Contents
Ad Selection With Multiple Campaigns
FAQs: Specific Campaign Settings
Introduction
This guide describes how ART19’s ad serving technology works. The goal of this document is to help you manage your campaigns more effectively, leveraging all the campaign tools that ART19 offers. It does not cover the technical aspects of dynamic ad insertion.
For more information, please reach out to our support team at support@art19.com.
How to Use this Guide
This guide is organized into three sections:
- The Campaign Delivery section details the requirements for an ad campaign to be served into a podcast.
- The Ad Selection With Multiple Campaigns section explains how ad selection works when more than one campaign targets the same podcast at the same time.
- The Campaign Settings section provides more detail about individual campaign settings mentioned in previous sections.
Each section has accompanying FAQs. While it is helpful to understand the content in preceding sections to make sure you have a holistic view of ART19’s ad selection process, you can also access specific sections using the table of contents.
Campaign Delivery
Campaign delivery is determined by three factors: Content settings, Campaign settings, and listening Audience. In order for a campaign to deliver, it must meet the requirements in each category. For more information about how delivery is affected by other campaigns, see Ad Selection With Multiple Campaigns.
Content Settings
Podcast episodes must be set up to receive ad campaigns. Content settings are configured on the Series and Episode Detail Pages.
Once an episode has been set up (see Creating an Episode for more details), you must create at least one Ad Insertion Point (AIP) Marker and select its Position Type. If there are other Markers present, the Position Type for your new AIP may be preselected based on location.
When you first add an AIP, certain settings will have default values. For instance, Maximum Total Time is set to 120 seconds, and Maximum Number of Ads is set to 1. You can change these individual AIP settings or the default settings for every new AIP you create at any time.
Summary
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Required** |
Optional |
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**Note: These settings are specifically required for ad insertion.
Campaign Settings
In order for a campaign to be delivered to a podcast, it must be set up correctly. Campaign settings are configured on the Campaign List and Campaign Detail pages.
When creating a new campaign, you must first provide a unique name, then select a Brand and Agency. If you haven’t already created your Brand (required for Billable campaigns) and/or Agency (optional), you can do so via the Brands and Agencies links in the left navigation panel.
New campaigns have many default settings. For instance, they are set to Standard priority and are eligible for listeners globally. You can change these settings at any time. In order to run, a campaign must also have at least one flight, targeted series, positional targeting, and an active ad. Though there are many ways to further customize your campaign, these are the minimum requirements for it to be eligible for selection.
In order for a campaign to be delivered to a particular episode, the campaign's settings must match the content settings noted above. For instance, the campaign must target a Position (e.g. Post-Roll 1) that exists in the episode, and the duration of the ad creatives must be less than the episode’s Maximum Total Time setting.
Summary
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Required |
Optional |
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Audience
Even if the Campaign and Content settings agree, a campaign won’t deliver in full if there isn’t a sufficiently-sized, qualifying listening audience. Understanding how audience targeting works allows you to expand or reduce your pool of listeners, and thus your campaign delivery.
For example, if you have 300 listeners in Tanzania and you geo-target only that country, then the campaign can deliver to those 300 people but is unlikely to meet a larger impression goal.
Two common ways to increase your listener pool are to target more geographic regions, and include more series and/or episodes.
FAQs: Campaign Delivery
If I target my campaign to Pre-Roll, Mid-Roll, and Post-Roll positions, which position will it be inserted into?
Campaigns are delivered to the first available position in an episode. In this scenario, if a campaign is not selected for a position, it will be evaluated for the next position in the episode until it finds a match. If there is only one active campaign, it will always be inserted into the first AIP it is targeted to.
If I have multiple ads in a single campaign, how do they rotate?
All active ads in your campaign will be distributed evenly. For example, if you have two ads in your campaign, each will receive 50% of the impressions.
Why isn’t my campaign delivering?
Your campaign may not deliver if your content settings and campaign settings do not agree. Here are a few things to check:
AIP
- Make sure your AIP has a Maximum Total Time longer than the total duration of ads you want to play in that position.
