Ralph Ruck Ruckman & Ryan Gray

IMGrind.com
MicroMastery.com
MediaBuyingIcon.com

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Foreword:
In the world of information overload and misinformation, Ryan and I are confident that
this Media Buying Icon Manual will give you a clear direction and understanding on
how to fully grasp the concept of media buying, implement your own media buys, and
scale from there. For years we've managed our own 6-7 Figure media buys and as well,
I formerly managed the Convert2Media Affiliate Network as the Chief Executive
Officer in which I handled multiple multi-millionaire marketers purchasing Media.
Media Buying is nothing new, it's been around for years. However, never has there been
a comprehensive step-by-step manual publish which would allow people the ABC's
of Media Buying in easy to understand format and start taking part in this type of
advertising. Collectively, we've been in the Industry for over 15 years and we've seen
the Industry go from just a few media buying networks to now, (currently) countless
networks. The industry is still growing at an exponential rate.
Armed with this manual, you will become a Media Buying Icon.
To Your Success,
Ruck & Ryan

Table Of Contents
Section 1: Getting Started

Your Media Buying Dictionary

Introduction To Media Buying
Planning Your Media Buy
Preparing Your Media Buy
Optimizing Your Media Buy
Scaling Your Media Buy

Section 2: Getting Your Media Buy Running

Niche Networks VS. Direct Site Buys

Tips To Consider When Approaching Large Advertising Networks
When You Should Use An Adserver
A Powerful Free Adserver You Can Use Right Now
Understanding Credit Terms With Media Buys
Figuring Out If Your Offer Will Work
How Many Landing Pages / Creatives You Should Try
How To Find Banner Inventory That Converts
Important Things To Remember When Setting Up Your Media Buy

Section 3: Running Your Media Buy

Tips To Make Your Click Through Rate (CTR) Soar

Utilizing Frequency Capping To Optimize Your Media Buys
Day Parting Your Media Buys
Scaling Up The Hours Your Media Buy Converts
International Media Buying
Increasing Media Buy Effectiveness & Reach With ReTargeting
Advertising With Teracent (Google Owned Remarketing Solution)

Section 4: Media Buy Traffic Sources And Setup

How To Setup A Media Buy On ContextWeb (Self-Serve)

Advertising On EveryDayHealth.com (Motherload Of Media)
WebMD Serious Media Buying For Serious Advertisers
Advertising On FreeRideGames.com
5 Media Buying Traffic Sources You Can Use Right Now

Section 5: Bonus Read It At The End

Section 1: Getting Started

Media Buying Dictionary
Let's get started with the lingo used in the Media Buying Space:
Ad Server - hosted or remotely hosted software that allows you to track,
optimize, and monitor media buys
Ad Tags - HTML code produced by your ad server that displays the
corresponding creatives
ATF - above the fold of a web page
BTF - below the fold of a web page
CPA - cost per acquisition
CPM - cost per one thousand impressions
CPC - cost per click
Insertion Order - formal contract binding both the buyer and seller of
inventory.
CTR - click through rate
Day Parting - The hours of the day the campaign is ran.

eCPM - effective CPM

EPC - earnings per click
Frequency Cap - how many times a user will see a particular ad within a
given time frame
GEO Target - targeting based of geographic location
Flight - the beginning date and ending date of a campaign
Ad Tag - HTML or javascript generated by an ad server that is to be placed
Inventory - amount of impressions
Pacing - how fast purchased impressions are delivered
Remnant Inventory - unsold impressions
ROI - return on investment
Trafficking - the process a website or network does to forecast the amount
of
impressions available for sell.
Vertical - a specific niche (ie: Health & Wellness, Beauty, Financial, etc).
Out-clause - the amount of time you have to cancel an insertion order.

Introduction To Media Buying

Media buying, also referred to as display advertising, is when a creative is
placed on a website, network of websites, or an advertising network for the
purpose of driving traffic or increasing brand awareness. Large companies
such as McDonalds, Coca Cola, Procter & Gamble, etc. often purchase
advertising inventory and pay a high CPM to have their ad appear often.
They're not focused on generating traffic, rather promoting their brand or a
certain product. Affiliate marketers can utilize media buying to drive large
volume of traffic to offers. The most common creative sizes are (in pixels):
300x250 box, 468x60 banner, 720x90 leaderboard, and 160x600 skyscraper.
A typical media buy is purchased by buying available inventory by the CPM
(cost per one thousand impressions). Brand advertisers (as mentioned above)
will typically pay high CPMs to garner the most volume. On most websites
and advertising networks they have what's called an ad chain (very rarely
will an advertisement remain static). Depending on the CPM, frequency cap,
flight dates, determines the order advertisements are shown in the chain. The
higher CPM ads are shown first, followed by the lower paying ones. The
earlier in the ad chain a creative is shown, the higher quality of traffic that
will be delivered. An example ad chain may look something like this:
McDonalds $5 CPM 2x24 frequency cap > Geico Insurance $3.50
CPM 3x24 frequency cap > Affiliate Marketer $2.00 CPM 2x24
frequency cap > remnant inventory

Notice the brand advertisers will appear first: McDonalds and Geico. In
my example I noted that McDonalds has a 2x24 frequency cap and Geico
has a 3x24 frequency cap. In Layman's terms, this means that McDonald's
creatives will be shown twice per unique visitor per day; Geico will show
three. Ads further back in the ad chain typically will receive lower quality
traffic and lower click through rates (this is important to remember when
analyzing competition).
In my example I have an affiliate marketer third in the ad chain. Lots of
times affiliates have to be placed behind brand advertisers (or even resort to
purchasing remnant inventory) in order to sustain a ROI.
After understanding the technicalities to how a media buy works, it's
important to remember optimization. Affiliate marketers looking to produce
a direct response must remain patient and remember optimization is key. It's
rare for a campaign to be profitable out of the gate. Most media buys take
time and optimization to become successful.

Example media buys:

Direct Site Buy: Weather.com (a single site buy)
Network Buy: Tribal Fusion, Value Click (networks that reach
multiple sites)
Self-Serve Network Buy: Context Web, Adbrite, Adblade, Pulse
360 (networks that allow you to come and go as you please)

Planning Your Media Buy

Before you can begin a media buy as an affiliate, you have to first decide
what offer you are going to promote. I recommend promoting something that
appeals to the masses: some examples include diet, financial offers, biz opp,
dating, etc. Media buying traffic is not near as targeted as search engine
marketing or other methods of traffic generation. You must keep in mind that
you have to first get the users attention, pre-sell them, then collect payment
(or a lead).
Once you decide on a vertical you need to select an offer from a trusted
affiliate network. I also highly suggest choosing more than one offer and
split testing. Since every offer has a unique landing page,
backend/processing system, it's very likely you'll notice differences in
conversion rates. By split testing more than one offer you can decide which
one works the best with the traffic you purchased. It's also important to have
a backup offer. Lots of time a media buy cannot be as paused (without 24-48
hours notice). Therefore to keep from losing a lot of money, it's essential to
have another offer to rate in (in-case there are problems with the original
advertiser).
Next, you must decide if you're going to do a direct site buy or a network
buy. I highly recommend starting with a couple of direct site buys first then
scaling accordingly. When I first started media buying, my goal was $200 a
day profit per site. Eventually I made enough capital to invest into much
larger buys and scale my profits accordingly.

