always looking for ways to increase their exposure.  One thing we have found commonly occurring across almost all ad servers is the fact that advertisers are just not creating good advertising and/or good matching keywords.  The worst part about this is that you, the network administrator, are letting it happen!

By allowing ads to go through that are not written correctly or have irrelevant keywords, you are diminishing the value of your network.  The effect of allowing advertisements that really haven't been scrutinized enough is so significant, it can almost "kill" your network.  These type of ads simply do not perform well.  By not performing well, your publishers become unhappy about their earnings stating the click-through rate is low.  As your publishers become unhappy with your networks performance, they leave.  This lowers your ad delivery numbers.  Your advertisers will see this decrease which then leads to unhappy advertisers.  They end up not advertising again, a lost customer.

How do you resolve this issue?  Easy, make sure your advertisers are creating smart advertising.  Take, for example, this advertisement and keyword set for PetLinks (www.petlinks.net), a pet related advertising network.

Advertisement	Keywords
Little Bear Pet Supplies For your Dog, your Cat, and You High quality Pet Food & Accessories Landing: http://www.littlebear.ca/	dog collar [broad] cat collar [broad] dog lead [broad] dog leash [broad] dog harness [broad] dog bed [broad] cat bed [broad] pet carrier [broad] dog boots [broad] dog booties [broad] muttluks [broad] muttlucks [broad]	pee pads [broad] training pads [broad] disposable diapers [broad] biodegradable disposable diapers [broad] dog clothes [broad] small dog clothes [broad] dog sweaters [broad] dog apparel [broad] pet boutique [broad]

While this ad may "look" good, it is not very effective.  When looking at the keyword list to the advertisement, you can see that they are somewhat relevant, but not quite good matches.  Consider the type of content matches that would be made with these keywords and how the advertisement may not attract the right audience.  For example, a page about potty training a dog may match "training pads" or "pee pads". When a user is reading about potty training, the ad would be nothing about the word match.  This situation causes a decrease in clicks.

What do you do? Reach out to your advertisers!  In this particular instance, a suggestion would be to create multiple ads targeted to select keywords:

Advertisement	Keywords
Dog Collars and Leads High quality dog collars and leads shipped directly to your door. Visit today! Landing: http://www.littlebear.ca/website1/Collars-70-0-1-1-0.html	dog collar [broad] dog lead [broad] dog leash [broad] dog harness [broad]
Boots for your dog Protect your dogs feet from the elements. Shop now! Landing: http://www.littlebear.ca/website1/Boots-197-0-1-1.html	dog boots [broad] dog booties [broad] paw protection [broad] cold paws [broad] muttluks [broad] muttlucks [broad]
Potty Training Supplies Get potty training with the right supplies. Low prices and fast shipping. Landing: http://www.littlebear.ca/website1/Training_Training_Pads-13-86-1-1-0.html	pee pads [broad] training pads [broad] disposable diapers [broad] potty training [broad] housebreaking [broad] house breaking [phrase] house training [broad]

In each of the above ad examples, we have targeted the advertisement content to the appropriate keywords.  Additionally, the landing page (destination URL) is the page that relates to the advertisement.  This makes a significant improvement in performance for your advertiser as the visitor no longer has to hunt down what they were sent to the site for. Your advertiser is saying "we value your time, here's what you were looking for".

How does this improve performance?  Consider our earlier example of a person on a page about potty training a dog.  Do you think the "Potty Training Supplies" would fare better than the original "Little Bear Pet Supplies"?  We thought so too.  In this case, the publisher will likely see more clicks occur, the advertiser will get more clicks (and likely more buyers), and you end up a happy network administrator.

As you review your advertisers campaigns, consider these checkpoints:

• The Right Keywords.  Are the keywords related to the advertisement?
• The Right Message.  Is the ad text written to attract customers as opposed to attracting the passer by? A well written creative can make a notable impact on performance.
• The Right Landing Page.  Is the destination URL a page that relates to the advertisement or does the user have to hunt down what they are looking for from the ad?  This checkpoint will help your advertiser convert those clicks into buyers.

The Bottom Line: Reach out to your advertisers. Help them improve their advertising efforts with you.  By doing so, you'll enjoy more repeat advertisers, happy publishers, and most importantly - a healthy bottom line.

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