- If you’d like more than one ad to play in the targeted AIP, check the Maximum Number of Ads setting.
- Make sure your content has an AIP type and position that your campaign is targeting. For example, if you’re targeting Pre-Rolls but your targeted content only has Mid-Roll AIPs, no ads will be inserted.
Run
- Check that the run time is correct and that your flight dates align with the time you want your campaign to be active.
Pacing
- Make sure that your Goal has not yet been reached. It’s possible that delivery is being throttled due to an “Evenly” paced campaign pacing ahead. You can turn pacing to “As Fast as Possible” to verify whether this is the case.
Audience
- Check that all possible series are included.
- If your campaign is targeting a small Geographic target, it’s possible that the targeted audience is not large enough to meet your campaign goals.
Ad Selection With Multiple Campaigns
ART19’s ad trafficking tools allow you to target more than one campaign to the same podcast at the same time. You can use this functionality to target different campaigns to different audiences within a series (e.g. serving one campaign to listeners in the United States, and another to listeners in Germany), or you can target multiple campaigns to the same audience to increase the likelihood that no podcast is downloaded without a full ad load. When targeting multiple campaigns to the same series audience, understanding why one campaign will be served over another is vital.
It’s important to note that the ad selection process is linear, meaning that the ad server will check available AIPs individually in sequential order. This may affect which campaigns are selected later in the episode, as earlier ad decisions may exclude campaigns from being considered for later AIPs based on Frequency and Competitive Separation settings.
The ART19 ad server determines the order in which campaigns are selected based on a few campaign settings: Priority, Pacing, and CPM.
Priority
All Campaigns are assigned Standard priority by default, but they can be changed to Urgent, High, Low, or Very Low. Outside of exclusions that disqualify a campaign from being delivered, campaign priority is the first setting considered for selection. A higher priority campaign will always be selected over a lower priority campaign.
Pacing
Campaigns pacing will be set to "As Fast as Possible" by default. If you set pacing to deliver "Evenly" on one of your campaigns, the ad server will then factor campaign pacing into the selection order. When considering multiple campaigns, a campaign that is pacing behind will always be selected over another campaign with the same priority. A campaign that is pacing ahead will not be served again until it is back on pace. A campaign is on pace when it has a run time that is proportional to the amount of impressions remaining.
Note: The pacing algorithm assumes consistent download numbers, and cannot predict fluctuations in listenership. In an "Evenly" paced campaign, download changes may not be factored into the pacing algorithm right away, which can result in uneven delivery until the system adjusts.
For more information about how campaign pacing works, see Pacing in the Campaign Settings section.
CPM
Campaigns do not have a CPM by default. If you enter a CPM value, it will be factored into campaign selection. In service of yield optimization, a campaign with a higher CPM will always be selected over another campaign at the same priority with a lower CPM, so long as the lower CPM campaign is not pacing further behind.
Note: CPM values can be entered for the whole campaign, or on a specific series the campaign is targeting.
Scenario 1: Priority
|
Campaign |
Priority |
Pacing Type |
Pacing Status |
CPM |
Selection Order |
|
A |
High |
As Fast as Possible |
N/A |
$10 |
1st |
|
B |
Standard |
Evenly |
On Pace |
$10 |
2nd |
|
C |
Low |
Evenly |
Pacing Behind |
$25 |
3rd |
Each campaign has a different Priority setting, so it is the only factor considered for ad selection.
Scenario 2: Pace
|
Campaign |
Priority |
Pacing Type |
Pacing Status |
CPM |
Selection Order |
|
D |
Standard |
Evenly |
Furthest Behind |
$0 |
1st |
|
E |
Standard |
Evenly |
Pacing Behind |
$15 |
2nd |
|
F |
Standard |
Evenly |
On Pace |
$25 |
3rd |
Each campaign has the same Priority setting, so the ad server looks at the Pacing Status of each campaign, instead.
