Archive for the ‘Tips’ Category

Set up account structures that work

Friday, January 16th, 2009

You’ve decided to use the Mixpo platform to offer online video advertising to your advertisers. Now, they’re taking you up on your offer.

You have VideoAds to create but, before you jump in, it’s best to step back and consider how to set up your advertiser account structure so that it works for you over the long term.

In this article, you’ll learn about:

Account types and how they’re organized

When you become a Mixpo partner, the first thing we do is work with you to define the number of groups that you need. Groups allow you to gather related accounts into reasonably sized containers.

For example, you might define a group for each geographical region where you have advertisers. Or, you might define a group for each publication within your network.

As containers, groups provide you with a convenient tool for managing accounts and comparing and analyzing VideoAd performance.

After you have your groups defined, we work with you to identify how many partner manager accounts you need in each group.

Partner managers are super users and these account types have more permissions than basic accounts. For example, partner managers can create new accounts, update and disable existing accounts, search for accounts, list accounts associated with their group, and locate detailed performance data and reports for all advertiser VideoAds within their group.

Mixpo account structure

The relationships among groups, partner managers, and advertiser accounts

Tips

  • Partner manager accounts are for managing not for creating. Advertiser accounts are where you create VideoAds.
  • Partner managers can only manage and see performance data for accounts within the group to which they belong.
  • Partner managers are typically people on an organization’s Operations team. In addition to managing advertiser accounts, partner managers may also be responsible for creating VideoAds for the advertisers in their group.

The best way to set up advertiser accounts

When it comes to setting up accounts, the most important thing you can do is create a separate account for each advertiser.

Matching one advertiser with one account gathers all of an advertiser’s VideoAds in one place and simplifies the process of creating, tracking, and optimizing them.

If you follow the “one advertiser-one account” rule, then the logical username to assign to each account is the advertiser’s name.

For example, if Mixpo was one of your advertisers, you might assign the username “mixpocorp” or mixpo_corp” to the Mixpo account.

For some tips about keeping track of VideoAds in an advertiser’s account, see Keep track of VideoAds with notes.

Where to find the account management controls

You manage accounts in the Account Settings section of the platform.

Account Settings link in Dashboard

Click Account Settings to manage accounts

In the Dashboard, click Account Settings in the top right corner of the window.

On the Account Settings page, in addition to the Account Settings options, partner managers see several Group Management options. You use these group-related options to create, update, and locate advertiser accounts.

Account settings page

Account settings page

  • To create new advertiser accounts, click A.
  • To search for existing advertiser accounts, click B.
  • To list all accounts in your group (both advertiser and partner manager accounts), click C.

Tip To manage your own partner manager account information, click a link under Account Settings.

I’d like to see detailed instructions for creating, updating, disabling, and listing advertiser accounts.

Please tell me more about accessing account and group reports.

Keep track of VideoAds with notes

Sunday, January 11th, 2009

In Creative Insights on Rich Media (visit doubleclick.com to download a PDF), Sally Cole, Business Marketing Manager at Google, points out that advertisers get the best ad campaign results when they set measurable goals up front.

For example, with one VideoAd, an advertiser might set a goal of beating the industry interaction rate benchmark. In another instance, the focus might be to compare two versions of the same VideoAd to see which produces a higher complete rate.

As you work with advertisers over time, you’re likely to build up a significant number of VideoAds in each advertiser’s account. Unless you put an organizational system in place, you can easily lose track of when and why various VideoAds were published.

Fortunately, you have a couple of simple tools at your disposal that help you keep track of the VideoAds you publish:

VideoAd title

As you know, the VideoAds you create in a single account appear in the vertical, scrolling Your VideoAds list that occupies the left side of the Dashboard.

Your VideoAds list

Your VideoAds list

VideoAd order in the list is determined by editing. The VideoAd you edited most recently, in other words, appears at the top, and the order is always changing.

This arrangement is convenient because the VideoAds you’re currently working on are the easiest to access. It does, however, highlight the importance of being able to quickly identify VideoAds by scrolling through their titles.

To ensure that VideoAd titles are as effective and scrollable as possible, make them unique and meaningful, and put the unique information up front (the length limit for titles is 100 characters).

Why front load titles? In the Your VideoAds list, titles are truncated at 37 characters. If several titles begin exactly the same way, you won’t be able to distinguish one from another.

Obviously, you have to develop an approach to VideoAd titles that makes sense for your organization but here are some examples of informative titles that might work:

mixpocorp_Jan09_CreateVideoAds (AdvertiserName_monthyear_VideoAdSubject)

mixpocorp_Jan09_CreateVideoAds.mov
(AdvertiserName_monthyear_UploadedFilename)

OptimizeVideoAds_200812_mixpocorp
(VideoAdSubject_yearmonth_AdvertiserName)

Tip When you’re performance testing different versions of a VideoAd, the word “Rotating” is automatically added to the title of the ad you use to set up ad rotation.

