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The Complete Guide to Ad Ops for publishers

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INTRODUCTION

Welcome aboard, fellow digital publishers! 

Get ready to embark on a thrilling journey across the vast and varied seas of ad operations. From bustling ports of demand and yield management to the treacherous waters of ad blocking, we’re here to help you navigate it all.

Along the way, we’ll explore the rapidly shifting world of digital advertising, filled with advertisers, publishers, ad exchanges, ad networks, and much, much more.

So, hoist the sails and join us as we set course for the heart of digital advertising and discover the complexities of ad operations for publishers.

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Introduction to Ad Operations

Ad operations, or ad ops, is the heart of digital advertising, and includes two critical objectives:

  1. Elevating the experience of the user or viewer to the highest standard.
  2. Ensuring the seamless presentation of relevant and top-tier digital advertising campaigns.

Imagine a ship sailing the seas of digital advertising. Ad ops is the captain, the navigator, and the engineer:

  • The captain is the strategic decision maker, guiding ad content, ad placement, and campaign strategies based on the advertiser’s goals, their audience’s needs, and past campaign performance.
  • The navigator is in charge of planning and optimization, using data and analytics to plot the best course for advertising campaigns. Adjustments, such as changing targeting options or frequency caps, are made as needed to ensure optimal performance.
  • The engineer troubleshoots any and all issues, monitoring campaign performance metrics and making adjustments to keep everything running smoothly.

Essentially, ad operations blends the technology, analytics, and strategy used to maximize the potential of digital advertising.

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It’s a continuous process of monitoring, analyzing, optimizing, and adjusting. Whether it’s a hurdle or an opportunity, ad ops professionals are ready to enhance performance and streamline operations — leading your ship toward success in the waters of digital advertising.

Working with a monetization partner and platform, like Playwire, is critical in helping with these operational tasks. Otherwise, you’re left to navigate dangerous waters on your own with nothing more than a blank map and no clear path in site.

The Evolution of Advertising Technology: From Traditional to Digital Advertising

Back in the day, traditional mediums like print, radio, and TV reigned king in the advertising world. 

Their main draw? A wide audience reach. Their weakness? A lack of precision.

But that was then. These days, the internet has started a new chapter in advertising. Advertisers can now, more easily, reach their target audiences with access to real-time adjustments and a treasure trove of data-driven insights.

With the digital advertising market expected to reach $786 billion by 2026, saying the industry is huge is a bit of an understatement.

An essential part of this new chapter is the rise of search engines and the proliferation of websites — presenting new opportunities.

Today, advertisers can strategically place ads on search engine results pages and specific websites that their audiences frequent. The entrance of programmatic advertising has also helped revolutionize the ad tech landscape.

With programmatic advertising, automation became the new norm for buying, placing, and optimizing ad inventory, resulting in increased efficiency and effectiveness.

Alongside these changes to the advertising landscape is another big player: social media.

As social media platforms began to take center stage, they offered access to an extensive user demographic and introduced even more sophisticated targeting features, further refining the advertising process.

To support complexities in digital advertising, an entire ecosystem of tools, platforms, services, and software emerged. This includes everything from Demand Side Platforms (DSP) and Supply-Side Platforms (SSP) to ad exchanges and ad networks. This intricate web of tech has powered the industry's continued evolution.

Of course, this isn’t the whole story. There’s also the rise of mobile and video ads, powered by the ubiquity of smartphone usage coupled with unprecedented access to high-speed Internet. 

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This transformed the ad world yet again — with around 97% of Americans owning a smartphone of some kind.

Mobile and video ads have become the focal points for many campaigns, helping advertisers target users wherever they are, whenever they’re online.

The seismic shift toward mobile and video ads has only empowered users. The result? Today’s advertising prioritizes user experience above all else. Personalized and relevant ad experiences are the gold standard, placing users firmly in the driver's seat.

Through it all, ad operations has stood its ground as the heart of the industry, evolving alongside these changes to meet the dynamic needs and challenges of digital advertising.

Ad Ops Players: Advertisers, Publishers, Ad Exchanges, and Ad Networks

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On the vast seas of digital advertising, different players contribute to the bustling maritime trade:

Advertisers

Think of them as the ship owners and merchants. They take stock of cargo (ads) with precious products and services. Their job is to strategize which ports (target audiences) are most likely to trade for their goods, and they set their budget accordingly.

Publishers

These are the port authorities who provide docks (websites, apps, desktop apps, etc.) for these ships. Their primary goal is to attract a large population (users) with their thriving port activity (high-quality content) and offer berths for these ships to trade their goods.