Scenario 3: CPM
|
Campaign |
Priority |
Pacing Type |
Pacing Status |
CPM |
Selection Order |
|
G |
Standard |
As Fast as Possible |
N/A |
$25 |
1st |
|
H |
Standard |
Evenly |
On Pace |
$15 |
2nd |
|
I |
Standard |
Evenly |
On Pace |
$10 |
3rd |
Each campaign has the same Priority setting and no campaigns are pacing behind, so the ad server compares CPMs to determine ad selection order.
FAQs: Multiple Campaigns
If I set up two campaigns with the exact same settings, how will they deliver?
The campaigns will be selected in a semi-random order. This will result in even delivery so long as settings involved in ad selection (Priority, Pace, CPM) remain unchanged during the flight of each campaign.
What happens if I change a campaign from Standard to High Priority?
If there are other campaigns targeting the same audience, the campaign will supercede all lower priority campaigns until it is no longer available for ad selection (e.g. it hits its goal or is pacing ahead). If there are no other campaigns targeting the same audience, this will have no effect.
How do exclusions get factored into ad selection with multiple campaigns?
There are three campaign settings that affect the delivery of other campaigns targeting the same inventory: Competitive Separation, Frequency, and Exclusivity for Sequential Campaigns. When a campaign is selected, the ad server may exclude other campaigns targeting the same audience based on these settings.
For example, suppose Campaign A is a High Priority campaign with an Automotive brand. It is selected before Campaign B, a Standard Priority campaign that is competitively separating against the Automotive industry within a download. The ad server excludes Campaign B from the download because Campaign A was already selected and has a brand that conflicts with Campaign B’s competitive separation setting.
For more information about these specific settings, see our Help Center article for Advanced Campaign Settings.
Specific Campaign Settings
This section details specific campaign settings and how they affect delivery.
Information. ART19 offers 2 main campaigns types: Billable and House. “Billable” campaigns must have a Brand (Agency is optional). These attributes can affect campaign delivery when there are other campaigns targeting the same inventory because of Competitive Separation rules.
House campaigns don’t have Brand and Agency requirements. “House” campaigns are “unpaid” and don’t come with a CPM option. House campaigns are typically used for internal promos or CTAs, can be optionally associated with an agency and brand.
“Billable” Campaign Information Card
“House” Campaign Information Card
Campaign Type (Standard or Sequential) also affects delivery. Sequential Campaigns contain two or three ads served in a specific sequence to tell a cohesive story. Exclusive sequential campaigns will not share an episode download with any other campaigns.
"Billable" Campaign Ad Delivery
"House" Campaign Ad Delivery
Fill Rate is found on the Information card, and can be used to throttle delivery. Once a campaign is selected for insertion, Fill Rate will be applied. For example, a Fill Rate of 50% means that the campaign will only be delivered half of the time it otherwise would have.
Run. Campaigns need to have a Flight in order to deliver. You can have multiple flights within a campaign, and there can be dark periods between flights when the campaign is inactive.
Goal. You can set a Goal based on Impressions or Spend. A Spend-based Goal must have an accompanying CPM. A campaign will stop delivering once it reaches its Goal. You can only have one Goal at a time, and only the most recently set Goal will be considered.
If you set your Spend Goal to $15,000, and your CPM to $15 dollars, then your campaign will stop delivering when it reaches 1,000,000 impressions.
You can also set up a Daily Impressions Goal in the "Pacing" card. See Pacing for more details.
Campaign Series Settings. Once a series is added to a campaign, you can also set a Series-specific CPM and Goal, define what Ad Types the Series can receive, and whether the Campaign can be delivered to RSS listeners, API listeners (i.e., listeners using the ART19 embedded player), or both.
From here, you can also decide if the campaign will be available to all episodes within the series, or specific episodes. This can greatly affect campaign delivery.
Pacing determines the speed at which your campaign is delivered. Pacing is set to "As Fast as Possible" by default, meaning ads will be served whenever a campaign meets the delivery requirements until the campaign goal is met. Pacing set to "Evenly" will deliver a campaign consistently over the span of its run time. Daily Pacing is determined by the number of impressions in the Daily Goal. Daily Pacing can be set to deliver "Evenly" or "As Fast as Possible" to meet the Daily Goal.
