Highlight what’s important with contextually-relevant ads Let’s face it: we all made it through school by perfecting the “skim and highlight” reading method. But it’s not just for textbooks. With DoubleClick Bid Manager, you can highlight your advertising message based on page content that’s meaningful to your audience. Keyword contextual targeting helps you engage shoppers as they browse content related to your products and services. Based on over 10 years of expertise in semantic targeting technology, our contextual targeting scans eligible web pages, and extracts relevant concepts and themes to match to advertisers’ messages -- and do it all in real-time. Pinpoint potential customers across the web with audience targeting Like the cheerleaders of your high school football team, you may already know who your brand loyalists are. And with robust third-party data segments in DoubleClick Bid Manager, you can identify new supporters who have purchase intentions similar to your existing customers. And if you need help finding your brand's likely consumers, you can use look-alike modeling in DoubleClick Bid Manager for recommendations on new data segments to try. Brush up on your geography skills with location targeting Online and in-store shoppers alike, college students conduct online research as they stock up for the year. Geo-target your campaigns down to the country, region, city or even zip code level to connect with shoppers. Then use DoubleClick Bid Manager’s reporting suite and in-product visualizations to optimize based on the best-performing locations. Secure your brand’s message with powerful display and cross-channel remarketing Don’t let potential consumers stray away. Re-engage shoppers who have left your site with DoubleClick Bid Manager’s powerful remarketing capabilities. And set-up is so easy, you can even spend more time in recess! For DFA users, remarketing lists collected by the DFA Floodlight tag are shared seamlessly with DoubleClick Bid Manager -- improving cookie fidelity and potential reach. And if you’re not using DFA, we’ll provide full pixel creation, implementation and tracking capabilities. But seamless remarketing extends beyond just display. Break barriers between your search and display campaigns with display remarketing from search ads in DoubleClick. As we announced in April, this feature allows advertisers to use insights from paid search clicks to remarket to audiences across ad exchanges via DoubleClick Bid Manager -- all with a seamless, tagless workflow. In fact, VivaKi was the first to trial this cross-channel tool by launching a global campaign for a leading insurance company. As described in this video testimonial, with their search and display campaigns on a unified platform, they used search ad clicks as a signal to re-engage users with display ads across billions of ad impressions available via DoubleClick Bid Manager... and saw corresponding performance uplift. Ace your “report” card with better measurement from DoubleClick Don’t wait until the end of the semester to see how well you did. Throughout your campaign’s flight, measure campaign success with DoubleClick’s robust reporting suite: Planning reports: Leverage look-alike modeling to find new users whose online behaviors are similar to your customers. Or find your campaign’s potential impression volume and unique user access with inventory availability reporting. Performance reports: Learn how your your campaign is driving conversions on the fly. You can break down campaign performance metrics by audience segment, geo-parameter, keyword, ad positioning, and more. These deep campaign insights can help you optimize your campaign in real time to maximize performance. Fresh, accurate data across your buy. For DFA users, DoubleClick Bid Manager counts conversions based on the attribution modeling your advertiser has set in the ad server. This means that conversions are de-duplicated across any other partners on your media plan -- no correlation modeling or back end data matching necessary, saving you valuable time and effort.. |
Wednesday, 21 August 2013
Go back to school, DoubleClick style: 5 ways to ace the test with DoubleClick Bid Manager
Wednesday, 12 September 2012
Need help? Now you can get it right inside the DFA UI
We've made it easier to get right from DFA to the help you need. In fact, you don't even have to leave DFA at all: now you can access a help pane from within the DFA UI. Use it to find and read articles, as well as contact the support team with questions or comments.
To open in-product help, click the Help link in the upper right of the DFA interface. This brings up a search bar you can use to find popular Help Center articles.
If you need more help, try the full Help Center by clicking Explore Help in the lower right of the product help page. Or click Contact Support to send questions to the support team.
In-product help even offers tools to accompany your question or comment with a screenshot of your page. You can highlight areas of the screenshot that are especially relevant to your issue.
