Frequently asked questions

How to check the reason behind when an image is serving instead of Rich Media creative for DART tags??

Just check if the image serving is a backup or default image by rolling over it and looking in the browser’s status bar. (You can usually find this in the lower left corner of the browser window.)

* http://ad.doubleclick.net/activity… indicates that a backup image is serving.
* http://ad.doubleclick.net/click… indicates that a default or other image is serving.

What are companion ads?

Companion ads are the ones which are shown around the video ad. It can be rich media, image, text or skin too. These ads come in number of sizes. It is called companion because it runs as a companion to the video ad,

e.g. video ad of Levis apparel is running, the ad running alongside or surrounding the video ad will be a companion ad showing the sale or any new apparel of Levis brand.

What are the two ad impression measurement approaches?

Two methods are currently used to deliver ad content to the user are SERVER-INITIATED andCLIENT-INITIATED.

Server initiated ad counting uses the site’s web content server for making requests, formatting and re-directing content while client (users’ browser) initiated ad counting relies on the user’s browser to perform these activities.
Client side measurement involves a recognition on the client side of the successful delivery of an Ad impressions, and this information is communicated to a counting server for reporting while Server side measurement involves the recognition on the ad server side that an Ad Impression has been delivered, but with no assurance that the ad was actually rendered on the user’s browser.

Client side approach is responsible for accurate reporting of ad impressions as it is counted only when the user is served with the Ad

What do you mean by In-Unit clicks?

In unit clicks are those clicks which do require user initiation or action on advertisements but does not result in a transfer from the publisher site which generally happens in normal click or click-throughwhich takes an advertiser site from a publisher site.

What does (Aborted) mean in HttpWatch?

Aborted is one of three status codes that are used in HttpWatch to display information about HTTP requests that did not receive a status code from the server: To be more precise, the browser started to process the request for a URL like downloading of an image (or 1×1), but then decides to cancel the operation, then the status code in Http watch is shown Aborted!!

What is $RND$ or any random number macro which is used in third party tag?

Normally Third party tags will contain placeholder [RANDOM NUMBER] which needs to be replaced by a random number or cache buster .The Ad server automatically converts the macro to a 8 digit random number when a Ad is served.

The main use of this random number is to differentiate the user, basically to count the unique users, if that random number is already and matched it is not counted.

What is CAPP?

CAPP is client alternative pricing plan, it allows companies or clients to choose that how they would like to pay for advertising, like if the campaign is CPM based it means the client will be paying as per impression, if the campaign is CPC, the client will be paying as per the number of clicks, similarly forCPA, CPL etc.

What is CDN?

CDN is content delivery network i.e. a global network of cloud servers that actually house the raw creative graphics to fetch the actual ad. It is where the creative are stored.

What is Date and Time Stamp?

The third party tags will contain a placeholder such as [TimeStamp] that you need to replace with a timestamp. Simply replace their placeholder with%%TIMESTAMP%% and the ad server will convert it to a timestamp in YYYYMMDDHHMMSS format when serving the Ad.

What is GateFile.html and for what purpose it is used?

In order to enable Safecount Link/Layer invites to work from within an of an ad tag or a publisher’s advertising placement, a file, “GateFile.html,” has to be placed in the root directory of each domain of the site where Safecount tags will be issuing survey invitations for research purposes.

This is a one-time request. Once the GateFile is there, all Safecount tags will be able to use Link/Layer invites through the inclusion of simple JavaScript tags on the desired HTML pages or ad served banners.

In short, this gatefile is to be placed in the root of every publisher, which is a quite tedious job, but it’s just one time work!
Example: The publisher is dictionary.com, we need to place a gatefile.html on its root directory,
The idea location will be like :

“//dictionary.com/safecount/GateFile.html”.

What is RESPAWNING?

Re spawning is a process by which the tracker which is deleted can be repopulated. If one storage location is cleared, the tracker can repopulate it with the same value from the other storage location. This can be achieved by storing the same identifier at different storage locations (HTML5, Flash storage, Etags etc.)

Reverse re spawning is also quite possible i.e. repopulating of local storage from cookies.

What is the basic difference between first party cookie and third party cookie?

A cookie set under the domain of the website embedding a tracker is site-owned cookie i.e. first party cookie e.g. Facebook‘s cookie is a first party cookie when the user visits facebook.com but it becomes third party cookie when someone use “Like” button of Facebook on a different website.

Similarly the third party cookies are the one when any other website tracker is placed on another website code.

What is the need of parameter “jump” in the code or Tag?