You will also need an ad server to handle tracking of the media buy. While
some affiliates say this is optional, I think it's a requirement. Google actually
offers a free ad server for people serving less than 10 million impressions
monthly. I also recommend using Prosper 202 and Google Analytics to make
sure every part of the conversion process is tracked (remember, optimization
is key).
A web host with the proper amount of resources is necessary. Even if you
plan on starting small (as I recommend) you want to be able to scale
accordingly. Typically a VPS (virtual private server) will have enough
resources to run with out a lag, but I've always used a dedicated server (you
can read more about this in the web hosting section). The last thing you want
to worry about is your server crashing during high volumes of traffic.
Once the technical details are planned out you want to get an idea of the
demographics you're trying to reach so you can being thinking about sites to
purchase inventory on. There are a couple of sites I recommend to collect
this data:
Double Click Ad Planner
http://www.google.com/adplanner
* Quantcast
http://www.quantcast.com
* Alexa
http://www.alexa.com

* Compete.com
http://www.compete.com
There is no wrong or right way to go about finding sites to advertise on. If
your target demographic is visiting the site it's up to you as a media buyer to
be able to promote the product/service accordingly. While the above tools
are not 100% perfect they provide enough demographic data to get a solid
idea about the sites you need to be on. Another popular 'trick' I've used
successfully over the last five years is Google. Simply type in a search term
of the product/service you're promoting and analyze the results. Since
Google is known for relevancy, the top 10-20 sites for any given term are
bound to have the demographic you're attempting to reach (ie: search for
'weight loss' and look at the top 10-20 results).
When you find a handful or two of sites youre interested in advertising on,
its time to contact the webmaster/director of ad sales. Being that I also sell
advertising inventory heres an example of an email template that gets my
attention:
Subject:
Interested In CPM Advertising Immediately
Message Body:
To Whom It May Concern:

Im interested in purchasing CPM banner inventory on your website,

domain.com. I currently have a $100,000 monthly advertising budget and
am ready to begin allocating as much of this spend to you as I can.
My company is based in the United States and focuses on direct response
marketing to provide quality results for my clients.
If you could please contact me at your earliest convenience and let me know
your current rates for your 300x250 creative size. Feel free to contact me at
(xxx) xxx-xxxx.
Thank you for your time, I look forward to a prosperous relationship with
you.
Sincerely,
Your Name
Your Company Name
If the website/webmaster doesnt return your email in a timely manner its
important to remain persistence. Without being annoying, continue to try to
reach them, you may even want to ask if you can pre-pay for the first week
of inventory. Anything to motivate them to sell you inventory.
Another important part of the planning stage is to decide how youre going
to handle the design/programming end of things. Its going to be essential to
have multiple creatives/landing pages to test.

If youre not good with HTML/PHP/Photoshop it may be necessary to find

someone to outsource this work. Its surprising to see a lot of affiliates just
rip others creatives/pages. While its possible you may luck out and find a
page thats already been tested, its also possible you could find a page thats
not yet proven. Also if you just rip your page you arent giving yourself a
competitive advantage over the next affiliate. If it was that easy dont you
think everyone would do it? Dont be lazy, be innovative and watch the price
of hard work and time pay off.
Before the first impression is served you need to set some goals and a
budget. Its important to set aside an amount of money that you are willing
to invest and to not go over it (you dont want to spend money you dont
have). No one can tell you this number except yourself. The lower your
budget is, the smaller you have to start. If youre doing direct site buys, you
could set a budget of $1,000 and focus on spending $200 a day to become
profitable. As Ive already mentioned, its very rare to be profitable from the
very beginning. A successful media buy is all about optimization. You have
to be willing to allow your traffic to run for a few 24-hour periods to get a
accurate measure on the traffic quality.
Goals should be written down and you should reward yourself once they are
reached (no matter how small they are). One of your goals could to be
profitable within the first week. One may be just your first conversion. Goals
allow you to stay on track and remain motivated.

The last item you should plan on is how to pay for your media buy. Nothing
is worse than getting a campaign rocking and having to stop it due to lack
of funds. Most affiliate networks pay weekly as long as your generating
$1,000 or more in revenue. This can be a big help, but some traffic sources
require a pre-payment. Some will give you terms once a credit check is
completed.

Preparing Your Media Buy

Once you are finished planning and have a clear-cut plan of action, its time
to prepare everything for traffic. The first step is to setup all your landing
pages. Some buys you can also direct link to the offer, but you will definitely
want to test both. I like to start with about four landing pages. Each of my
first four landing pages have major differences. I want to first find the format
that converts the best and then optimize based off that after I conclude what
is going to work best.
Utilizing some simple rotation software youll have:

Lander A
Lander B
Lander C
Lander D

Each page will receive 25% of the traffic and no changes will be made until
a full 24-hour period has passed.

Once your landing pages are finished, its time to install necessary tracking
software. The first thing I ensure thats on all my pages is the Google
Analytics javascript. This is as simple as signing up for a free account at
http://www.google.com/analytics and pasting a few lines of code before the
</body> tag in your HTML. This tool will monitor important aspects of your
campaign including unique visitors, page views, bounce rate, time spent on
site, exit pages, referring URLs, geographic information, and much more.
Very powerful stuff to utilize when making optimizations.
Next, setup Prosper 202. This is another free tracking solution that will allow
you to monitor a visitors activity once they reach your landing page. You
can monitor the click through rate from the landing page to the offer as well
as the overall conversion rate. This is the software that will allow you to
make decisions on what landing page is working. I also enjoy the spy
feature of this software as it lets you know exactly when your media buy is
live (most ad servers have a delay on reporting).
After your landing pages are ready with the necessary tracking items, its
time to load the creatives into your ad server. Google Ad Manager is a free
ad server as long as your serving under 100 million monthly impressions.
This is a great way for beginners to get started (some ad servers can be very
expensive). Each ad server is going to vary on how creatives are loaded, so
its important to review of their help documents.

Historically the 300x250 box creative size garners the highest CTR out of
any other size. Given this, it is also typically the most expensive inventory.
Based on my experience, I normally begin each buy with just the 300x250
size. Once I get this size profitable, Ill scale out to other sizes (Ive also
found some hidden gems this way). With that said, when setting up your
buy, I suggest starting with multiple variations of the 300x250 size. Youre
going to want to test static banners, animated banners, different colors,
borders, backgrounds, etc. Since your paying by the impression the CTR is
your lifeline.
There is no set number of creatives you want to test because its going to
depend on the amount of inventory you purchase. Historically I like to give
each creative 250,000 impressions before making a decision. The more
inventory you purchase the more creatives you can test at once. I cannot
stress enough how important it is to test multiple creatives and never settle
for a CTR. There is always room for improvement. None-theless at least four
creatives is a good start regardless of how many impressions you purchase.
This will at least give you some type of idea to what works.
When loading your creatives into an ad server it is very important to make
sure you use the unique tracking link generated by Prosper 202. This will
allow you to see which creative is delivering the highest conversion rate as
well as CTR in real-time.

Once your landing pages are online with your tracking software installed,
your creatives are loaded into your ad server (with the unique tracking links),
you are ready to sign an Insertion Order with the website your buying
inventory on. This is a contract-type document that states the following:
Amount of impressions purchased:

CPM
Frequency cap
Flight date
Out clause
Payment terms

The document requires signatures of both parties. This is normally

accomplished by faxing or scanning. If the website does not provide you
with an Insertion Order I recommend making one with the above
information. This protects your investment. Its also important to come to an
agreement on which numbers you are going to be billed on.
Most advertising networks/websites bill of their numbers but I like to make
sure its stated in the Insertion Order that if there is more than a 10%
discrepancy between the numbers an arrangement can be worked out.
The out clause of the Insertion Order is also important. Since the website or
advertising network must block off inventory to sell, they require notice if
you decide to pause the campaign (if your not getting a ROI despite
optimizing, your web server goes down, etc). The typical out clause time
frame is 24 - 48 hours.

This means if you decide to pause the media buy, the advertiser has no
obligation to discontinue billing/delivering traffic until 24 - 48 hours of you
making the request (I personally watched $8,000 go up in smoke waiting on
a 48 hour out clause once). Some websites are easier to work with than
others.
After you have the counter signed IO, its time to send the website or
advertising network your ad tags. These are produced by your ad server.
Most ad servers give you options as to what type of code you wish to
generate. I personally like javascript tags because they allow the referring
URL to be shown in your analytics. IFRAME tags dont contain this
information. You have to check with the website/ad network to see what
code they accept. Some ad servers also have an option to allow you to email
the ad tags directly from the web interface.
Once the tags are sent, log into your Prosper 202 installation and wait for
traffic to start flowing!

Optimizing Your Media Buy

Optimization is key. Ive already said it once and Ill continue to say it.
Very rarely is a media buy profitable from the very beginning. With any type
of direct-response marketing, it takes time to optimize and become
profitable. If every media buy was profitable from the beginning dont you
think everyone would do it? If you remain patient and interpret the data, the
reward can be very fulfilling. With that said, after 24 hours of delivered
traffic, you can begin optimizing.