How do I assign a title to a VideoAd?

Descriptive notes

It’s impossible for even a meaningful title to carry all of the important information about a VideoAd. That’s why we added the Notes feature.

Notes allow you to supplement VideoAd titles by recording:

  • The date a VideoAd was published.
  • The date you began ad rotation to compare the performance of a VideoAd’s versions.
  • What aspect of a VideoAd you’re performance testing.
  • The advertiser’s goals for the VideoAd.

To annotate a VideoAd, click the Notes button associated with the VideoAd in the Your VideoAds list.

Clicking the Notes button

Clicking the Notes button

Then in the Notes editing window that opens, annotate the VideoAd in any way that will help you (and the advertiser) remember exactly when it was created and what goal motivated its creation.

Edit VideoAd Notes window

Edit VideoAd Notes window

Replace a running VideoAd

Thursday, December 25th, 2008

If you create VideoAds using the Mixpo platform, you’ve probably already taken advantage of one of the platform’s greatest benefits: VideoAds are never final.

You can update them at any time in response to performance analytics or seasonal promotions. Changes you make go live immediately.

But sometimes updating simply isn’t enough. Businesses relocate. Staff members come and go. New products and services are introduced. New campaigns are launched. There will be times when it’s necessary to replace a running VideoAd with a new one.

In the Mixpo platform, we provide you with an extremely convenient option for seamlessly replacing a running VideoAd without ever having to copy and paste any embed code.

Here’s a summary of how you do it:

  • In the Dashboard, locate the VideoAd you want to replace, and click the delete button.
  • In the Delete VideoAd window, select the option for replacing the deleted VideoAd with a different VideoAd.
    Delete VideoAd window

    Delete VideoAd window

Without any interruption in service, the new VideoAd appears in the banner ad space previously occupied by the original VideoAd.

OK, you might be thinking, that’s slick, but what exactly does deleting the out-of-date VideoAd mean?

  • While deleting a VideoAd removes it from the Your VideoAds list in the Dashboard, you don’t lose the performance data associated with the deleted ad. You can always retrieve that data in Advanced Analytics.
  • Video clips and images that appear only in the deleted VideoAd will no longer be available from your Mixpo media library. You can always upload the assets again if you need them.

Better thumbnails mean more views

Friday, December 12th, 2008

When VideoAds are embedded as banner ads in online publications, the click-to-play thumbnail is the image that appears in the Player behind the play button.

For example, here is the click-to-play thumbnail for a Japanese restaurant VideoAd.

Japanese restaurant VideoAd thumbnail

Japanese restaurant VideoAd thumbnail

This attractive thumbnail seems likely to appeal to sushi enthusiasts. But, when it comes to thumbnails, “seems likely” simply isn’t enough.

The click-to-play thumbnail may be the most important determiner of how many views a VideoAd gets. In a recent study, we found that changing the click-to-play thumbnail resulted in view-rate increases of between .20 to .70%.

Clearly, it’s in the best interest of advertisers and publishers alike to make these thumbnails as attractive and inviting as possible.

So, as a Mixpo VideoAd creator, how do you ensure effective thumbnails? Here are two easy-to-follow, concrete suggestions:

Consciously choose each thumbnail

In most cases, your advertisers will give you content from which to create their VideoAds. For example, an advertiser might give you some existing TV footage, a previously-created video clip, or a series of photos.

When I say don’t let the thumbnail choose itself what I mean is that you mustn’t let an advertiser’s creative determine the thumbnail by default.

What if an advertiser gives you existing footage in which the content is fine but the initial thumbnail options are all visually boring?

Armed with the knowledge that, in the Mixpo Studio, the first visual element on the Timeline sets the click-to-play thumbnail, here is how you might proceed:

  1. Explain to the advertiser the importance of the click-to-play thumbnail.
  2. Ask the advertiser for, or search our stock or some other image library for, the most inviting, relevant picture the advertiser or you can find.
  3. Upload that picture to the advertiser’s VideoAd and position it as the first element on the Timeline.
  4. Give the picture a duration of 2 seconds. You might also want to uncheck Use Zoom Effect.
  5. Save and publish to make the 2-second picture the click-to-play thumbnail.

Take a look at the following images. Except for their thumbnails, the two VideoAds are identical. Which thumbnail do you believe will attract more viewers? Why?

Conscious thumbnail

Conscious thumbnail

Default thumbnail

Default thumbnail

How do I add text to click-to-play thumbnails?