Plus, your question or comment will automatically include the URL you’re on, along with key trafficking details and information about your browser type. You can review all this data before you send your message by just clicking on the Included system information link.
Help content may be a route, but we know the product is your destination. That's why we developed in-product help with this in mind: the quickest way back to DFA is never leaving in the first place. So try it out and let us know what you think.
Posted by Jeremy Axelrod, Technical Writer, DFA
Friday, 7 September 2012
Setting lookback windows in Path to Conversion reports
Have you ever changed your Floodlight lookback window and then waited a few days in order to see how conversion numbers would change? Have you ever misconfigured your lookback windows in the trafficking UI and wished you could regenerate your conversion numbers with the correct lookback windows?
The new Path to Conversion report (P2C) available in DFA Reporting offers greater flexibility around setting and managing lookback windows when you run a report.
Example 1: I’m interested in seeing the impact on conversions if I shorten the lookback window from its original 30-day Floodlight configuration.
Select “Custom” from the new Lookback Window drop-down under Report Properties.
The “From Floodlight” option simply uses the pre-calculated lookback window value that is already applied.
Unlike Floodlight lookback windows, which are based on calendar days, custom lookback windows use a simple 24-hour calculation. A 2-day value for clicks means that the clicks will need to be within 48 hours of the conversion to count. A 0 value will effectively remove clicks or impressions from attribution eligibility.
For this report, I want to allow a 7-day window for clicks and only a 3-day window for impressions.
Once I have changed the lookback window, to understand its effects I can add any of the following dimensions to my query:
Conversion Dimensions
- Floodlight Attribution Type indicates if the conversion is a click-through or a view-through conversion using the Floodlight lookback windows.
- Recalculated Attribution Type tells me if the conversion is a click-through or view-through conversion using the 7- and 3-day lookback windows I configured under Report Properties.
Per Interaction Dimensions
- Similarly, I can compare Floodlight Attributed Interaction to Recalculated Attributed Interaction to see how attribution changed using my new lookback windows.
- Within Floodlight lookback window indicates if the interaction was already in the Floodlight lookback window or if the new lookback window brought the interaction into this conversion path.
Example 2: I am seeing a number of conversion paths with large periods of inactivity for many users. I would like to evaluate the impact on conversions using only more recent activity without changing my original lookback window.
To do this, I can select the “Max gap between interactions” option under Report Properties.
Setting a limit on the number of days will end a conversion path if the distance between two elements in the path is greater than or equal to that number of days. This is good for tidying up longer paths to focus on more recent events.
This is just one simple demonstration of the power of the Path to Conversion report. The new lookback window tools in the Path to Conversion report provide a way to analyze your conversion data with greater flexibility.
Try it today and let us know how it helps you out!
Posted by Jason Gessner, Software Engineer, DFA
Tuesday, 1 November 2011
Seven Rich Media Innovations for Your Next Campaign
Today, technical experts from our rich media team will present seven rich media innovations to a room full of developers, programmers and technologists within creative agencies at Creative Sandbox | Behind the Screens. This is part of our ongoing effort to help foster more relevant, more real-time and more interactive display ads across screens. Below you can play a video about each of the seven innovations being covered. We look forward to seeing these ideas come to life in live campaigns.
Dynamic Creative with DoubleClick Rich Media
Use multiple headlines, offers, calls-to-action, product images, landing pages -- even videos -- all within a single creative.
QR Code in a DoubleClick Rich Media Ad
Provide a bridge from online display ads to consumers’ smartphones with QR codes.
Augmented Reality in a DoubleClick Rich Media Ad
With augmented reality in an ad, all people need is a webcam and a simple printout or camera phone to experience immersive games or stunning 3D product demonstrations.
Credits: Carmichael Lynch for the Living Sasquatch example (www.livingsasquatch.com); Euro RSCG, Media Contacts and Volvo for the Volvo S60 augmented reality ad
+1 Button in a DoubleClick Rich Media Ad
The +1 button in an ad allows consumers to recommend advertised products or services to contacts and connections across the Internet.
Credits: AKQA for Gears of War 3
Twitter in a DoubleClick Rich Media Ad
Combine social media with the reach of paid advertising by including Twitter in a DoubleClick Rich Media ad.