Many times Ive talked to affiliates that count the buy out before they even
give it a fair chance. Depending on the vertical, some hours convert better
than others. Ive woken up to media buys that were $2,000 down in the
morning only to end the day with a nice profit. That is why its important to
set a budget, not get over your head, and remember you have to trade money
for data to attempt to optimize the buy.
Since youre paying CPM with a media buy the first thing that needs to be
examined is the CTR of your creatives. If you have one creative that has a
substantial amount of clicks than the others, you should keep that one and
pause the rest. Well call this the winner. Depending on the amount of
inventory you purchased, youll want to make 4- 8 other similar creatives to
your winner. Try different color borders, different calls to action,
animation, etc. Since you already know the format works, play around until
you garner an even higher CTR. Remember, thats your lifeline when media
buying.
If all of your creatives are too close to tell, you may need to give them some
more time to run. If they all have a very weak CTR (ie: youre paying more
than $1 a click), youre going to have to start over. Completely scrap the
format youre using and try something outside the box. Also remember that
ugly sells. Ive split tested professionally designed creatives and it always
seems that the ugly ones that take the less time work the best.
Once you make initial optimizations to your creatives you can take a look at
your landing pages. There are two important things to look at: a) the CTR
from your landing page to your offer and b) the conversion rate of your
landing page. If you have a lot of people clicking through to the offer from
your landing pages, you can feel confident that you have a solid sales copy.

If thats the case, examine the offers EPC to determine if you have a
winning offer. You can ask your affiliate manager at your affiliate network
of choice whats an average EPC for other media buyers. This can help you
decide if its the offer or your traffic.
Since youre rotating through landing pages, sometimes after 24 hours, you
can decide on the winning format. If one landing page has a substantially
higher CTR than the others, repeat the same process you did with your
creatives... Create a couple different variations of the landing page to find
the exact one that works the best. As with the creatives, you may need to let
things run longer than 24 hours if things are too close to tell. Remember,
sometimes the smallest changes can mean the biggest change in conversions.
Something as small as a headline change can completely turn the campaign
profitable.
If youre seeing a lot of clicks from your landing page to the offer but are
experiencing a low EPC its possible the offer isnt a good fit for your traffic.
Several factors can be considered as to the exact reason why, but I suggest
split testing two (or more) offers to begin. As with the other items, after a
full 24 hours, you should be able to make a decision as to which offer is
going to garner the highest EPC.
After the first seven days of running traffic, your buy should be optimized
and making a profit. If youve followed all the optimizations mentioned and
are still not coming close to being profitable its likely the offer isnt going to
work on that traffic. If youre close to becoming profitable, it may take a
few more days to producing a consistent ROI. Optimization takes time and
patience. Its important to remember your budget and initial goals.

Scaling Your Media Buy

When youve finished your optimizations and are seeing a solid profit for
several days straight youre going to want more (its not selfish, its human
nature). Scaling a media buy can be make your hard work optimizing even
more rewarding...
First, you want to see what other placements you can get on your current
traffic source. I recommend starting with the 160x600 mega skyscraper, then
to the 720x90 leaderboard, and finally the 468x80 banner (if available).
Youll have to rinse and repeat the above process regarding to optimizing the
creatives to garner the best CTR. Since you already have the 300x250
working you can try your best to port that same format over to the new
size. Since the traffic is coming from the same source, its fine to use the
landing page youve already optimized (not meaning you cant test other
variables once you have the new creative profitable).
Your next option to scale is buying traffic similar to the traffic youre already
profitable on. If you type the URL into Quantcast or DoubleClick Ad
Planner, it lists sites that have a similar audience (Ill demonstrate this in
another post). You can also use sites like Compete.com to analyze referring
data (other sites that are sending traffic).
Additionally, you can manually type in the demographics to DoubleClick Ad
Planner or Quantcast and pull up a list of similar sites. Quancast will even
show ad networks with similar demographics.

Once you find the next site you wish to purchase advertising on, its time to
repeat the above process again about contacting the webmaster/director of ad
sales. Since you already have an idea of what works, its much easier. Now,
each source of traffic is going to be unique on what creative/landing pages
works best, but as long as the demographics are similar, your winning
combination should produce (or come close) to producing a ROI. If you
move things over and you dont see positive results, its possible youll have
to start from the beginning. Dont get in a hurry though... Examine what
exactly isnt working and take it step-by-step before starting over.
There you go. You now have the Media Buying lingo down. You have been
introduced to the world of Media Buying Marketing and now you are
equipped to start planning, preparing, optimizing and scaling your media buy
campaigns.

End Of Section 1
In this next section we want to really focus on getting your media buy up and
running along with some other very important elements you need to consider
and put into place. Weve made this incredibly simple here in Section 2 and
we have divided this up into easy to read and follow segments. There are 9
parts in total here, all within section 2.
We cannot force you to take action but we can tell you that most of the
people who go through this course will likely just sit around and dream
about what could be. You MUST take action!

Section 2: Getting Your Media Buy Running

Niche Networks VS. Direct Site Buys
Niche Networks: are where youre likely to scale your campaigns after
finding success on various direct site buys. A niche ad network is a network
of sites that are in the same vertical and have inventory distributed
throughout. Since the network is already concentrated on a particular niche,
the traffic viewing your advertisements will be more targeted.
Direct site buys: are the lowest barrier to entry when doing media buys. If
you start with just one or two sites, you can sometimes sustain a profitable
media buy without a huge investment. If youve never had success media
buying before, I highly recommend doing a few direct site buys first and
expanding from there.
Tips To Consider When Approaching Large Advertising Networks
Some affiliates expect to go to a large advertising network such as Value
Click, select a category of websites that correspond to the vertical theyre
promoting, and expect to be profitable. High volume networks like this are
going to take a lot more than a $5,000 $10,000 test to see if things are
going to work. Also due to the size of some of these companies, you have to
go through a very corporate process to even get your buy live (not to even
mention optimized). The best success with these networks is going to come
when a product is new and very popular.

Personally, we dont think youre going to find your best ROI media buy
here. We would save the ad networks after youve had success elsewhere.
However once you are ready to do one of these large scale buys
Its time to proceed with the information below
Weve seen a lot of affiliates sink rather than swim on large network media
buys. Many of them feel that this is the holy grail to media buying, but this
is far from the case. Before you can even consider approaching a large
advertising network for your media buy (such as Tribal Fusion, Value Click,
Yahoo, Burst Media, etc.) you need to make sure youre having success on
smaller networks (self serve) or similar websites. Just because you receive a
huge influx of volume doesnt mean youre going to magically become
profitable. Even when you port your profitable campaign over to a large
advertising network you need to be ready to have patience and optimize out
the non-converting sites.
Here are some important items to remember before you even approach a
large advertising network:
Your campaign is already successful on a small-scale buy
Youve been making at least 100% ROI for two weeks on smaller
advertising network/direct site buy. Dont even consider a larger
advertising network unless this has been met.

Determine if the advertising network allows the use of a third party ad

server:
With a large scale media buy, optimization is very important. Before you
begin your buy you need to determine if the advertising network allows the
use of a third-party ad server (such as Site Scout or Zedo). Most of them do,
but require you to sign additional contracts. By using a third-party ad server
you can quickly eliminate non-converting creatives and scale accordingly. If
the advertising network doesnt allow third-party ad servers you need to
make SURE you find out how soon they can make optimizations for you.
Time is money with large-scale media buys.
Determine a feasible out clause:
Most advertising networks carry a 24 48 hour out clause which means they
have that amount of time to stop your campaign once you notify them. We
personally like the 24 hour out clauses, as some of these greedy ad networks
will hold you out all the way through the 48 hours (and you could be
dumping big money).
Analyze your credit before applying for credit terms:
A lot of larger advertising networks are going to make you pre-pay your first
$5,000 $10,000 spend, however after that, theyll normally put you on
NET15 NET30 invoicing terms. Before they grant you this, theyre going
to require you to fill out a credit application. You want to make sure you list
previous sources youve worked with and had a successful relationship with.
Its likely they will call all your references, so make sure the references are
also aware of what youre trying to accomplish.

Test with one size creative and then branch out:

OK the 300250 banner unit is most-likely going to yield the best click
through rate for you. It always has for us and therefore it is going to be your
most expensive unit regardless of the ad network. We like to start with this
size and once its profitable, move into other sizes. Ad networks like to have
you bite off more than you can chew just because it means more money to
them. Get one size profitable then scale accordingly.
Have plenty of backup offers:
If youre doing a media buy for an affiliate network (ie: an offer at
Neverblue) you want to make sure you check with your affiliate manager on
the cap room as well as alternative offers. Nothing is more deflating than
getting an offer profitable and the advertiser pulling out the next day. Make
sure you have at least 2 4 offers to test with and 2 4 backup offers. This
will spread your risk and help you find a certain level of consistency.
Pay special attention to the Insertion Order:
Youre going to have to sign an insertion order to begin delivery. Weve
already talked about the out clause but you also need to remember important
items such as geotargeting, frequency capping, and day parting. Make sure
you have the optin to disabled your campaign at certain hours of the day so
youre not running during non-profitable hours. This can normally be
accomplished after a day or two running.

