Mediaplex's MOJO Blog

After a period of time where Sitelinks was unavailable via the Google API (features released in Google always take some time for them to become available via their own API) which resulted in time consuming work a-rounds, I’m pleased to say that Sitelinks has been fully integrated into MOJO SEM.

MOJO SEM now allows you to tailor and track Sitelinks and provides reporting on which Sitelinks are performing best.  Google Adwords doesn’t report on which sitelinks triggered a click and what the cost was, but we do.

Reports can be configured easily and can be integrated into your wider SEM strategy.  So if you’re using Mediaplex, you can read about how to configure your sitelinks here, or you can ask your Account Manager.

If you’re not using Mediaplex, here’s just another reason as to why you should be!

MOJO Adserver now allows you to set additional fields directly from the Campaign tab thereby improving the workflow of your advertising campaigns. Previously the Insertion Order link on the Campaign tab only allows for configuring the following 4 fields on the Insertion Order PDF: 

Clients can now reference and set the following fields:

For Mediaplex clients, feel free to contact your account manager or click the link to get a more detailed description of this enhancement CLICK HERE

Are you being redirected to the wrong website at random times? Do you end up on MySpace.com even though you typed in Facebook.com?

Have you tried numerous scans for malware or Trojans without finding any?

If you answered yes to the previous questions, you may be suffering from a cached DNS issue.

If you are like most people, you probably don’t think twice about your DNS settings until a specific issue arises.  Your home network most likely adheres to the design laid out in the following diagram where you have a wireless router connected to your modem (cable, DSL or satellite), which then allows your various computers and/or laptops to connect to the Internet.

To get to any web page on the Internet, you would simply type the name of the website into your browser.  What you may not realize is that Internet sites can only be addressed by a string of numeric numbers (IP addresses) such as 157.166.226.26 for www.cnn.com.  When you type in the web address into the browser, your browser, computer, router or even your modem queries the DNS servers to translate the name you typed into the actual IP address of the website.  This means that your DNS settings must be correct in order for you to be directed to the right website.

The current issues suffered by owners of Linksys WRT160N and WRT310N routers demonstrate the importance of DNS settings. What makes these two routers different from other routers is the fact that Cisco/Linksys built a DNS cache/proxy into these routers.  The intention in doing this was to speed up your access to commonly accessed web pages using cached DNS data.  Unfortunately, the firmware in these two routers have a very major bug that results in DNS cache getting corrupted, and users being redirected randomly to unintended websites.

As noted by Ian Bushfield in his blog, the issue is not due to some Trojan or malware on his computer but instead is due to the corrupted DNS cache on his WRT160N router.  Also, the redirected destination is fairly random to the point where facebook.com would sometimes send him to MySpace.com, Google.com or even Mediaplex.com.

Fortunately, the solution is as simple as reconfiguring your computer and/or your router to always query publicly available DNS servers such as those run by Google or OpenDNS.  Even if you are not experiencing issues getting to your desired web pages, it still wouldn’t hurt to double check your settings to ensure that you do not suffer the same result or, worse, get redirected to sites that do contain malware or Trojans.

For additional information on the Cisco/Linksys router issue as well as instructions on how to configure your DNS settings, please see:

• Bill Gerrard’s blog
• Ian Bushfield’s blog
• Plusnet support page

A key to understanding the performance of your campaign is directly related to the cost of the media buy, delivery of impressions, click events and acquisitions. For better insight to your campaigns’ success, be sure to include cost related performance metrics in your MOJO Adserver Report; these include cost basis (client rate), CPC (cost per click), CPM (cost per impression), and running cost. These performance metrics are calculated based on the configuration of the placement account details – client cost, client rate, count, and pace. Not only will you be able to report on the best performing placement in your campaign, your MOJO Report will report the best performing creative and the cost associated with it.

Each media buy has a different goals and objectives, with budget being one of them. MOJO Adserver offers four different formulas, determined by the pace, to calculate the running cost for each placement. Setting the correct pace in your placement account details will align the running cost calculation with your budgetary goals. The pacing options are:

Hard Cost: The running cost is limited to the client cost as defined in the placement account details.  If the site leaves the placement ad tags up and running on the page after the client cost was met, the
additional transactions are considered free, thus lowering the average cost in reports.