Ad Exchanges

Imagine these as maritime marketplaces. They facilitate trade between ship owners and port authorities. They oversee the buying and selling of docking rights (ad spaces), ensuring a transparent and efficient market.

Ad Networks

Picture ad networks as the shipping companies. They consolidate cargo from various merchants (ads from multiple advertisers) and provide specific routes to target audiences.

At the helm of this operation, ad ops teams navigate the ship, ensuring a smooth journey and successful trade. While the ad tech ecosystem and the players within it are vast, the right professionals will know exactly what to do to maximize revenue.

They’re the experienced captains and navigators, charting courses, adjusting sails, and always keeping a sharp eye on the horizon — always on the lookout for ways to make sure the expedition is efficient and successful.

Ad Operations Teams: Key Objectives and Roles

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Ad ops teams serve as the heart and brain of the ship. They make sure the entire voyage goes off without a hitch while meeting some key objectives including:

  • Crafting an exceptional user experience. An ad operations specialist aims to serve up ads that are engaging and valuable to the user. This objective is akin to keeping the port (your website) clean, safe, attractive, and bustling. 
  • Presenting high-quality, relevant ads. Like any careful harbormaster, ad ops teams ensure that the ships (ads) docking at the port are high quality. They prioritize relevant ads that align with the interests of your audience.
  • Optimizing campaigns for maximum revenue generation. Ad ops teams strategize and adjust settings to make the most out of each ad. This involves some careful monitoring and swift action, altering course and adjusting sails when market trends change.

The role of an ad ops team in advertising is multifaceted.

They act as the navigator, engineer, and captain all at once, charting the right course for effective ad placement, maintaining the ship, troubleshooting issues that arise, monitoring campaigns and, ultimately, making revenue-altering decisions.

A competent and proactive ad ops team can be your secret weapon. They are critical in guiding the ship safely and profitably through both calm and stormy waters.

Key Components of Ad Ops

When it comes to the components of ad ops, you’ll find quite a few things at play.

If the ad ops team is the ship's captain, navigator, and engineer, they must pay close attention to overseeing key components to ensure the vessel runs smoothly and reaches its destination.

These components include demand management, yield management, and understanding the roles of supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-side platforms (DSPs).

Let’s take a closer look at each of these components.

 

Demand Management

Like a ship’s crew diligently working to manage cargo, ad ops teams efficiently handle the demand side of your operations.

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They do this by identifying advertiser needs, handling campaign traffic, ensuring the right ads appear at the right time, and optimizing campaigns for the best performance. As you might imagine, this task requires constant attention — much like the crew’s round-the-clock vigilance during the sea voyage.

 

Yield Management

Keeping to our ship analogy, imagine ad yield management as the ship’s quartermaster.

They’re in charge of maximizing profit from the ship’s cargo, just as a yield ops team focuses on maximizing your revenue. They do this through strategic ad placement, optimizing fill rates, and walking the very fine line of demand vs. supply.

Yield ops professionals closely monitor market trends, CPMs, and inventory availability to keep publisher yield high.

Learn more about the important role of ad yield professionals and how building and managing a strong ad yield ops strategy can be a revenue game charger from our comprehensive Ad Yield Management course.

 

The Role of SSPs and DSPs

SSPs and DSPs are the ship's navigation tools and maps. They guide ad ops professionals through the complex seas of online advertising.

The role of SSPs is to help publishers sell ad impressions to the highest bidder in real time with the goal of maximizing revenue. On the other hand, we have DSPs, which allow advertisers to buy these impressions efficiently, targeting their desired audiences.

Like skilled mariners, ad ops teams adeptly work with these tools to guide publishers toward profitable shores.

Meet Your Ad Operations Team

Just as each individual on the ship has a unique role, ad ops teams are made up of various roles — each contributes their unique skills and perspectives to help manage a successful advertising campaign.
Let’s explore the inner workings of an ad ops team in a bit more detail.

Key Responsibilities of a Digital Ad Operations Team

Ad ops teams are responsible for quite a bit. Here are some tasks they often handle:

  • Campaign navigation. They steer the course of the campaign, making all the necessary adjustments along the way to ensure optimal performance.
  • Ad trafficking. This involves making sure the right ads reach the right audience at the right time, solidifying efficiency and effectiveness in ad delivery.
  • Troubleshooting. Just like any tech-oriented role, ad ops teams address and resolve issues, helping campaigns run smoothly.
  • Reporting. Consistent monitoring and reporting leads to better ad performance, informed strategic decision-making, and optimized future campaigns.