Test a TON of creatives and landing pages:

For every 200,000 impressions delivered in a 24 hour time period we like to
have two creatives. If our buy has 1,000,000 daily impressions we want to
make sure were testing at least 5 creatives (if not more). Youre going to
also want to test at least four different landing page variations. Make sure
you closely examine the click through and conversion rates to the offer to
determine the winning combination.
Buying media on a large advertising network can be VERY rewarding but at
the same time can be VERY risky. You have to MAKE SURE you have your
stuff perfected before taking things to this level.

When You Should Use An Adserver

This is a question Im asked A LOT when should I purchase and begin
using an ad server for my media buys?? Our answer, from the VERY
beginning. Tracking and optimizing a media buy should begin from the get
go. Especially if youre paying based on CPM you dont want to serve one
impression unless youre using an ad server. Almost every ad network out
there allows you to use a third-party ad server or will allow you access to
their server so you can effectively track and manage your buy. If youre not
using an ad server and are paying CPM you are constantly in the dark on
how much you have spent as well as what creative is yielding the best click
through rate.

So with that said you have a few options that we recommend. First, we
would go with DoubleClicks free ad server (which we will talk about in a
bit). As long as you serve under 90 million impressions a month (which is a
ton) and have an active Google Adsense account, you can use this to buy
media. While it does lack some conversion/optimization features that paid
solutions have, you cant argue free.
The other two I have used successfully are Ad Shuffle and Zedo. Ad Shuffle
is by far my favorite as they dont require any long-term contracts, are
accepted by most large advertising networks, and allow multiple creative
implementation and tracking options. Their user interface is a bit tricky to
understand (as are both ad servers) but once you get used to it you will be
able to setup a media buy in no time (you should see my fly through it).
They even allow click tracking on HTML creatives which really allows me
to expand my creativity.
Zedo is another good solution but they do require a stupid six-month
contract with a pre-pay. At the time I moved over to Zedo I was serving so
many monthly impressions, I needed something to scale past DoubleClicks
free one and had to just buy without really evaluating all my options. They
have some nice conversion/auto optimizing features but all of their support
department is in India and they are VERY hard to understand. I also ran into
a few instances of poor load time which caused a few of my buys to get
paused by the distributing network.

Another ad server that I have not used, but Ive heard VERY good things
about is Site Scout. Ruck has covered some of its features in the media
buying forum. If you dont use an ad server youre going to learn the hard
way and lose money. Trust us, we know it seems like a lot of work at first,
but it is well worth the reward in the end. You NEVER want to enter into a
media buy without one regardless of the circumstance.

A Powerful Free Adserver You Can Use Right Now

An ad server is an essential tool for those that wish to make money online
with display advertising.
There are two basic ways an ad server is used: as an ad seller (a/k/a
publisher) and as an ad buyer (a/k/a advertiser):
*Publishers selling advertisements will utilize an ad server to embed code
on their pages so every aspect of the selling process can be tracked and
optimized. This includes but is not limited to frequency capping, geotargeting, fill rates, delivery forecasting, advertiser management, creative
uploading, etc. Without an ad server its impossible to efficiently monetize
your websites traffic.
*Advertisers purchasing banner inventory will utilize an ad server to
provide publishers with a unique code to insert into their ad server. This way
the advertiser can optimize/monitor every part of their campaign. This
includes but not limited too: visitor geography, click through rate
optimization, creative distribution, delivery forecasting, etc.

When I hear or see people engaging in ad buying or selling without an ad

server I dont know whether to laugh or cry at the amount of money theyre
leaving on the table. Ive been doing this for over a decade and I will tell
you, if you wish to make money BUYING or SELLING ads on the Internet,
you will never do it successfully without an ad server. Its that simple
In this thread I want to highlight an ad server that is 100% free as long as
you are serving under 90 million impressions a month! Obviously if you
reach more than that, youre going to need a very large solution (less than
2% of people will fall into this category). Mostly individuals reaching more
than 90 million monthly impressions are very large corporations (or very
serious advertisers).
With that said, the solution I want to highlight is DoubleClick for
Publishers by Google (Google acquired DoubleClick for a few billion
dollars years ago).
I first began using this as a publisher, then as an advertiser. The amount of
revenue Ive been able to generate using this is almost silly. To get started
you first need an approved Google AdSense account. This is how they
provide the solution for free. By default advertisers can target your site(s)
specifically with Google AdWords. While this CAN be turned off, its an
instant way to further monetize your website traffic. However, if youre
using this as an advertiser, you DEFINITELY want to turn this option off
(this would probably violate the terms of your insertion order).

Once you have an approved AdSense account (youll need to provide them
with a compliant website to get approved), you can head over to the
DoubleClick for Publishers signup page. Simply login using your AdSense
credentials, agree to some terms, and youre ready to go!

Understanding Credit Terms With Media Buys

Many media buying outlets will extend credit terms AFTER you establish a
payment history. Some may extend a small amount of credit initially, but
based on my experience, all of them like to work on a pre-pay solution until
the relationship is established. When the time does come that they give you
the option to extend credit terms there are a couple of things you need to
understand
Theyre going to require that you fill out a credit application. This is
something you want to take seriously as if a problem is ever to come, theyre
going to fall back on the application. You need to list the exact company
name youll be doing business as with an active mailing address, phone
number, and person of contact. They also may require a social security or tax
identification number so they can run your credit score with one of the major
reporting bureaus. Nothing too complicated here, but also something that
should be taken seriously.

Another metric that every credit application is going to require is trade

references. Basically they want to know WHO youve had credit with
before and your payment history. Theyll ask you to provide a company
name, contact person, phone/fax number, and will contact them with a brief
questionnaire about your account history. Obviously you want to list the top
3 4 companies that have extended credit to you and youve had excellent
pay history with. Obviously if youve missed a payment somewhere along
the line you dont want to provide that company as a reference. If youve
never worked with a company on credit terms, youre going to have a
problem obtaining initial credit. A trick around this is to list your banker
and/or favorite affiliate network. If you have a lot of money in the bank or a
good relationship with your affiliate network you maybe able to squeeze by
with this.
Most advertising networks will also ask how much credit you want
extended. Obviously, the more trade references you have, the more you can
request. If you dont have any I wouldnt even attempt to garner anymore
than $10,000 (as this maybe pushing it). If you have a strong trade history
you can sometimes get by with $100K or more. Many of the ad networks I
work with will give me at least $500,000 a month before they ask questions.
Once the credit terms are established, youll have to understand the pay
terms. Most advertising networks work on NET 30 which means the amount
spent in June will be due on August 1st (30 days from when the invoice is
generated). Some are also NET 15. Its VERY important you pay your
invoices on time and always expect your check/wire to be delayed.

Dont wait until the last second as this could bite you in the rear pretty hard.
Establishing credit with advertising networks is what led me to grow my
business at break-neck pace. When I first began conducting large media buys
I floated a TON of personal cash and credit, but once I built up relationships,
I became unstoppable. In 2011, make sure you exercise caution and dont get
over your head.

Figuring Out If Your Offer Will Work

When selecting the offer you want to promote ask yourself, Is it aggressive
enough to garner a consistent acquisition cost? In other words, is your
product part of a large enough niche that people are actually going to be
interested in? Some examples may be diet/weight loss, dating, financial
products, and computer software. Also, is your product reasonably priced? If
you are promoting a piece of exercise equipment that costs $300, you are
going to have to spend a ton of money testing to see if there are any
consistencies in conversions. I wouldnt try to promote a product that costs
anymore than $100 (I like to keep an average of around $35).
Being that media buys have so much volume it is absolutely essential that
you test many different landing pages and sales pitches for your offer. Make
several different variations of landing pages. Change up colors, pictures,
offers, offer positions, etc. You would be surprised how big of difference the
smallest changes can make. I also find a lot that the landing pages I thought
would perform the best, do the worst.

How Many Landing Pages / Creatives You Should Try

Last of all you want to make sure your landing pages adhere to the updated
FTC guidelines. In December 2009 new regulations require significant
changes to how testimonial advertisements, bloggers, and celebrity
endorsements are treated. Be sure you check out the updated guidelines at
this link.
The most common creative sizes for media buys are:
728x90 Leaderboard
468x60 Banner
300x250 Box
160x600 Wide Skyscraper
120x600 Skyscraper
Your main objective with any creative is to find the one that garners the best
CTR (click through rate)and the one that garners the best conversion rate.
Most-of-the-time youre going to find that the 300250 creative gets the
most clicks; however when entering any buy it is always worth testing every
creative size. Sometimes you will be surprised. Creative several different
various in each size (I recommend as many as 10). If the network or website
allows it, add animation, borders, or anything else creative to get your CTR
higher. This will ultimately make or break your media buy.

