Before I get into this, I want to say again that I am CERTAINLY not a professional in the area of making money with webcomics.  All of these articles contain only my personal experience. I just don’t feel YOU should have beg and dig for scraps on this kind of thing as I had to. So, onward!

—

In lieu of the new and improved Advertising 303 article, here is Advertising 404: how to set up default campaigns. Setting up defaults leads to the creation of an ad chain. This article will talk about the pros and cons of chains, the placement of ad networks in a chain, and the concept of frequency capping.

I’m going to start by defining “default” and “ad chain” again. A default is the name given to a passed-up pageview.  Say that you get 100 pageviews a day, but your ad network only fills 60 of those 100, for whatever reason.  Those extra 40 are called defaults. They “default” to another ad network if you have one, or public service announcements if you don’t. You are not paid by a network for default views, but you ARE paid for default views if they are sent to another network.   If you set up one network to default to another, you have created an ad chain.  A chain may have multiple “links,” or in this case, networks.

Since ADSDAQ is no longer a viable source of income for webcomickers, I’m going to start with Adbrite. Adbrite is the first link in my ad chain because you can set a CPM price to beat. For example, I have it set to default every time to my NEXT ad network if the CPM of an ad Adbrite wants to show is less than $1.50. It doesn’t make much compared to ADSDAQ, so Burst Media has now become my first “real” ad provider instead of my second. I only have Adbrite first because you can set “the CPM to beat.”

How to set up a default in Adbrite:

1) log in to your “publishers” area.

2) click “manage ad zones.”

3) Set up a new ad zone if you haven’t already. You CREATE ad spaces based on the size of what ads you want to show.

4) Click “pricing options” (or “next” if you are just now creating your ad zone.) Select “yes” for “are you already using other ad networks?” Set your CPM to beat. If you a site with small traffic, keep it low, one dollar or under.  You can change the CPM at any time. You’ll want to experiment with different prices for a week or two to find your optimum range.

5) Okay, now you see that big empty box beneath? This is where you insert the tag code from another network. Copy and paste the ad code for the same size ad as the one you just created.

6) Copy and paste the ad code for ADBRITE onto your site. Now, every time that Adbrite defaults, it automatically is sent to the other network even if you do not physically copy and paste that second network’s code onto your site. Very simple, yes?

How to create defaults in Burst:

Burst is a little more difficult than most other networks because it requires a html or image redirect in place of copy and pasting code. I’m going to use screenshots here, because I’m told the Burst set up is confusing. I don’t find it so, but if you don’t know what you’re looking for, I can see why it would be.

1) Go here:

2) Choose your desired size in the dropdown.

3) Click “add new default campaign” a gray button on the right.

4) This form will pop up:

Where it lists the “http://” part, you insert the address of a html page that contains ONLY the code of the desired default ad. Basically, Burst will only default to an iframe.

If Burst is your primary ad provider, you insert Burst’s tag code onto your site, and the code will automatically default to the iframe.

Frequency Capping:

Frequency Capping allows you to maximize your revenue per user session. Basically, you get to decide how often a specific default will get shown so that THAT default won’t default. Defaults only happen when ad providers either 1) don’t have enough advertisers to show on your site 100% of the time, or 2) realize that they are showing the same ads to the same users often enough (without good performance) that they are losing money, so they no longer show it.  So, if you set a frequency cap, YOU decide how often to show the ads, NOT the provider.  You can’t make it show MORE ads that I’m aware of, but you can make it default to other campaigns when you want to.

Not all ad providers allow you to set a frequency cap. You can on Burst, for your default campaigns, since you can have multiple default campaigns per ad size.  Here is what the form looks like:

Weighting refers to how often the campaign appears. Consider it a percentage, except out of 9999 instead of 100. Min CPM is the minimum CPM (cost per thousand views) you will allow to show through this default campgain. And then there’s frequency cap. Burst allows 0-10 views per browser session, or [up to] continuously for 2 hours. This is something you will simply have to experiment with, as the optimum cap changes from site to site.

I have 8 default campaigns set from Burst, 6 of which are free advertising for webcomicker friends of mine.  For these 6 “free advertising” campaigns, I have only weighting. I only set a frequency cap if I set a minimum CPM.  I know the difference weighting and frequency capping is a little hazy, but be aware there IS a difference.

The Order of Your Ad Chain:

Y’okay, so, if you have 2+ ad networks, you should have set up an ad chain. The question now becomes, what order do you make the chain? Always set it up by which one pays the most OR which one has the highest eCPM and fill rate (eCPM is average CPM).   For example, I have Adbrite first in my ad chain, since it will only display ads higher than my eCPM on Burst. I know this, because this is what I set in “pricing options,” as discussed in how to set up defaults on Adbrite.

How Long Should Your Ad Chain Be?

I don’t recommend more than 5, and that’s pushing it. The reason I don’t recommend more is because each default makes your site lag more and more.  It takes time for these networks to bounce back and forth to find an ad to display. Also, each network further on down the chain sees less and less pageviews, getting lower CPM ads.

I was just accepted into a place called Adtegrity, which guarantees a 100% fill rate (no defaults).  I’m going to try this and see how it works, and will let everyone know. I applied to Direct Media Exchange, which handles all defaults at once, from a single interface, which is extremely convenient. I however, was declined.