Hard Count: The running cost is limited to the count (inventory quantity purchased) as defined in the placement account details. If the site leaves the placement’s ad tags up and running on the page after the count has been delivered, the additional transactions are considered free, thus lowering the
average cost in reports.

Hard Date: The running cost is limited to the placement flight dates. If the site runs the placment’s ad tag after the placement’s end flight date, the additional transactions are considered free, thus lowering the average cost in reports.

Open Ended: The running cost it limitless. With this type of pace, the running cost reflects the client rate multiplied by the transaction (impression, click, or acquistion, depending on the buy type).

To configure your placement account details in MOJO Adserver, follow these steps:
1. Navigate to your campaign’s placement subtab
2. Click the update link to the placement
3. Complete the Count field by entering the inventory quantity purchased
4. Complete the Client Cost field
5. Complete the Client Rate filed
6. Select the appropriate Pace
7. Submit the changes

If you would like to update account details of your placement, after the campaign has launched, you may do so at anytime. The updates will be reflected in MOJO Reports after one transaction (based on the configured buy type – impression, click, or acquisition) and 24 hours. If you are making changes to your placements’ pacing, please note that Hard Cost pacing must be configured prior to the placement over delivering on cost.

Did you know that you can view performance data directly within the MOJO campaign set up screen?  As your campaign begins to accumulate impressions, clicks, and ROI data, you can immediately view that data from the campaign screen, giving you a quick, visual snapshot of your campaign activity.  This screen has a “hide” and “show” button on the top right hand corner, so users can choose to view or not view this chart as needed.

Along with MOJO’s dashboard charts, this campaign screen chart gives users another constructive view into their campaign performance.

Filter Creatives by Set

If you are working with many creative sets, the placement configuration screen for creative assignments can become extensive. To make it easier to identify creative sets or creative assignments quickly, “The Placement Configuration Filter” allows you to filter the placement configuration screen by creative set.  Further details of the Placement Creative Filter is available here:

http://app.mediaplex.com/help/DataSheets/20100216_Placement_Creative_Filter.pdf

Hide Client Creatives

One of MOJO Adserver’s efficiency is the ability to upload creatives on either client level or campaign level.  Client level creatives may be utilized by any campaign allowing the creative to be uploaded only once.  Over time, as you work with new creative iterations, you may see the list of client level creatives becomes larger.  If you are working strictly with campaign level creatives and only want to see those creatives, you can select “Hide Client Creatives” on the top right corner of the Creatives tab to hide the client level creatives from view consolidating the creative list.

Archive Old Creatives

In MOJO Adserver, you can archive your creatives for future use. By marking a creative as archived, you can store the creative in MOJO without needing to upload it in the future.  Additionally, you can speed the load time of the Creatives pages at the Client and Campaign levels. Once a creative is archived, it can easily be un-archived and assigned to placements.  Further details of the Creative Archive feature is available here: http://app.mediaplex.com/help/DataSheets/Creative_Archive_02102009.pdf

As you create and manage campaigns in MOJO Adserver, your MOJO environment will start to accumulate an extensive listing of campaigns, placements and creatives.   Here are a few ways to streamline the MOJO Adserver interface for easy navigation.

Hide Expired Campaigns

Too many old campaigns on the Dashboard screen?  By selecting on “Hide Expired” link at the top right corner of the campaign listing, all campaigns with past flight dates may be hidden from view consolidating your list of campaigns to only current campaigns.

Show Campaign Stats

Need a high-level view of your campaign statistics by placement without pulling a report?  Easy!  On the campaign level, there is an option to “Show Stats.”  By clicking on this link, three new columns will be added to the campaign level screen: Flight Dates, This Month and Last Month.  For each placement, you will see impression and click statistics for this month and last month.  Activity statistics are updated on a daily basis.