How To Find Banner Inventory That Converts

While there are many different techniques to finding sites to purchase
inventory, Im going to discuss some of the easier ones.
Use Google To Your Advantage:
The first technique I began using to find websites to buy media on was
searching Google (or Bing).
A few years ago, promoting ringtones was VERY popular and provided
many affiliate marketers will tons of revenue. I utilized media buying to gain
a competitive advantage on my competitors promoting ringtones:
First, I would figure out a popular search term such as free ringtones.
Most all ringtone offers didnt allow the word free so I couldnt bid on
this keyword or use this in my creative. I could, however, search Google
for free ringtones and purchase banner inventory on the top 20 50
sites. Using the same method I mentioned last week, I contacted many
webmasters who were happy to sell me direct inventory to their sites. I
would place ads all over their sites that said Send Ringtones To Your
Phone In 3 Easy Steps.

I never mentioned the word free but was able to get several hundred leads a
day at a fraction of the price if I would have been bidding on keywords (not
to mention I couldnt even bid on free ringtones). From 50 Cent
Ringtones to NBA Ringtones there wasnt a term I didnt try to buy
inventory on. I also did a lot of SEO (which I will talk about later on this
blog) to my advantage.
Quantcast.com Quantcast.com is a website that collects demographic
information on United States websites around the Internet. While their
information is not 100% accurate, it provides a great starting point when
deciding to media buy. The excellent thing about Quantcast.com is it even
includes ad exchanges and networks. The other advantage is that this
information is 100% free. Simply sign up for a free account, click planner
at the top, enter your target demographics, and begin buying inventory on the
results. As I said, the data will even return ad networks/exchanges that match
your demographics.
DoubleClick Ad Planner I like to use DoubleClick Ad Planner along with
Quantcast.com. I feel by using both of these tools together, I can quickly
determine which sites match my demographics and are more likely to
convert for my offers. The great thing about Google Ad Planner is you can
even do a search by keywords or other sites visited. These can both be two
powerful features especially when used with Quantcast.com. DoubleClick
Ad Planner is also free!

Compete.com Compete.com includes a lot of data on many websites such

as unique visitors, page views, average stay, visits per person, search
analytics, and more. The downfall is you must have a paid subscription to
view most of this information. If youre going to become a serious media
buyer, I suggest making the $200+ a month investment to view this data. My
personal favorite part about Compete.com is using the compete referral
analytics. Utilizing this tool, Im able to type in a competitors URL and
quickly discover where theyre buying their traffic from. This can get VERY
interesting!
As I mentioned above, these are just some of the most popular tools online to
use. Everyone has their own method, but these will give you a competitive
advantage against your competitors to find cheap, converting traffic.
Important Things To Remember When Setting Up Your Media Buy
It is important to remember and understand certain aspects when setting up a
media buy. Some of the things you need to learn to begin to come an expert
buyer are:
CPM The cost per one thousand impressions. You need to run several
formulas. You have to estimate what kinda of click through and conversion
rate you must have to break even or make money. If the advertising network
or website says they want $20 CPM, chances are, even with a lot of
optimizing, youll never make a media buy with a $5 payout work.

You also need to see where youll be in that network or sites ad chain with
any given CPM. Sometimes people will pay a higher CPM to have first
priority over another advertiser. That is why the lowest CPM is not always
the best. You just have to test and see.
Frequency Cap Youll have to set a cap on how many times a user views
your advertisement per 24 hours. I recommending starting out with 424 per
creative to get started. You can adjust up or down from there.
Trafficking This is the process the website or ad network will do to
forecast the amount of impressions they can sell you at a given CPM. This
number comes from their ad server and shows details on when the
impressions are available.
Day Parting Before you begin your buy you want to check and see if the
network or website offer day parting (only showing your ads during certain
hours or days). While you need to start your buy running a full 24 hours, you
may find its best to turn it off during the morning hours. This is another
important option that could make the different in being profitable.
Out Clause Do NOT enter into a media buy without an out clause. If you
purchase a bunch of impressions without an out clause youre going to have
to pay for them no matter what. Most out clauses are 24-48 hours. I would
try to negotiate the longest one possible.

Also be sure to inquire how long it takes to exercise the out clause (i.e.: how
long for traffic to quit once you exercise this).
Insertion Order Once you get all of the above items in order youre going
to be asked to sign an Insertion Order. This is pretty much the same thing as
a purchase order in a retail store. You are agreeing to purchase a certain
amount of impressions at a set CPM. If you continue running outside of your
out clause, youll owe for that full amount.

End Of Section 2
Hey welcome to Part 3! Ryan and Ruck here congratulating you on taking
action and continuing your media buying education. Ok so, how do you feel
after part 2? We know is quite a bit of information to digest but dont worry
because after going through Part 3 below, it will all start making more sense
and you will be just that much closer into becoming a Media Buying Icon!
In Part 3 here Ryan and I want to help you focus on running your media buy
with optimal efficiency. In this part of the course, we are going to open up
and start pointing out some optimization tips that will help separate you from
the competition and hopefully help you return a higher return on investment.

Section 3: Running Your Media Buy

Tips To Make Your Click Through Rate (CTR) Soar
Here are some pretty cool tips you can use to raise your click through rate
(CTR) on your media buys.
Add A Scroll Bar To Your Creative:

Ive used this with so much success its almost laughable. You wouldnt
believe the increase in clicks from doing this simple trick. Its so high some
sources/sites actually no longer allow it, but those that do, get ready to cash
in!

Add A Flashing Border To Your Creative:

Another simple, yet very effective CTR booster. Add a flashing border and
suck your visitors in.
Add A Blinking Arrow To Your Creative:

I love using arrows because they show the visitor EXACTLY what they need
to do (ie: Click Here). Use these to help guide your traffic towards
conversions.
Add A Video Play Overlay To Your Creative:

Since YouTube and other video streaming sites have became so popular this
one can really make a big difference. As with the scroll bar some sources
wont allow this, but the ones that do, cash is just waiting to be sucked into
your bank account.
Add A Drop Shadow To Your Creative:

The good old fashion drop shadow effect allows your creative to come to
life and really stand out on a page. Most sources allow this and it can
really boost your click throughs.
Add A Multi-Cell Drop Shadow To Your Creative:

If memory serves me correctly I did close to $2 million in revenue once with

one creative using this same strategy. Hands down it made me bank and can
work for you. Get creative with this and kill it.
There are a ton of ways to get really creative with your media buys. Take a
look at the placements already running with you (your competition) and try
to expand on them, be more creative than they are and you should be able to
achieve higher click-throughs.

Utilizing Frequency Capping To Optimize Your Media Buys

When purchasing banner inventory by CPM (cost per one-thousand
impressions) a frequency cap saves you from spending your budget on a
handful of users. A frequency cap determines how many times a unique
visitor sees your advertisement. Most advertising networks will allow you to
specify the frequency cap of your choice as long as it is stated in the initial
insertion order (you may want to check if it can be changed once youre into
your flight).
When paying a CPM > $1.00 I like to set the frequency cap to 2 views every
24 hours per unique visitor. This means that a unique visitor (determined by
IP address) will see my advertisement 2 times every 24 hours. This is a very
important part to the optimization process, as Ive also had some very
successful media buys with a 4/24 frequency cap (some campaigns the
visitor finally clicks after seeing the creative multiple times).
So before you give up on your media buy (thinking it wont work or you
cant optimize anymore) I highly suggest you play around with the
frequency cap. I am amazed by the number of affiliates that dont even know
what this is.
Typically I have the best luck with the 224 frequency cap when my
advertisement is shown first in the ad chain. If Im further back in the ad
chain, I like to increase this number to attempt to monetize the lower
quality impressions.

