Development Newsletters

Release: 26-11-2014

List of new features and major fixes for this release:

  • RTB mechanism

Earn more using RTB in AdOcean!

Now you can optimize your ad inventory and earn more by offering your ad space to multiple networks at the same time thanks to AdOcean RTB mechanism. RTB refers to the means by which ad inventory is bought and sold on a per-impression basis, via programmatic buying. In real-time actions, advertising buyers bid on an impression and, if the bid is won, the buyer's ad is instantly displayed on the publisher's site. Real-time bidding mechanism in AdOcean gives publishers a chance to manage, optimize and offer their ad space to a multitude of different networks, allowing them to create and launch advertising campaigns. Publishers can prioritize networks and allocate percentages of unsold inventory. AdOcean RTB Template can connect to many RTB providers during single impression and offer ad space to clients, based on their preferred configuration and eCPM price. AdOcean is integrated now with 5 providers:PubMatic, Admeta, Adform, Clickonometrics, Google for Publishers.

Waterfall model

AdOcean Team developed a unique waterfall mechanism which can be individually configured. In Waterfall you can have integrated providers that cannot offer us a price for impression and those who can. You can put an SSP into AdOcean in a queue and start offering a space to many SSPs. The process stops when one of waterfall providers buys an impression. You can configure SSP in your own way. Example: 1. Google for Publishers: queue order 0 2. AdMeta: queue order 1 At first, AdServer asks GfP if their system buys the impression. If not, the next provider is asked - AdMeta. If neither of them buys the impression, AdServer shows the best alternative campaign. Possible scenario: GfP: not buying AdMeta: buying Result: AdMeta creativeis shown. Process is stopped.

Auction

Auction is based on providers that can send a price for every impression and AdServer can choose the best from all offers (including the best alternative campaign). If several auction-ready providers are queued one after another, regardless of the order of the queue, they will be queried asynchronously at the same time. Example: SSP are configured that way: 1. PubMatic: queue order 0 2. Clickonometrics: queue order 1 AdServer asks asynchronously PubMatic and Clickonometrics. Chooses the best alternative campaign. When all providers reply, the best offer is chosen and shown in the impression. Possible scenario: PubMatic reply: 0.2 CPM Clickonometrics: 0.1 CPM AdServer best alternative campaign: 0.24 Result: Adserver alternative campaign is shown.

Waterfall and auction mechanism

Both types of providers can be used at the same time. Example: 1. Google for Publishers: queue order 0 2. AdMeta: queue order 1 3. PubMatic: queue order 2 4. Clickonometrics: queue order 2 At first, AdServer asks GfP if their system buys the impression. If not, the next provider is asked - AdMeta. If none of them buy impression, AdServer asks asynchronously PubMatic and Clickonometrics. Chooses the best alternative campaign. When all providers reply, the best offer is chosen and shown in impression. Possible scenario: GFP reply: not buying AdMeta: not buying PubMatic reply: 0.2 CPM Clickonometrics: 0.1 CPM AdServer best alternative campaign: 0.14 Result: PubMatic creative is shown.

Floor price:

Some providers (waterfall- or auction-ready) can have support for passing the dynamic floor price in each request. eCPM from the best alternative campaign chosen from AdServer is passed as a floor price for an SSP provider. The provider adjusts dynamically offered prices to this floor price, and returns offers higher than this setting. eCPM is calculated automatically by AdServer for every eCPM-optimized alternative campaign.

Minimal floor price

If SSP has a floor price support, you can set a minimum floor price in template parameters. If eCPM from the best alternative campaign chosen from AdServer will be lower than this setting, the floor price passed to the SSP provider will be changed to a minimum floor price.

Campaign statistics interface

*statistics calculated only for SSPs which share information about the sold price

Creating RTB auction campaign

  • 1. Create a new campaign, define basic campaign properties, like the publisher's space.
  • 2. Set a new creative. Choose RTB auction template.
  • 3. Insert values in the Properties section according to template instructions (you have to choose your SSP currency). You do not need to configure all providers.
    • Example screenshot:

  • 4. Create other campaigns on the same publisher's space with optimization based on eCPM.

    • Creating alternative campaigns for RTB auction

    AdServer, after choosing an RTB auction campaign for impression, selects "the best alternative campaign". This campaign will compete with SSP offers and will be shown if the impression has not been sold in auction to an SSP provider or the campaign's eCPM was higher than other SSP offers. It must meet several requirements:

  • The best alternative campaign must also run on the same placement for which the RTB auction campaign was chosen.
  • The best alternative campaign must have eCPM optimization set in campaign properties (not in order or surround). AdServer chooses the most profitable alternative campaign based on this optimization. At first, it selects the group of eCPM-optimised campaigns with the same highest priority, then from this group it chooses the most effective creative on a selected placement. Some margin is reserved for less effective creatives in order to give them a chance to get better statistics.
  • If you want to be sure that an RTB auction campaign is chosen by AdServer, it, of course, must have the highest priority. If AdServer has chosen RTB auction campaign , then there is a second choosing (starting from the highest priorities). In this second choosing, all RTB auctions and campaigns not optimized by eCPM are excluded and the best alternative campaign is chosen from the group of eCPM-optimised campaigns with the same highest priority. In example: RTB auction campaign can have the highest exclusive priority and alternative campaigns can have default or commercial priority.
  • If the best alternative campaign has set the cost per click (CPC) or cost per action (CPA), AdSever needs creative-placement pair statistics to calculate eCPM. If AdServer is unable to calculate eCPM for the creative-placement pair, the auction will not take place and the best alternative campaign will be chosen for impression. It will help this campaign to gain statistics.
  • Best alternative campaign surrounds will not be chosen.
  • Creatives in best alternative campaigns can be template-based (HTML or JavaScript type) or non-template-based (types: HTML/JavaScript/IMG/SWF).
  • All settings like cappings, limits, targetings and exclusions will be checked when choosing the best alternative campaign. Of course, if an alternative campaign lost the chance for participation in the auction, this will not affect campaign's cappings, limits and planning.
  • Prediction for an alternative campaign can be hardly influenced by unpredictable SSP offers, for example a good SSP offer with a high price can take the majority of traffic from placement if RTB auction campaign has no limitations. The inventory prediction mechanism learns what is the ratio between cases when an alternative campaign wins with SPPs in auction and cases, and when it loses with SSPs at the last day . When this ratio is known, the predictor will assume that the alternative campaign will win future auctions with the probability equal to this ratio. If this probability is not known, for example on the first campaign day, the predictor will assume that the alternative campaign will always win the auction. Warning: All campaigns that can be chosen as best alternative campaigns for RTB auctions can also be chosen like any other non-RTB auction campaigns in the system

    Preview limitations

    RTB auction creatives are visible in Preview and Live Preview, but no alternative campaigns from AdServer are available for preview (only auctions between SSP providers).

    • adocean RTB

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