 

In-House Ad Ops vs. Outsourced Ad Ops: When Do You Need to Outsource Ad Ops?

Opting for an in-house or outsourced ad operations team isn’t a one size fits all decision. You’ll find several factors that come into play.

First is the scale and complexity of your advertising needs.

If campaigns are small to midsize with fairly straightforward targeting, you might be able to manage things with an in-house team. But, if you’re handling larger, multifaceted campaigns, having an outsourced ad ops team on your side can make all the difference.

When it comes to specific roles you might outsource, here’s what you need to know:

  • Ad management. Ad management teams coordinate ad campaign details, ensure on-time delivery, and analyze performance metrics.
  • Yield operations. Yield operations teams balance the demand and supply of ad inventory to maximize revenue.
  • Dev and engineering. Dev and engineering teams handle the technical aspects like troubleshooting and optimizing ad delivery.
  • Direct sales. Direct sales teams manage relationships with advertisers and help negotiate ad placements and pricing.
  • Creative teams. Creative teams craft engaging content and appealing ads that capture users' interests.

An in-house team might seem like a suitable approach to managing ad ops, but, in reality, they might struggle to cover all of these roles effectively.

When you decide to outsource, which can be a big decision, you gain the advantage of having specialized teams on your side to tackle all of these mission-critical roles.

Of course, cost is always top of mind for any publisher.

While outsourcing might seem like a substantial cost pain, think about the long-term advantages of having an experienced team on your side. Compare that to the costs of hiring, training, and maintaining an in-house team, and you can start to see why outsourcing can be a great investment.

The Playwire Ad Operations Team: An Inside Look

At Playwire, we have an effective blend of seasoned advertising veterans and newbies alike. 

We believe this essential mixture gives us an edge in terms of internal learning and development. Our team blends tried-and-true methods with innovative approaches, leveraging the full power of feature-packed tools like RAMP to optimize your ad campaigns.

And, like any good crew, we’re always updating our playbook with insights and learning from each campaign we work on.

Ad Ops Tools, Software, and Platforms

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If you’re going to navigate the vast oceans of online advertising, you need to use a variety of tools and platforms — each offering unique features and benefits.

Like any good sailor, ad ops teams will intimately understand these tools, providing essential insights into how they function and how to effectively utilize them.

Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs) and Supply-Side Platforms (SSPs)

We touched on DSPs and SSPs earlier, but let’s dig in a bit deeper.

These platforms allow advertisers to purchase ad inventory from a range of publisher sites in real time. They use automation to help advertisers buy ad spaces that are the best match for their target audience.

DSPs are like compasses, guiding advertisers to the most effective ad spaces.

SSPs help publishers sell ad inventory. Much like DSPs, this happens through an automated process. 

Think of SSPs as the wind in the ship’s sails. They optimize and sell your ad inventory to the highest bidder.

VAST Inspectors and Video Tag Validators

An invaluable tool for video ad troubleshooting, VAST Inspectors validate video ad serving template (VAST) responses, test VAST tags, and help troubleshoot ads.

Imagine this tool as the ship’s lookout for video ads, ensuring that everything is displaying correctly.

Video tag validators confirm that video ad tags are formatted correctly and meet specific criteria. These act as triggers, making sure ads are always set up correctly.

Playwire's Custom Ad Ops Tools

At Playwire, we’ve developed our own suite of tools to help with campaign monitoring and ad unit optimization.

Our RAMP Platform acts as a bird’s eye view of various campaigns, indicating how they’re pacing and performing. RAMP is much more than a tool; it’s a complete ad management solution.

It blends human and machine intelligence to maximize your ad revenue, similar to the way a skilled sailor uses navigation tools to chart the best course forward.

RAMP brings the following benefits to the table:

  • Immediate revenue uplift. By instantaneously adjusting thousands of settings and continually learning and adapting to your site's unique needs, RAMP ensures you get the best yield on every impression.
  • Real-time predictive algorithms. Much like the way a ship's captain adjusts their course based on the changing winds and currents, RAMP makes quick adjustments to secure the highest bids for your ad space.

Without a platform like RAMP, ad ops teams need to do all the tracking, reporting, and troubleshooting manually. A process that can take up way too much time — and you never want to waste time in the ad world.

Think of RAMP as a surgical scalpel compared to the sledgehammer of manual operations.

The Practical Side of Ad Ops: Ad Targeting, Delivery, and Performance

Setting sail in the ad operations world means a voyage into the waters of ad targeting, delivery, and performance.