Day Parting Your Media Buys

With display advertising youre able to reach high volumes of traffic as
advertisements are placed throughout websites they are actively reading.
Now unlike search traffic, the visitor most-likely did not come to the site to
buy the product you are marketing. They came to the site to get weather,
news, or some other type of information. Your creative has to spark their
interested and your landing page has to pre-sell them to convince them WHY
they should click through to the offer youre running, input their credit card
number, and become a successful conversion.
Given everything that has to happen to make a media buy successful it is
absolutely essential that you pay very close attention to what hours of the
day are converting the best as well as what days of the weekare converting
the best. Believe it or not there are certain hours/days where people are
simply not in the buy mode rather are looking for information. Sometimes
you can utilize your landing page to convince the person in information
mode to purchase, but you should definitely break your profitability down
per hour and per day. After a full week or two you should have plenty of data
to begin optimizing your media buy and begin day parting your campaign.
Depending on the website/ad network your purchasing media on, youll need
to make sure this is negotiated up-front. Some will allow you to add day
parting to your existing insertion order while others will want this
information upfront. I personally have utilized day parting to take media
buys that lose money to nearly 100% ROI! Heres what I recommend doing:

Scaling Up The Hours Your Media Buy Converts

As long as you are making a profit/breaking even/or coming close to a profit
run as long as you can. The data you collect during this phase will be
priceless. I recommend going one full week, but depending on your
profit/loss margin, you may only be able to run a day or two.
Break down EACH HOUR by revenue generated and amount spent.
Make SURE you check with both your affiliate network and
advertising network to clear up any timezone differences (this could
bite you in the rear if you dont).
Once your data is compiled youll begin to notice a pattern. Look at the
hours that are producing 50% 100% ROI Those are the ones you
want to concentrate on. Tell the website/ad network youre buying on
you want to eliminate certain hours and you want to ramp up your
traffic during the good hours.
If you cant test a full week straight then youre not going to be able to
optimize by day of the week until you can do so. Work first on
optimizing per hour of the day then expand out to the days of the week.
Personally for me, weekends produced some really good ROIs
(especially in the health and beauty niche).
Based on my personal campaigns I notice 9 a.m. noon ET and 4 p.m.
9 p.m. ET convert the best. Obviously this is going to depend on
MULTIPLE factors, so take this information with a grain of salt.

Another important metric to consider with your media buy is frequency

capping. This can also be used along with day parting to increase your ROIs
and overall success of your buy. I have discussed frequency capping in more
detail above.
Day parting can really make a big difference whether your media buy is
profitable or not. Sure, in some instances you may not do the amount of
volume you would if you were to run all day, however nine chances out of
ten youll be sustaining a much higher ROI. It doesnt make much sense to
spend $10K+ only to make $12K get what Im saying? Nice for the ego
but way too much risk involved.

International Media Buying

Ive had a lot of success taking my campaigns out of the United States and
into International territories. Traffic is most-always cheaper and converts
very similar to the U.S. Im really shocked when I hear of some publishers
too scared to do this. Most all CPA affiliate networks carry International
offers (especially in the English-speaking ones) in multiple verticals.
Using Google Trends you can easily identify trends in other countries and
begin planning your media buy. Lets take a look at an example using the
term acai:

OK now obviously Acai isnt what it was in 2009, but the point Im trying to
get across here is look at the other countries with search volume: Canada,
Australia, United Kingdom. Three westernized, English-speaking countries.
How many media buys do you have live in these countries? If you dont
have at least one (not necessarily for Acai) why not? As Ive said at my
speaking-engagements I find a bunch of success Internationally by direct-site
buying. Finding countries with International volume is also an easy task
using free services such as Alexa. Lets take a look at the top sites in Canada:

Well what do ya know A lot of the SAME sites are just as popular as the
United States The big boys here in the U.S. are also the big boys
internationally. If you want the EASIEST solution to reaching an
International audience these top 10 sites are your gravy. Now if you want to
get crafty and swim in some ROI (like I do) go a bit deeper to find some
sites to buy direct on. Going 7 pages deep heres what I find:

Results number 152 The Toronto Sun Now, I know from buying a TON
of media in the U.S. that news websites are that fire when talking about
conversions. The same goes for the International markets.
Simply put, going Internationally youre going to find a lot of emerging
marketers and reach a lot of consumers where banner blindness hasnt yet
set in. The United States is not only saturated with a lot of competition (that
have decades of experience like myself) but is actually harder than other
countries do to this banner blindness. Some International websites will
even extend you NET30 pay terms (which is VERY rare in the US).

Increasing Media Buy Effectiveness & Reach With ReTargeting

Have you ever clicked on a banner advertisement (intentionally or
unintentionally) and noticed an immediate increase in that same advertisers
creatives across many of the websites your visiting? I know I do and after a
quick discussion at the office this morning, everyone else does as well. This
is because the advertisers are utilizing a feature in their media buy called
retargeting. Retargeting, also referred to as re-marketing, is when a cookie is
inserted into a users computer in an attempt to cross-market them across the
Internet.
The thinking behind this is if a visitor clicks the creative they show initial
interest. If a successful conversion is fired many times the retargeting cookie
wont be set. However if they dont convert, theyre show more creatives
across other websites that carry distribution.

Since theyve already expressed initial interest, its likely they werent in
buy mode and will hopefully re-visit it after seeing the creative more.
Most advertising networks charge a premium for buys with the retargeting
option. Ive seen it increase the overall CPM of the buy anywhere from
$0.50 $2.00. While this is more effective for brand advertisers or
advertisers offering higher ticket items, it can still be effective in direct
response. Ive tested it on a few buys but not UNTIL Im profitable without
it.
Here are some facts to consider about retargeting:
Successful retargeting campaigns cannot rely solely on retargeted ad buys;
theres simply not enough traffic generated by retargeting alone. 24/7 Real
Media advises retargeting max out at 10 percent of a media strategy.
Similarly, successful retargeting relies not only on ad-generated traffic, but
on all site traffic, from ads, search, email, affiliate marketing, viral, word-ofmouth or otherwise.
Critical mass of site traffic is crucial, though none of the networks I spoke
with can yet exactly formalize the predictive particulars.
Retargeting requires ad network tracking pixels to be placed on the client
site. If the retargeting objective involves non-conversions, a pixel must be
placed on the order confirmation page as well.

 Retargeting costs more than average run-of-network buys, but not more
than channel-based buys.
Retargeting doesnt work for all advertisers. It seems to work
particularly well when a purchase involves higher levels of research
and consideration.
Though proven successful for big brands and e-commerce retailers,
retargeting can work for smaller brands, too, though achieving critical
mass can be more difficult.
Retargeting can augment or supplement other online initiatives, like
affiliate marketing or search, which may be tapping out.
Limitations like the consumers buying cycle timeframe and the total
reach of an ad network can still hinder the outcome of a retargeting
campaign.
Cross-marketing or up-selling can also be achieved through retargeting.
A common example is the retargeting of a purchaser of airline tickets
with hotel and car rental offers.
Retargeting can work on-site as well, as 24/7 Real Media describes, to
drive visitors to locations where they previously lingered or came close
to buying, or to alert them to special promotions or products that the
context of their previous visit suggested might interest them.
Additional targeting, such as geo- or demographic targeting,
connection speed, etc., can be layered on top of retargeting, but this
further limits the size of the audience being served the ad.
Frequency capping can be implemented, such as only serving an
advertisers retargeted ad to the same user once within a 24-hour
period.

Advertising With Teracent (Google Owned Remarketing Solution)

Teracents Intelligent Display Platform rises to the challenges of todays
display advertising. With the increase in online targeting options it is no
longer acceptable to rotate the same 5 flash ads. Unlike existing and outdated
platforms, Teracent maximizes the impact of every impression by seamlessly
optimizing performance across user and page data from all available sources
(online & offline).
Teracent deploys an unlimited number of ad creative combinations (using
your catalogs, databases, images, and messages) through a single ad unit.
Then, sophisticated machine learning algorithms instantly select the optimal
creative elements for each ad impression based upon a real-time analysis
of which items will convert from impressions into sales.
With Intelligent Display Advertising, online advertisers can:
Dynamically optimize ad unit and content without limitations.
Deploy Rich Media functionality without high development costs or
exorbitant CPMs
Test ad content in real-time and make changes immediately
Evaluate ad effectiveness through specific and customizable KPIs
Track performance and see the learning engine maximize ROI in realtime

How Does it Work?

Lets pretend youre an online shoe retailer and you want to recapture users
who looked at shoes on your site but didnt purchase.
Step 1: Detailed list creation
Insert enhanced retail remarketing tags on your site to create user profiles
based on the products users are interested in.
Step 2: Campaign configuration
Provide your Google Merchant Center ID and personalize a retail creative
template to begin constructing dynamic creatives based on your retail
catalog.
Step 3: Trafficking
Target your dynamic creative to users that have visited your site to
personalize the creative to display products based on each users interests
and the similar interests of other visitors.
Core Benefits of Dynamic Enhanced Retail Remarketing Performance:
Increase the performance of your enhanced retail remarketing campaigns
with dynamic creatives; where products are selected based on, a) the
products a user has visited on your site, b) the products other similar users
have visited and purchased on your site, and c) the overall performance of
those products across your campaign.

