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Should you offer self-service advertising on your website? (part 3)

Self-serve advertising is a do-it-yourself solution designed for advertisers to create and publish their ads with minimum effort from publishers. It helps website owners to handle many advertisers instead of just a few large advertisers without spending too much of their valuable time for ad serving tasks. Their time is better allocated to new content and growing the site. Self-service ad serving requires you to make a decision to build your own or subscribe to a suitable ad server for your website. With a good ad server, you can have total control of your ad inventory, price, payment, authorization and approval of ads on your site. Your advertisers will also enjoy the ability and flexibility to publish their ads on their own schedule and tweak them as needed.

Select an ad server

First, you need to evaluate your requirements and criteria. The more you understand your own requirements, the easier it is to choose an ad server. Separate absolute requirements from nice-to-have features because you cannot proceed without certain functionality but you can live without many extra features that some other publishers might need. Also, you do not want to pay for the extra features that you will not use in the near future.

Second, you need to find an ad server that meets those needs. Things to consider include strong reputation, comprehensive features, affordable cost, easy-to-use interface, quick integration with your site, and knowledgeable customer support. Typically, you pay a monthly fee to subscribe to the service and customize it to your own ad program. You can set up the ad placements, set the ad rates and open the media kit up for potential advertisers very quickly. Initially, you need to have place holders at the available ad placements so that viewers know that they can publish their own ads there. It is also important to set a well-defined approval process for incoming ads and communicate them with potential advertisers promptly and clearly.

On the other end, the third-party hosted ad server has their own technical team with extensive knowledge in ad serving and ad operations so you do not have to worry about those tasks. Their team is responsible for fixing bugs and releasing new versions on a timely basis. This arrangement is a win-win situation for many publishers that look to sell ads directly to their advertisers.

Set ad prices

After you have decided on an ad server that is capable of self-serve ads, you need to set up the ad rates for your placements. The most effective way to approach self-service advertising is to keep it as simple as possible for your potential advertisers. The goal of self-servicing is to enable the users to go through the whole workflow smoothly without interruption. Therefore, it is critical to make sure your pricing model is clear to potential advertisers so that you are not consistently fielding common clarification questions. Accept all popular payment options so your clients can pay you easily for the ad spaces. You need to know and present all your traffic’s metrics and the quality of your audience in order to gauge your own value and know what you have to offer. You must also research your competitors and their pricing before you can set a solid value proposition that works for you and also your advertisers. You want to set ad prices that are attractive to advertisers but also high enough so that you are making a good profit that will help the website grow over time.

Part 1 - Maintain control and earn more ad revenue

Part 2 - Build your own vs. buy/subscribe to a third-party ad server

Related

• Advantages of a self-service ad serving program for publishers

  "Let’s say that you have a website with quality content and good traffic. You want to start making some money from publishing ads. " More
• Should you offer self-service advertising on your website? (part 2)

  "If you want more control and more revenue from ads shown on your site, you should consider running a self-service advertising system for your site. This option is great for publishers with high quality sites that are desirable and attractive to advertisers. " More
• Should you offer self-service advertising on your website?

  "Running a website, especially a high quality site, can take up a lot of your time. If you don’t have the funds to hire someone to run certain aspects of the business, it can quickly become overwhelming. " More