{"id":2351,"date":"2016-07-12T17:00:25","date_gmt":"2016-07-12T17:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nativeadbuzz.com\/blog\/?p=2351"},"modified":"2020-09-11T04:53:49","modified_gmt":"2020-09-11T04:53:49","slug":"07-the-setup-getting-the-best-start-to-your-campaigns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nativeadbuzz.com\/blog\/07-the-setup-getting-the-best-start-to-your-campaigns\/","title":{"rendered":"#7 Abitrage Diary: The Setup – Getting The Best Start To Your Campaigns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hey buddy!<\/span><\/p>\n

This is the 7th instalment of the Arbitrage Diary and I just wanna say thanks for the positive feedback. It is really encouraging to read and makes the whole thing feel worthwhile. Keep firing questions our way!<\/span><\/p>\n

However, we\u2019ve realised that you are perhaps a step ahead of this arbitrage diary! Well, fear not, this is the final part of the basics covering how to set up your campaigns in a clear methodical way. \u00a0We\u2019re going to get to the good stuff \u2013 optimising the s*** out of things \u2013 as of next week. <\/span><\/p>\n

By the way, here\u2019s our very first paycheck from Google!<\/span><\/p>\n

\"2016-07-13_1851\"<\/p>\n

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Sure, it\u2019s not going to get us to Aruba, but given that we only started this whole adventure 2 and a bit months ago (with ZERO knowledge or experience of native ads\/arb\/internet marketing) we\u2019re pretty stoked with it!<\/span><\/p>\n

We actually had about a 2 week break where not a lot got done. I had to go away (New York baby!) and we had to wait on confirmation of our accounts from the networks and then ensure that all the widgets and Google Analytics were set up correctly (as we\u2019ve detailed in <\/span>the last few posts<\/span><\/a>). This stuff can be a ball-ache BUT it\u2019s definitely better to do make sure everything is working 100% than to get impatient and rush. In the long-run, when we\u2019re pulling in 6 figures a month (and finally scoping out that holiday to Aruba), then two weeks of waiting isn\u2019t going to be a problem.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, setting up a Outbrain campaign. Here goes…<\/span><\/p>\n

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OUTBRAIN<\/b><\/p>\n

In Outbrain click on the \u201cAdd Campaign\u201d tab in the top right hand corner. This takes you to the \u201cCreate Campaign (Step 1 of 2)\u201d page:<\/span>
\n\"Blog_08_02_OB_1\"<\/p>\n

Name Your Campaign: <\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

You\u2019re going to end up with lots of campaigns so use logical clear titles e.g. if you\u2019re slideshow is about hamburgers and you\u2019re going to target it only to US desktops then \u201cHamburger_US_Desktop_01\u201d isn\u2019t a bad shout.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Targeting: <\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve started off targeting the US only. Why? Because there\u2019s lots of good traffic and good quality advertisers in the US and we think our content appeals to US audiences (in fact, we\u2019ve written in that way). However, we plan to target other English-speaking countries (UK, Australia\/New Zealand, South Africa) in the future, once we have campaigns that we\u2019ve shown work in the US. <\/span>
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\n<\/span>Scheduling:<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

You can choose when your campaign starts but we just start it off and let it run continuously. <\/span><\/p>\n

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However, a word of warning. Before we\u2019d started proper optimisation we ran our first ever test to make sure that the Outbrain tracking code (see below) and Google Analytics were all working correctly. We wanted to spend $50 for one day only, but we accidentally left the \u201cRun continuously\u201d setting on and spent $250 over a long weekend when neither of us bothered to check in on Outbrain! $250 down before we\u2019d even started! Lesson learned!<\/span>
\n\"Blog_08_03_OB_2\"
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Budgeting:<\/b><\/p>\n

This is the important part! <\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

CPC:<\/i> <\/strong>
\n<\/span>Your CPC (cost-per-click \u2013 but you should probably know that by now!!) is the maximum you are willing to pay for a user to be sent to your website. However, not all your clicks will be charged at this rate (some will be cheaper) \u2013 it\u2019s just the upper limit. <\/span><\/p>\n

Outbrain, cheekily, suggest quite high CPCs! We\u2019ve found that starting off at $0.5 and bringing it down by e.g. $0.1 a day, over the first 3 to 4 days is the best way to a) let the Outbrain algorithm do its stuff and optimise your campaign in terms of what sites your ads get shown on while b) allowing you to find your profitability sweet spot. Ultimately we have found that the sweet spot for most of our campaigns is a CPC value of $0.10\u20130.15. \u00a0(We\u2019ve tried starting campaigns with low CPCs of e.g. $0.1, but found that traffic can be very slow and the Outbrain algorithm does seem to work better if you start higher and gradually lower it \u2013\u2013 <\/span>we\u2019d be interested to hear from your experience of this<\/span><\/i>\u2026?!)<\/span><\/p>\n

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Budget: <\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

Set your daily budget here but be aware that Outbrain does almost always spend 20% more than the value you put (which they do warn you about). E.g. if you choose $100, then you\u2019ll almost always spend $115-120, in our experience. When we start testing campaigns we use $50 a day, and then scale up once we\u2019ve optimised.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Tracking:<\/b><\/p>\n

This is also really important!<\/span><\/p>\n

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Tracking Code:<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

To track your campaign’s performance you need to include tracking tags. If you don\u2019t then you\u2019ll have no data in Google Analytics to pour over and figure out where optimisations can be made.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the tracking tag we use. <\/span><\/p>\n

utm_medium=Outbrain&utm_source={{origsrcid}}&utm_campaign=Hamburger_US_Desktop_01&utm_content={{ad_id}}<\/span><\/p>\n

It consists of four parts:<\/p>\n