Customer relevance:
Deliver a superior marketing experience to your customers by personalizing
your dynamic creatives to the types of products most relevant to the users
interests and helping them buy what they want faster by using deep linking
product urls in the creative.
Ease of use:
Start generation of your dynamic creatives by providing access to your
merchant catalog and selecting a creative template. Campaign Managers will
monitor and adjust the creative to deliver optimal ROI through the life of
your campaign.
How to Start?
Step 1: Tag your site
Your Campagin Manager will email you a few lines of enhanced retail
remarketing code to insert into your sites product pages and
conversion page
Enhanced retail remarketing tags work in conjunction with your media
tags, capturing detailed user interests to later personalize the dy- namic
creative and learn about related products. Enhanced retail remarketing
tags may be used to manage your media tags to create a new list of
users that have detailed interest profiles
Each tag contains a variable to insert the viewed or purchased product
id which is stored in the users profile. The product id values inserted
into the tag must match the id values in your Google Merchant Center
product feed.

Step 2: Configure your campaign

Work with your Campaign Manager to provide access to your Google

Merchant Center product feed and select a creative template applicable
to your catalog

Products displayed in your dynamic creative will be those products

included in the product feed, this include product names, descriptions,
prices, images, and deep linking landing page urls

Customize each size of the selected creative template to include your

brands look and feel; ask your Campaign Manager to help with logo
and color changes or download the template to make additional visual
changes before sending the creative back to your Campaign Manager
for publishing

Step 3: Build your detailed interest profile

Enhanced retail remarketing tags drop cookies on product and conversion
page visitors, building an interest profile specific to each anony- mous user.
When a remarketing impression is served, the profile is used to display the
best products for that user.

Step 4: Test and launch your campaign

Your Campaign Manager will email you a test link to preview your
dynamic creative to make sure youve correctly implemented your enhanced retail remarketing tags and have your campaign set up
Ask your Campaign Manager to launch your Dynamic Enhanced Retail
Remarketing campaign on a subset of your existing traditional
remarketing campaign budget
Updates of products and product details displayed in your dynamic
creative may be made by updating your Google Merchant Center
product feed
Step 5: Monitor and scale
Monitor the performance of your Dynamic Enhanced Retail Remarketing
campaign compared to your traditional remarketing campaigns and scale!

End Of Section 3
Hey You! Ruck and Ryan again with Part 4 of the Media Buying Icon ECourse! Whew, we really got to hand it to you for sticking with us through
the Getting Started Manual, into Part 2s Getting Your Media Buy Up and
then in to Part 3s Running Your Media Buy. We can already tell that if you
made it to Part 4 here you are determined to becoming a Media Buying Icon!

Section 4 Media Buy Traffic Sources And Setup

How To Setup A Media Buy On ContextWeb (Self-Serve)

Going into your first media buy can be somewhat overwhelming. There is a
lot of different aspects and given the high volume you have to spend some
money before you can determine if the buy is going to work. That is why I
recommend you getting a formula down on a self-serve platform before
signing an insertion order and being committed to a large number of
impressions. Finding the winning creative/landing page pair and your
frequency cap on a self-serve platform can save you from burning through
several thousand dollars and ultimately equal more money in your pocket.
I suggest using the Context Web Ad Exchange to get started. They have a ton
of volume and hold their publishers to a strict standard so you get quality
traffic. Also unlike Googles Adwords they dont have a quality score so you
can focus more on your landing pages rather than building out a large
website.
Follow these steps to get started:

Pick an offer to promote

You already need to have your offer ready. This should be an offer youve
tested on other traffic sources (such as PPV or PPC) and have had success
with. It should also be part of a large niche (such as weight loss or dating) so
it appeals to a wide audience. The offer should also be easily replaced incase the advertiser youre promoting decides to pull, you can easily replace it
with another offer. You want to make sure the offer doesnt have a volume
cap because with the high volume of a media buy, its likely youll hit it.

Have several different landing pages ready

Even if you already have a landing page that is working on other sources you
need to go ahead and make several different variations for your media buy.
Sometimes the slightest change can make a huge difference in your
conversions. Test and find the one that garners the best click through and
conversion rate.

Have at least ten or more creatives per size

You need to have at least ten creatives ready in the following sizes: 72890,
300250, 120600, and 160600. Historically the 300250 gets the best
CTR, however sometimes youll be surprised at the results you get with
another size.

Install Google Analytics and Prosper 202 on your landing pages

While Prosper 202 is mainly used for CPV and PPC campaigns, I really like
the data it brings with a media buy. From referring websites to conversions
per creative there is a lot of different aspects you can track. Google Analytics
also brings a lot of good data to the table. Not only can you monitor how
many unique visitors your landing page receives, but you can view important
items such as referring domains, time spent on site, and more.

Register for an advertiser account at Context Web

Navigate to this link and setup your account. Go ahead and fund it with an
amount you feel comfortable with for this particular campaign.

Create your campaign

Login into your account and click the Create New tab at the top. Enter a
name for your campaign and select all graphical sizes:
120600 pixels
160600 pixels

300250 pixels

72890 pixels

Set the campaign to start with no end date. Click Next.

Upload your creatives

Select Option 1: New Graphical Ad. Follow the onscreen instructions to
upload all of your creatives you made in step 3. You should set the keyword
variable in your click-through URL to the ad name for conversion tracking.
If your unsure about what I mean I give an example in the video above.

Select your Target Categories

As shown in my example video, you want to select the categories that target
your offer. The more categories you select, the cheaper youll have to bid to
garner volume. If youre promoting an offer such as weight-loss or dating
that appeals to a large audience (like I recommended in step 1) you can
simply select Run on All Categories. While this is less targeted, your CPM
is going to be much cheaper.

Set your frequency cap and geo targeting

DO NOT set this to No frequency cap! This will blow through your budget
so fast and youll be super disappointed with the results. With the amount of
creatives youre testing I recommend starting with a frequency cap of 2
unique views per user per day and expanding from there. If the offer
your promoting allows traffic from Canada, add them to the target. If not,
remove them.

Set your budget

You can now set a daily or overall campaign budget. This option is really up
to you, but I definitely recommend setting a budget. Personally if this is your
first buy, I would start with $200 $300 a day and let it distribute
impressions evenly for a couple of days.

Make your bids

Since were using Context Web as a testing platform to ultimately proceed to
a larger network you should be bidding on CPM (cost per one-thousand
impressions). They offer a scale to show what is considered a high bid and
whats considered a low bid. If youre running in all categories I dont
recommend bidding any higher than $2.00 $1.50.

Set a performance goal

Finally, I recommend placing their tracking pixel so you can measure your
acquisition costs. If the off youre promoting pays $35 you want your
acquisition cost to be less to make a profit. I suggest setting the goal at 1/2
the offer payout. For $35 you would set to $17.50. This will also let you
measure your conversions inside the Context Web user interface. Youre
done! Now its all about letting it run for a day or two. Obviously if you
spend a lot without a conversion you want to reevaluate, however you want
to give the campaign a fair chance. If youve set your daily budget at $100
$200 let it run for a while and see what happens.

Advertising On EveryDayHealth.com (Motherload Of Media)

Disclaimer: Dont be a jackass when it comes to direct media buying. If
you use me as a reference and tarnish my image, Im going to be severly
pissed. These are enormous sites that command enormous respect from
Advertisers. Be PROFESSIONAL.
First off, Everyday Health is a lot like WebMD. Older type demographics so
entertainment and dating offers probably not going to be a really good match
to run here. Heres a glimpse at some demographics:

And heres a glimpse at a mother load of web properties they have content
across:

Now their audience specs are interesting, they claim to have more reach than
WebMd:

A ton of advertising options:

Newsletter Sponsorships - Over 17 Million Active Subscribers. Everyday
Health offers over 50 newsletters focusing on everything from Asthma and
Allergies to Healthy Living to Skin and Beauty. Everyday Health newsletters
are delivered to over 17 million active subscribers who have signed up to
receive this targeted information.
Lead Generation - A Targeted Message To Your Key Consumers. Everyday
Health will pinpoint your key target in our registration process and deliver a
special offer from your brand to generate qualified leads. Millions of active
registered users with an average of 15,000 new registrants every day.
Search - Reach Your Target Market Quicker. Our targeted search will help
you reach more consumers with your message as they are searching for
relevant information.
Mobile Apps - Over 15 Interactive Mobile Apps. Delivering both static and
rich media ads across multiple platforms, including iPhone/iTouch/iPad,
Android and Blackberry.
Custom Stand-Alone Emails -Engaging Users with Your Message.
Everyday Health will create an exclusive email customized to your brands
objectives that will build awareness, introduce special offers and more.
Email sent to opt-in subscribers matching your target demographic.
Video - Bring Your Brand Message to Life with a More Compelling
Experience. Choose from our extensive video library or let Everyday Health
create a custom video for your brand.