Credits: Media Contacts for Volvo XC60 and Tribal DDB for VW Passat
Social Toolbar in a DoubleClick Rich Media Ad
Bring sharing to the forefront of any ad with a social toolbar.
Interactive Page Takeover with DoubleClick Rich Media
Use an interactive page takeover to transform a user's favorite web page into a full-screen ad that surprises and delights.
Credits: Discovery Communications for River Monsters; OMD, Tag Worldwide and Intel for Intel Core i5
Posted by Sally Cole, Product Marketing Manager
Friday, 12 August 2011
Tips & Tricks: Simple Steps to Ensure Proper Conversion Tracking in DFA
Being able to track campaign performance starts with proper tagging of the relevant conversion points on your advertiser’s website. If your tags are not set up properly to begin with, then you could lose precious information on how your campaign is performing.
In DoubleClick for Advertisers, conversion tags are referred to as Floodlight activities. To save yourself the headache of Floodlight tag errors that could result in campaign conversions not tracking and reporting correctly, here are three easy QA steps you can take to determine whether a Floodlight tag has been implemented correctly.
Step 1: Compare DFA code and site code
Confirm that the Floodlight tag implemented on webpage matches the tag code in the DFA user interface (UI), and that there are no red flags such as line breaks.
Click into the Floodlight tag in question in the DFA UI. Copy and paste the tag code found in the “Floodlight Tag Preview” section into a simple text document.
Load the webpage where this same tag has been implemented. View the source code of the page by selecting View -> Page Source from your browser menu. Do a quick search for “doubleclick” within the source code. Unless the Floodlight tag has been coded on a hidden layer of the website, you should be able to find the tag somewhere within the page source code.
Once located, copy the Floodlight tag code and paste it into the same text document where you pasted the tag code from the DFA UI.
Compare the two tags. The syntax should match.
Step 2: Break down the syntax of the tag
Confirm that each “key=[value]” pair of the Floodlight tag that you just located within the source code of the webpage is correct. These key-values should exactly match those of the Floodlight tag you copied from the DFA UI.
Here's an example:
<iframe src="http: net="" src="1234567;type=abc123;cat=fghij456;ord=[Random" width="1" height="1" frameborder="0" style="display:none">
src=1234567: Identifies the advertiser that is the source of the Floodlight activity. The value of the src= key is the advertiser ID.
type=abc123: The group tag string, which identifies the activity group with which the Floodlight activity is associated in DFA.
cat=fghij456: The activity tag string, which identifies the Floodlight activity.
Use a proxy-sniffing tool to confirm that the tag is successfully firing every time the webpage loads. A proxy-sniffing tool is a browser plugin such as Tamper Data, HttpWatch or Charles.
Turn on your proxy sniffer, load the webpage, and filter by tags containing “doubleclick.” You should see your tag fire accordingly.
Refresh the page several times to make sure that the ord= key-value is correctly populated with a random number that is at least 8 digits long.
For a more complete guide to Floodlight conversion tracking and tag QA, make sure to visit the Floodlight module of the DFA Help Center (DFA sign-in required).
Posted by Kasey Spickard, DFA Technical Services Associate
Monday, 27 June 2011
Tips and Tricks: Mobile Ad Serving in DFA
Considering running a mobile campaign? As long as the publishers on your media plan are able to dynamically serve mobile ad tags to users who are accessing the sites on a mobile device, you can traffic your mobile placements through DFA. Mobile trafficking in DFA is very similar to standard image trafficking with a couple key differences.
If your publishers have questions about DFA Mobile tags, how they work and how to implement, please direct them to our Partner Support Site (no DFA sign-in required).
1. Mobile Placements: Create mobile placements by selecting Mobile in the Placement Properties tab.
Key Difference #1: Mobile placements don't have media dimensions. Placements include all sizes in a single placement/creative delivery.2. Mobile Creatives: Upload your mobile image files by clicking Add Creative > Mobile. There should be multiple sized assets for each DFA mobile creative based on MMA (Mobile Marketing Association) standard sizes. DFA will detect the best creative size to match the device when the tags are served. For each creative message, all mobile image files are uploaded into a single DFA mobile creative. When that single creative set is selected, the optimal creative dimension for the individual mobile device will be displayed.