Here’s a breakdown of the journey.

Ad Targeting and Customization

Like a captain identifying the best ports of call, ad targeting involves selecting the ideal audience for an ad.

This is often influenced by specific factors like demographics, interests, behaviors, location, and even the time of day. If we think of our captain again, these tasks are like watching the weather, currents, and suitability of each harbor before docking. 

To get this right, targeting needs to take into account customization. This kind of approach provides more relevant and engaging user experiences.

Pacing Related Issues In Ad Delivery: Challenges and Solutions

Sailing smoothly is important, as is the rate at which ads get delivered. 

This process involves controlling the speed at which ads are served, kind of like maintaining a steady pace on a long voyage.

Too fast, and the ads run out before the campaign ends, but too slow, and the campaign drags out without utilizing the full budget.

As you might imagine, this balancing act can pose challenges, such as issues in delivery. Like a ship's captain adjusting sails to cope with unpredictable winds, ad ops teams need to have solutions at hand to address these challenges and ensure smooth ad delivery.

Performance-Related Issues: Troubleshooting for Success

Even the most seasoned sailor encounters storms and obstacles. 

In a similar way, ad ops teams can see performance issues regardless of experience or planning. If these issues arise, they need to be ready with a competent and appropriate response.

For instance, they might troubleshoot ad tags or track down the source of discrepancies. They might also use some of the tools we touched on above to detect performance issues and optimize the campaign before the ship has sailed beyond saving.

The Impact of Ad Blockers and the Shift to User-Centric Advertising

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Ad blockers are like sea monsters prowling the open ocean of digital advertising — and around 50% of Internet users aged 16 to 64 have used an ad blocker within a given month.

While they might seem like a menacing foe, understanding them can be the key to successful navigation.

First, let’s explore the impact of ad blockers.

In the open sea, unexpected storms can halt a ship’s progress. Similarly, ad blockers can dramatically affect the advertising voyage in a few distinct ways:

  • Blocked ads, resulting in lost revenue opportunities. 
  • Blocked ad impressions, affecting campaign performance metrics.

But, just as every storm clears eventually, the digital advertising industry is looking to new strategies to navigate the challenges posed by ad blockers.

This transition marks a shift toward user-centric advertising, which encourages respectful and non-intrusive ad strategies like relevant ads that resonate with a user’s particular preferences and don’t detract from the browsing experience.

Moreover, user-centric advertising adopts formats that are less likely to provoke the use of ad blockers, such as native ads. 

There’s also the shifting environment of data privacy laws and established protections like the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA), which pushes advertisers to adopt contextual advertising — ads that target the content of the page, not the user’s personal data.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

In ad operations, KPIs are the lighthouse guiding publishers through foggy nights.

They help you stay the course and measure progress in order to make adjustments as needed. Here is what you need to know about KPIs.

Standard Variables to Track: Viewability and Inbound Traffic

Just as a ship relies on a certain standard of navigation to ensure it’s on course, there are a few standard variables that ad operations teams track:

  • Ad Viewability. This measures whether the ads are visible to users and for how long. Think of viewability as the actual lighthouse ensuring users see the ships (advertisements).
  • Inbound Traffic. Inbound traffic data helps in understanding user behavior and fine-tuning ad placements and formats for maximum user engagement.

Campaign-Specific Metrics: Click-Through Rates and Video Completion Rates

While some KPIs are fairly universal in the ad operations world, others are campaign specific — just as the destination and route of a ship necessitate specific navigation techniques.

Here are a few specific KPIs you might need to track:

  • Click-Through Rates (CTR). CTRs track the ratio of users who click on a digital ad to the number of total users who viewed the ad.
  • Video Completion Rates (VCR). In video advertising, this metric tracks the number of viewers who watched an ad to completion. 

These are just a few metrics you might come across when tracking KPIs. In reality, each campaign will have different key metrics to watch. 

For example, a video advertisement might be more concerned with VCRs instead of CTRs, while an advertiser might be watching CTRs over VCRs — it all depends on the campaign and goals.

Unlock Unprecedented Rewards with Playwire

Taking on the challenges of digital advertising independently comes with inherent risks and uncertainties.

When it comes to ad ops for publishers, instead of bearing the burden of these risks alone, why not partner with an experienced crew ready to help you navigate both stormy waters and calm ports?

When you partner with Playwire, you benefit from our expansive resources, superior talent, and established relationships with advertisers.

Begin your journey by reaching out to Playwire today!

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