Ad Specs: Standard Formats:

Display Advertising Specs: Dimension measurements provided in

pixels.File size limits provided in kilobytes. OPA. Dimensions: 97090,
300600 File Size Limit:40KB
Medium Rectangle
Dimensions: 300250
File Size Limit:40KB
Leaderboard
Dimensions: 72890
File Size Limit:40KB
Wide Skyscraper
Dimensions:160600
File Size Limit:40KB

General Guidelines:
File Formats Accepted: GIF, JPG, SWF, 3rd party ad tag
DFP is used to serve all Everyday Health site ads and all newsletter
placements
Animation may loop 3 times, 18 fps 15 seconds per max
All ad units must launch a new browser window when clicked on
UTP ads (user targeted placement) should have GIF/JPG versions of
creative
All ads are served via JavaScipt tags
Flash Guidelines:
Flash files must be coded properly for proper click and impression
tracking
All flash files must be submitted as a .SWF file with accompanying
back up of GIF/JPG for display to users who do not accept flash
A click thru URL must also be supplied for each .SWF ad unit
Mobile Banner Ads:
Mobile Banner for iPhone and Droid
Dimensions: 32050
File Size Limit:5KB
Mobile Banner for iPad
Dimensions: 72890
File Size Limit: 40KB

File Formats Accepted: GIF/JPG, third party redirects or inreds can be used
but should only contain image files and no flash.
Rich Media:
In-Page Video Advertising
Leaderboard :
Dimensions: 72890

File Size Limit:40KB

Polite Download:*1.2MB max including the 40KB

Medium Rectangle
Dimensions: 300250

File Size Limit: 40KB

Polite Download: *1.2MB max including the 40KB

Pre-roll, for inclusion in HealthologyPartner.com. Please see additional

specs. Max animation length up to 15 seconds.
Leaderboard
Dimensions: 72890 > 728310
Expanding down
File Size Limit:40KB
Polite Download:80KB max including the 40k

Medium Rectangle
Dimensions: 300250 > 550250
Expanding left onto content well
File Size Limit: 40KB
Polite Download: *80KB max including the 40k
OPA
Dimensions: 97090 > 970418
Expanding down
File Size Limit: 40KB
Polite Download: *80KB max including the 40k
Skyscraper
Dimensions: 160600 > 320600
Expanding to right
File Size Limit: 40KB
Polite Download: *80KB max including the 40k
General Guidelines
Must have push down functionality enabled
Ad must expand upon mouse over or click on expand button
Ad must retract upon mouse off or clicking on close button
Audio must be user initiated with a clearly recognizable on/off button


If the ad expands with user click, the panel still must retract when
mouse is removed
Polite download required
Expanding ads must have the flash property wmode set to
transparent
Z-index on Everyday Health menus is 100,000. Z-index of the ad
should be set lower than that
Newsletter Placements
Everyday Health portfolios opt-in daily newsletters cover a range of
diet, health and fitness content and are delivered to subscribers who
have signed up to receive information
Ad sizes include: 72890, 300250, 300600
Only GIF and JPG formats accepted, no Flash SWF files
Redirects can be used, but should only contain image files, no Flash
Ads must be received 5 business days prior to launch date
Advertising in newsletters is one of the quickest ways to grab optins from
competitors or advertise your products and services to someone else's email
lists. Check out these Ad specs from Everyday Health and start emailing
their list members!
Ad Specs: Newsletter Ad Placements

WebMD Serious Media Buying For Serious Advertisers

WARNING: Do not attempt to buy media from WebMD until you have
gone through this post entirely and have a really good understanding on what
its going to take to not only perform well with the many number of options
available to advertise on WebMD with, but to get a clear understanding that
if you try and promote some thin affiliate site or try to pawn crap on them,
they will immediately get rid of you.
PAY ATTENTION: I say again. Pay really close attention to the type of site
WebMD is and the quality of content it provides. Ive longed used this site
for health related content and they are the premier source on the web for
health information. They have a ton of traffic, a variety of advertising
options and if done right, you can have some opportunities to run advertising
affiliates only dream of. Forget your typical Media Buying sources and
Media Buy Exchanges who broker traffic from other sources. Should you
take on this beast, you are dealing with a direct site advertising buy that can
potentially propel you into Media Buying Stardom.
ONCE AGAIN: Read everything over and over until you get it through your
head that you intend to put and offer or some type of advertisement together
that will not offend WebMD in any way. Get this wrong and you strike
out. As in, start over. I can tell you from experience of putting larger
advertisers on this media buy that even some of the most organized and
experienced marketers try to game the system and get this wrong.

The first page you need to read in its entirety:

http://www.webmd.com/about-webmd-polia/default.htm
Then you need to brush up and realize how much traffic is availabe JUST
ON THE SITE ALONE along with some pretty basic Demographic
Information:
TRAFFIC

DEMOGRAPHICS

Now that we have established this is the real deal when it comes to serious
media buying on one of the largest health information sites in the world, you
need to read that attatched zip file which contains all of WebMDs Ad Specs.
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE read every one of them entirely so that you
can realize whats possible here. This is one of the most comprehensive
direct site buys for the health niche in the world which covers an absolute
ton of topics, there are a ton of advertising campaigns you could potentially
run and there is a ton of ways to advertise.
An absolute ton of media buying options are available. The WebMD
AdSpecs include:
WebMD Magazine Media Kit

WebMD Tech Specs For 360 Yahoo

WebMD Tech Specs For Consumer Homepage Roadblock Ads
WebMD Tech Specs For Pregnancy Week By Week Newsletter Ads
Tech Specs For WebMD Daily Video Sponsorship
WebMd Tech Specs For Ads On Consumer Standard Pages
WebMD Tech Specs For Consumer Gateway Roadblock Ads
WebMD Tech Specs For Consumer Newsletter Ads

You can grab all the ad specs by clicking here.

Advertising On FreeRideGames.com
Heres a large gaming site with a variety of direct buy media options. Good
news too, over 83% of their traffic is from the US, check out their
demographics:

Free Ride Games is the premier 100% FREE, FULL-DOWNLOAD PC

CASUSAL GAME service on the web, covering multiple genres such as
Hidden Object, Match Three, Sports, Puzzle, Arcade and Card/Board games.

A good variety of ad specifications to choose from:

Home Page Ads

Genre/Game Pages

Branded Game Addons

Homepage Take-Over Addons

You can see all the options they have for advertising by clicking here.

Homepage Ads

Genre/Game Pages

5 Media Buying Traffic Sources You Can Use Right Now

Here are 5 more Media Buying Traffic Sources you can get started with right
away:
AdEngage
101 Continental Blvd, Ste 1050
El Segundo, CA 90245
310-640-0101
contact@adengage.com
www.adengage.com
Notes: CPM and CPC
Drivepm
110 5th Ave, 8th Fl
New York, NY 10011
917-267-3231
www.drivepm.com
Notes: CPA, CPC, CTC
Glam Media
646-205-7008
www.glammedia.com
Notes: women consumers online lifestyle, beauty, fashion, design, and
cooking blogs and sites from indie publishers
CPM

Interclick
200 Park Ave S
Suite 908-909
New York, NY 10003
646-722-6260
www.interclick.com
Notes: comscore fastest growing
ad network 2007-2008
Transparent, 10K Min
CPM
Paypopup.com
350 Highway 7 East
Ste 308, Richmond Hill
Ontario, Canada L4B 3N2
sales@PayPopUp.com
Notes: Ad Pckgs, Pop up/under
CPM

End Of Media Buying Icon

BONUS!
Ryan and myself would like to congratulate you on becoming a Media Buy
Icon. For Media Buy Icon Members, we will offer you a 1-Time special
discount to our IMGrind Private Forum. We will give you platinum access
for 1 month at a huge discount. We have an entire forum dedicated to media
buying with over 500 members. If interested email
support@mediabuyingicon.com with the subject Media Buying Icon Forum
Discount and we will get you setup!