A command, passed to the ad servers that is used for counting clicks. This command is substituted dynamically with the click-through URL of the creative.

What is the purpose of “ord” parameter in the code or Tag?

The ord value is used for cache-busting; to ensure that a fresh call is made to the ad server every time a page loads. Without the ord value properly implemented, you may experience impression counting discrepancies.

There needs to be a piece of code in the top of tag that generates a random number to populate the ord value on every tag.
Reference: var ord = Math.random();

What is “ncu” in Eye Blaster (Media Mind) tag?

It is a parameter defined by Media Mind which is normally used by the Ad server to track clicks and also can be used for custom logging URL’s that is we can pass the required Custom URL’s using this parameter.

For your reference :

<script src=”https://bs.serving-sys.com/BurstingPipe/adServer.bs?cn=rsb&amp;c=XX&pli=XXXXXXX&PluID=X&w=XXX&h=XXX&
ncu=$$%%CLICK_URL_UNESC%%$$&ord=%%CACHEBUSTER%%“>

Why Click macro shouldn’t be embedded before src (source) line but after href line?

If you put the click macro before the “script src” the tags will count with every impression as the tag appears when the script fires so when you have inserted the click macro it will fire together which will result in counting of clicks, and when you put the macro after “href”, the clicks are counted only when the landing page opens which will open only when someone clicks on the creative.

Why is “ abr=!ie “ used in DART tags under Jscript part of the whole tag code ?

abr = !ie helps in giving the command to the Ad server for not serving the Jscript tag when the browser used by the user is Internet explorer . The !ie denotes “NO INTERNET EXPLORER” , now why is it used is because all the browsers are supposed to read iframe tags first if it supports and if not Jscript is served so at times on IE both becomes possible to be served due to some obsolete versions of Internet Explorer which reads both iframe and jscript and which will lead to serve two tags for one dart tag , one iframe and the other jscript which is wrong anyway so just to avoid this kind of scenario abr = !ie is used.

1.       What are the various modes in online advertising?

Advertising using internet technology (WWW)

Display advertising –Static, RICHMEDIA & Mobile/PDA

Email advertising refers to advertising displayed in an email environment. It includes: Display, text, opt-in Search/Keyword marketing

2.       What is Display Advertising?

Display advertising refers to web advertising displaying the message using graphical information beyond text.  Includes image, rich media, floating, transitional, etc.

3.       Various creative formats?

Static Image – Gif, Jpeg

Rich – Flash – swf

RichMedia – Floating, Expandable, transitional, video, Motif

4.       What is an online campaign? Types of campaigns?

Online campaign is program

a.       Branding (awareness and message reinforcement)

b.      Direct response (ROI/acquisition-focused)

5.       Explain Frequency capping?

Frequency capping is a technique to limit the users as to how many times a day a specific ad to be shown to a user.

6.       What are the various types are targeting in online adverting?

Content – Various sections on the website pages

Geographical – Country, State, city, pin code, zip code etc

 Demographic

Time and Date

Psychographic/behavioral

Computer System 

Internet Related

7.       What is RFI>RFP>IO (request for info/proposal, insertion order)? Explain

Contract between Advertiser and Ad Network Company for a specific campaign. Specifies ad sizes, rates, and billing information among other things

8.       Define Impression and click?

Impression: A unit of measurement for each time a creative/ad is displayed.

Click: When a user clicks on an ad and is subsequently headed toward the advertiser's destination.

9.       Types of cost structure and explain

CPM: Cost per thousand impressions (impressions are counted by the calls made to the ad server)

CPC/CPA (cost per click of acquisition/conversion)

       Flat rate (special sponsorships such as fixed placements)

10.   Sony has booked an ad slot of 728x90 @ 4 CPM and 300x250 @ 2CPC on Yahoo. If in 1 month yahoo records 400,000 impressions on 728x90 and 2000 clicks, then what is the total cost? Who should pay?

Cost 728x90 = 400000x4/1000 = 1600

Cost 300x250 = 2000x2 = 4000

Total cost = 5600

11.   Explain the following terminologies used in online advertising industry

a)      BUYERS - Buyers are companies that buy ad space to advertise on it. Direct advertisers, Agencies and small business.

b)      Agency - Agencies are companies that handle the advertising process on behalf of the advertiser.

c)       Sellers - Sellers are companies that Sell ad space to advertise on it. Portals, Ad Networks, Content sites and Social networks

d)      Publisher - Web-publishers will monetize their web content via advertisements by creating ad spaces.

e)      Ad Network - An ad network acts as an agency for the publisher. Ad networks do not own the content, and they are responsible only for selling ad inventory on behalf of the publishers.

f)       Remnant - Selling ad space that a publisher cannot sell. They try to buy ad space at low prices and sell it at a higher price by packaging it through targeting capabilities and reach

g)      AD Exchange - Virtual marketplaces bring together online advertising buyers and sellers. Mainly focused on: remnant (unsold) inventory and inventory from publishers with no sales structure (long tail)

h)      Media Planning: Managing the process of researching media and planning the campaign.

i)        Media Buying: Managing the process of buying the media and price negotiation. Usually buyers use an RFP process to request proposals from the publishers that satisfy the goal of the buyer.

