As a publisher, your main goal is to maximize the ad revenue from all the available ad spaces on the website. To get that level of website monetization, proper inventory management is extremely important. It will not only help you sell the ad spaces for the best price possible but also ensure that all the available ad impressions are being utilized.
However, it is also a fact that the time spent solving inventory hassles takes time away from your core operations. Here are 7 tips that will make your inventory management seamless, helping you save time, resources, and costs:
In today’s time, digital marketing is one of the fastest-evolving industries. New technologies and trends are being introduced every day, making adtech more confusing than ever. This is why it is even more important not to get lost. Before untangling, ad inventory needs to be categorized. Once done, the next step should be finalizing ad sale strategies like what portion of the inventory is to be sold through which platform (Google Ad Exchange, App Nexus, SpotX,etc.), understanding what each way of selling is, etc.
There is no denying the fact that automation can help you save a significant amount of time and effort. The same goes for ad inventory management as well. You can automate a few tasks that are repetitive and time-consuming. This will not only free up resources but also give you enough time to focus on other important things. While servers will take care of programmatic selling, direct sales have a lot of potential. You can consider using digital self-service platforms. However, it is important to look for one that offers the best features, such as automatic report creation, campaign management, etc.
Another thing you can do is, give more control to your advertisers and make it easy for them to find where to buy your ad inventory from. If you choose to do so, self-serve advertising is one of the best display advertising solutions. It allows them to place direct requests on platforms that offer tools to create ad units and tracking capabilities for advertisers. Using self serve platforms can lead to campaigns that are easy to set up and less time-consuming for advertisers.
Selling the entire ad inventory is one of the most important things that every publisher focuses on. The reason behind that is simple: the more ad spaces you sell, the higher your revenue will be. But, chances are still there that some inventory will be left in the end. In such a scenario, the programmatic selling process can be used to make sure that there are no unsold ad spaces.
For direct sales, many advertisers look for custom pricing models. This is why it is important to keep your pricing model as simple as possible in the beginning. Some of the most practical options that you can consider are CPM, CPC, and CPL. Also, always keep an eye out for other popular pricing models that are being used by other players in the market. Before adding them to the arsenal, always get a fair idea about how well they are performing.
With a number of technological advancements, adtech has become trickier than ever. This is why it is completely justified to feel overwhelmed at times. Whenever you find yourself stuck somewhere, you can always ask for some help. In this era of self serve marketing, most platforms offer training and expert consultations as well to help make your sales process simple.
It’s a good practice to review media kits and rate cards every quarter. You can add or remove elements after analyzing what worked for you and what did not. If advertisers have some queries about issues that were recurring, create the necessary fixes (a knowledge page, a modified process, etc.), and finally, based on the quarter’s performance, re-price your ad spaces, sizes, etc.
Through it all, ensure each partner you choose, like the ad server or self-serve platform, is able to meet your specific requirements. Self Serve Plus is a self-service advertising platform that gives advertisers direct buy access to your website’s ad inventory. It also includes non-standard ad placements so that they get a better ad-buying experience.