Test different thumbnails to see which generate more views

Choosing an effective click-to-play thumbnail doesn’t have to be a game of chance. Using the ad rotation feature in the Mixpo platform, you can easily duplicate VideoAds and test different thumbnails to see which generate more views.

Easily duplicate VideoAds

Easily duplicate VideoAds for ad rotation

Ad rotation means running different versions of a VideoAd in the same Player and analyzing the performance of the versions over time.

This a-b testing not only clearly demonstrates which specific thumbnail one advertiser’s customers prefer. It also builds your general knowledge about what makes thumbnails effective and contributes to the overall success of all of your ad campaigns in the future.

Autoplay and the VideoAd viewer’s experience

Tuesday, November 18th, 2008

Just for a moment, put yourself into a VideoAd viewer’s shoes.

Imagine that you’re sitting in your cubicle and you decide to read an online professional publication that keeps you up-to-date on work-related technology. You navigate to the home page that just happens to contain an online video ad for a well-known intimate apparel retailer. The video ad with audio automatically starts playing. Before you have a chance to turn down the sound on your computer, information about the latest underwear is broadcast to the colleagues who sit near you.

Ok. This example might be a little dramatic but it does highlight the user experience pitfalls with autoplay audio. It also serves as a warning sign to advertisers: Viewers who are inconvenienced or embarrassed by an online video ad are unlikely to purchase the products or services the ad is selling.

That’s why, in the Mixpo VideoAd platform, we give you the following two options for how your VideoAd behaves when a viewer lands on the page where the ad is embedded:

Autoplay with audio muted

A good choice for VideoAds embedded in pages, such as websites, blogs, or directory profile pages, opened by self-selected viewers.

In the drop-down list, you set the number of times the VideoAd automatically plays. My advice is to go for fewer replays.

Autoplay with audio muted option

Autoplay with audio muted option

When you choose this option, the video portion of the VideoAd plays automatically and viewers see text on the VideoAd that they click to start the audio.

Click to play audio

Click to play audio

Click to play

The essential choice for VideoAds embedded in online publications where viewers will stumble on your VideoAd by chance.

Click to play option

Click to play option

When you choose this option, viewers see a play button on the VideoAd. They click the button to play both video and audio.

Click to play video and audio

Click to play video and audio

Create overlays that work at any embed size

Sunday, November 9th, 2008

You add a bunch of overlays to a VideoAd. You preview the VideoAd and everything looks great.

Then, you publish the VideoAd at the 300×250 size and embed it as a banner ad in an online publication. When you play the VideoAd you notice that some of your overlays break at odd places and look pretty unprofessional.

Here are some tips for resolving these overlay problems and avoiding them in the future.

First, lets look at an example.

Suppose you created this lead capture overlay in a VideoAd for a Japanese restaurant.

Overlay in the Studio

Overlay in the Studio

It looks fine when you preview the VideoAd. However, when you actually publish the VideoAd as a banner ad, the overlay looks, lets face it, ugly and unprofessional:

Overlay in published banner ad

Overlay in published banner ad

The key to making overlays look good regardless of VideoAd embed size is to give the overlay text room to breathe and expand.

Compare these two overlays:

Constrained overlay

Constrained overlay

Overlay with breathing room

Overlay with breathing room

Overlays with room to breathe look good at any embed size:

Overlay with room to breathe

Overlay with room to breathe

This same principle applies to plain text overlays. Just make sure you give them room to breathe.

Constained overlay

Constained overlay

Overlay with breathing room

Overlay with breathing room

I’d like to know more about lead capture overlays.

Display text on your VideoAd thumbnail

Saturday, November 8th, 2008

The two banner ad-sized VideoAds shown below are exactly the same except, in the second ad, text displays in the thumbnail.

The image by itself – that blue, blue water with a single drop hitting its surface – is pretty compelling. Some visitors might play the VideoAd just to see what the image is all about. But, without text, the image doesn’t give potential viewers enough to go on.

Text on a VideoAd thumbnail plays a key role by:

  • Motivating potential viewers to click the VideoAd play button.
  • Setting expectations about the subject matter of the VideoAd (in this case, legal representation).
  • Providing advertisers with an opportunity to distinguish themselves from the competition (in this case, proactive personal injury representation).

Fortunately, it’s easy to add text that displays on your VideoAd thumbnails.

  1. In the Studio, add a plain text overlay.
  2. Drag it to the far left end of the Timeline.
  3. Make it as small as possible (that is, give a duration of 2 seconds).
  4. On the Overlays tab, set the styling and interactivity options you want.
  5. Add another overlay, if necessary, and repeat steps 2 to 4.
  6. Save and publish.

I’d like to learn more about overlays.