Stop and Hide Placements

If you have long-term campaigns with many placements, placements that are no longer running can be Stopped.  Stopping a placement makes the Adserver call inactive.  Stopped placements may be hidden from view making the placements list shorter and easier to view.  On the Campaign level, select “Hide Stopped” to hide stopped placements.  To reveal stopped placements, select “Show All.”

Did you know that you can quickly and easily mass-upload creative using a zip file? Simply follow these steps to fully utilize this automated feature in the MOJO Adserver:

1. Add all of the creative you want to upload to a zip folder. Be sure to follow these specific naming conventions on your files.

•  The creative file names must include the banner size (i.e. – banner_a_160x600.swf). This will allow the system to automatically associate the correct banner size with the creative.
•  All backup jpg/gif files for your Flash creative must have the exact same name as the swf file (i.e. – banner_a_160x600.swf & banner_a_160x600.jpg). Any jpg/gif with the exact same name as a swf in the same upload will automatically be associated as the backup image; otherwise it will be uploaded as a standard jpg/gif creative.
  

2. In MOJO Adserver, navigate to the Creatives tab for your campaign.

3. Click on the Zip Archive (.zip) link and then browse for your zip file and submit.

4. All of your creative are now available in your creative list.

Many Mediaplex customers have used the MOJO Adserver creative optimizer to improve their click-through and conversion rates. Because optimizers and ad placements can be configured in many ways, we’d like to offer our recommendations for achieving optimum results.

Use the Right Creative Mix
 A good rule of thumb is that a creative set should have 3 to 5 creatives. This allows enough impressions for each creative so that the optimizer can determine its effectiveness.

Experiment by changing one variable at a time. For example, a week after creatives reach their impression threshold, swap out the worst performing creative with a new one. Note: Waiting 7 days will account for variations by day of week.

Set the Right Threshold
A threshold ensures that the optimizer doesn’t make rash decisions based on scant data. The threshold is applied to every creative in every creative set. Make sure you set it low enough so that creatives will be optimized after 250 clicks or conversions have occurred for the entire creative set.

For example, if a placement is to serve 100,000 impressions per day with 5 creatives rotating equally in a creative set, each will serve 20,000 times per day. If the expected click-through rate is 15%, then the placement will have roughly 150 clicks per day. 250 clicks should be reached after 1.67 days, resulting in an impression threshold of 33,333.

Fight Banner Burnout
Use the “Time to Consider” setting to instruct the optimizer how quickly it should make changes in creative performance. Set a shorter window (a few days to a week) for direct response campaigns or for creatives that tend to burn out quickly, or a longer window (several weeks or months) for branding campaigns.

Test to See What Matters
Users may exhibit different behaviors based on their location and or time of day / day of week. Test this by placing the same creatives into different creative sets based on geo-location, time of day, or day of week. Create Targeting Rules to serve each set. Each creative set will be optimized individually.

You may discover that creative A has the highest clickthrough rate on weekends, but creative B has the highest clickthrough rate on weekdays. When clear differences are evident, configure other ad placements in the same manner to maximize the optimizer’s effectiveness. Be sure to test one variable (geo, time, date) at a time so that each variable’s impact can be measured.

For any Mediaplex client who is looking to participate in our weekly webinars.  Here is a schedule below.  This list is also available in the Help Menu in MOJO.

January – March 2011

• January 6 — Basic Adserver (Trafficking & Reports)
• January 13 — Media Director
• January 20 — Basic Adserver (Trafficking & Reports)
• January 27 — Rules/Targeting
• February 3 — Basic Adserver (Trafficking & Reports)
• February 10 — Optimizer
• February 17 — Basic Adserver (Trafficking & Reports)
• February 24 — Master Client Tags
• March 3 — Basic Adserver (Trafficking & Reports)
• March 10 — XML Workbook
• March 17 — Basic Adserver (Trafficking & Reports)
• March 24 — In-Dept Reporting
• March 31 — Basic Adserver (Trafficking & Reports)

*All webinars begin at 10am Pacific/ 1pm Eastern unless otherwise noted.

**Click here for a description of the different webinars.

***Please contact your Mediaplex Account Manager for details and to sign up for any of our complimentary webinars.