When pacing "Evenly," the system looks at the total campaign Goal, and distributes the required number of impressions across the Run. As the number of delivered impressions grows, the system continually adjusts priority and pacing accordingly. If there is more than one Flight in the total campaign Run, then pacing "Evenly" will ensure that the campaign is distributed across remaining flights.
For example, if a campaign has a 10,000 impression Goal and two five-day long Flights, then the system will deliver roughly 1,000 impressions per day when active. If listenership drops one day and only 900 impressions are delivered, then the outstanding 100 impressions will be distributed across the remaining days, as the system readjusts to meet the Goal.
|
Day |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
Total |
|
# of Imps. |
1,000 |
1,000 |
1,000 |
1,000 |
1,000 |
900 |
1,025 |
1,025 |
1,025 |
1,025 |
10,000 |
Make sure that you set the Daily Goal high enough that it will meet the total Campaign Goal when multiplied by the number of days in the Run. When the Daily Goal is too small to reach the total Impression or Spend Goal for a campaign, a warning message will appear.
Frequency controls the number of ads from a particular campaign and/or brand that can be inserted into a single episode download and the number of times an individual listener can receive an ad from the associated campaign.
Example1 - Frequency Per Download: Campaign Maximum If you have 2 ads in a campaign and you would like them both to be able to deliver in a single download, setting the Campaign Maximum setting to 2 allows for this campaign to be selected for delivery twice in the same episode download.
Example 2 - Frequency Per Download: Brand Maximum If you have multiple campaigns for Brand A that are running at the same time but don’t want them to run in the same episode, setting the Brand Maximum setting to 1 assures that there will never be more than one Brand A ad delivered to in the same episode download.
Example 3 - Frequency Per Listener: Campaign Frequency If you want to make sure a unique listener can only get 1 impression from a campaign per day with a max of 6 impressions from a campaign over a 4 week period, setting Campaign Frequency rules of 1 impression in 1 day and 6 impressions in 28 days will enforce that logic.
Competitive Separation allows you to ensure that competing ads aren’t present in the same episode download or targeted AIP. You can separate ads by competing Industries or Brands. For instance, you can competitively separate Brand A Recruitment Software so that it never appears in the same episode download as Brand B Recruitment Software. Industry-based separation is based on the industry category you have associated with your brands. Separating by industry is broader, and therefore may have more severe effects on campaign delivery when multiple campaigns are targeting the same inventory.
Geo-Targeting. The Geo-Targeting tool can be used to target campaigns to listeners in specific geographic locations. You can target by Continent, Country, International Region, State, City, or DMA. The Geo-Targeting tool also allows you to exclude locations by Continent, Country, International Region, State, City, or DMA.
Geo-Targeting Inclusion & Exclusion Search View
Geo-Targeting Card in Campaign
Positional Targeting determines which AIP markers your ad campaign can serve into. You can select AIP Types (e.g.. Pre-Rolls), Numbers (e.g. Pre-Roll 1) and even specific Positions within an AIP (e.g. Pre-Roll 1A). Positional Targeting is set up on a Campaign-Series basis, but you can define default Positional Targets for all targeted Series on the Campaign.
FAQs: Specific Campaign Settings
If two campaigns are equally prioritized and target the same AIPs, how would competitive separation affect selection order?
The campaigns would be randomly selected and inserted into available AIPs. As a result, the campaigns should conclude at approximately the same time.
What is the difference between Exclusive and Non-Exclusive sequential campaigns?
Exclusive sequential campaigns will not share an episode download with any other campaigns. Non-Exclusive Sequential Campaigns may. If a Non-Exclusive sequential campaign is inserted into a download, it will be prioritized against other non-sequential campaigns competing for the same position in the episode’s proceeding AIPs.
Why is my campaign receiving additional impressions after it has concluded?
Podcasts are consumed as downloads or progressive downloads, which means that all ad decisioning must take place at the time of the first request. Because of this, it is standard practice across the industry to maintain selected ads within a download for up to 24 hours so as not to introduce playback issues to listeners who have only partially downloaded an episode. Ultimately, this can result in additional impressions after a campaign has concluded.