Note: While it's possible to traffic only one image file size per creative, we strongly recommend using all four MMA standard sizes per placement as a best practice. This will ensure that there are appropriate sizes for the most common mobile devices.
Key Difference #2: Multiple-sized assets for each creative.
3. Mobile Ads: Next, create a mobile ad by clicking Create Ad > Mobile Ad on the Ads tab. Only mobile creatives can be associated with mobile ads, and only mobile ads can be assigned to mobile placements.
You can assign multiple creative messages (each with different-sized assets) to rotate to the same ad slot with a random creative rotation. For mobile ads, you can target to countries and mobile platforms.
4. Mobile Tags: To download mobile ad tags in DFA, you will need to download them separately from standard in-page tags. All mobile placements will display the same 0x0 size. On the Tags tab, under Placement Type, select Mobile.
5. Mobile Reporting: Similar to the Single Advertiser query, the Mobile query in ReportCentral provides delivery results for one or more campaigns from a single advertiser. In addition, the Mobile query includes delivery information based on mobile carrier, country, mobile platform, and size profiles.
We hope you found these tips helpful but if you have further questions about DFA's mobile capabilities, please email dfa-support@google.com or contact your account manager. You can also find more details within the Mobile section of the DFA Help Center (DFA sign-in required).
Posted by Will Trang, DFA Technical Services Associate
Tuesday, 17 February 2009
Three Ways to Accelerate Your Social Media Efforts
Think you have social media checked off on your marketing plan because you have a blog, podcast, vodcast and active forum? Think again. Now that you've hit your stride with social media, it's time to accelerate the conversation by drawing in new participants. We'd like to share three ways to use rich media ads to do this:
Plug Your Blog: Embed your blog feed into an ad unit. Include a call-to-action in the unit to subscribe to your RSS feed.
Add Media to the Ad: Advertise new podcasts or vodcasts as they become available. Include part or all of the podcast in the ad unit. Promote links to subscribe to your feeds in addition to offering individual download links.
Bring it All Together: Package all your social media channels -- blogs, podcasts, vodcasts, comments feeds -- into one comprehensive widget. Allow people to share it on their blog or social network of choice. Seed the widget by running it as a shareable ad on relevant paid media.
Posted by Sally Cole
Friday, 4 January 2008
Spotlight on Spotlight Tags
We have a major announcement coming out Monday that's related to Spotlight tags. In light of this, I'd like to offer up some tips and tricks to using them.
- Woody Allen's advice that "80 percent of success is just showing up" applies surprisingly well to Spotlight tags. Any advertiser with the smallest direct response goal should be using Spotlight tags to gain insight into their campaign effectiveness. Advertisers should make sure that Spotlight tags are "showing up" on their Web site(s).
- The more tags the merrier. The use of multiple Spotlight tags provides more opportunities to understand how audiences respond to your campaign. An easy mistake to make is to use a single Spotlight tag to measure a single response goal, such as purchases. There's plenty of other Web site activities that indicate a response, such as visiting a specific page or filling out a form. Implement as many tags as you need to track all possible responses to a campaign.
- It's the little things that count. As a best practice, take a detailed look at Spotlight tag implementation from time-to-time. Check that the code for each Spotlight tag is at the top of the page it is coded for, but not in the tag. Don't use line breaks in the code. If you want an apples to apples comparison of one Spotlight tag to another, make sure they are setup in the same way. Make sure to setup Spotlight tags under the right advertiser in DFA. A campaign running under one advertiser can't take advantage of Spotlight tags setup under another advertiser.
- Put it to the test. DART for Advertisers makes it easy to test and monitor Spotlight tags. If DART finds an error in a tag, an error message will be displayed on the Navigation and Status bar under the Advertiser tab in DART. Be sure to check this tab after implementing new tags and on an ongoing basis to monitor existing tags.
Posted by Sally Cole