12.   Explain the complete steps involved in Buyer/Advertise side online ad serving process

Media Planning >Buying ad space on Publisher>Creative Generation > Trafficking >Reporting>Optimization >Invoicing

Media Planning: Managing the process of researching media and planning the campaign.

Media Buying: Managing the process of buying the media and price negotiation. Usually buyers use an RFP process to request proposals from the publishers that satisfy the goal of the buyer.

Creative Management: Managing the design process from the storyboards to the actual creative. Most of the time the design process is outsourced to creative agencies or freelancers.

Centralized Tracking: The buyer needs to have a centralized view of campaign data to see how the campaign is performing across the media they bought. One key requirement online (especially for direct marketers) is the ability to track the leads/sales and what activities led to it.

Media/Creative Optimization: The buyer needs to optimize the creatives to the right audience and make sure they stay “fresh” to avoid burnout effect (displaying the same creative over and over). They also need to make sure the media purchased delivers the expected results.

Accounting: The buyer needs to be able to pay the publisher based on the pricing models set forth in the purchase order and the delivered results.

13.   Explain the complete steps involved in Seller/Publisher side online ad serving process.

Proposal generation/IO >Inventory Management > Trafficking > Reporting>Optimization >Invoicing

Account management: Managing the relationship with the buyers

Proposal management: Managing RFPs and proposals during the sales process

Inventory management: Managing the ad inventory available for sale

Order/placement management: Managing the proper delivery of the orders/placements that are sold

Yield management: Maximizing ad revenue

Accounting: Managing invoices and payments

14.   Example of adserving platforms

Publisher side – DFP, 247 OAS, Yield manager, Pointroll, Eyeblaster, Yahoo Rightmedia

Agency/advertiser side – DFA, ATLAS, Accipiter, Yahoo AMP. OAMS, ADMODUS, Helious iQ

Exchange tools – Ad Exchange

15.   What is browser/proxy server caching? What is caching?

A:  Information, such as web pages, images, etc., are saved on a user’s computer or proxy server so that the information can be accessed more quickly. The information is accessed more quickly because the browser and/or proxy server need not re-contact the original source. This is a natural occurrence in the web and is responsible for making sure that web pages load as quickly as they do.

In an attempt to speed up user experience around the web, most browsers implement a technology called cache. This mechanism allows information, such as web pages, images, etc., to be saved on a user’s computer. Therefore, if the user calls for a previously requested web page, the browser will recall the information from the cache and not make another request from the site itself. Once the browser receives a DoubleClick ad image, it will store the image in the cache. Further calls for the ad image will be drawn from the cache – not from DoubleClick -- and an impression will not be counted. In order to defect the browser cache mechanism, Cache busting (aka Random Number Generation (RNG)) is implemented. 

16.   What is Random Number Generation (RNG)?

A:  RNG is the process of inserting a random number in HTML tags to defeat browser/proxy caching. Random numbers change every time the tags are requested and sent. To be sure, cache busting can be achieved via the inclusion of any random string; however, this string is most commonly a number.

Browser caching can be defeated by dynamically creating unique tags for each ad image served. This ensures that when a user navigates from page to page the ad image is not delivered from the browser’s cache, but rather a new image is delivered from the DoubleClick servers for each request. To accomplish this unique tagging, a different random number is added to the image tags that reference the ad image. Typically, when a browser sees another image call with the same name, it pulls the ad from cache. To defeat this, an ord= attribute is added to the HTML tag, and when implemented correctly, prevents the images from being pulled from the cache. Tags with different “ord=” values prevent this caching problem because the different value forces the browser to retrieve a new banner from the ad server. If not implemented correctly, though, browser caching will not be defeated.

17.  What will happen if I do not use RNG to defeat caching?

A:  Web pages, images, etc. will be served from the user’s computer or proxy server rather than from DoubleClick’s servers. This will result in the undercounting of impressions and will cause counting discrepancies. This is an issue that can negatively affect both the Advertiser/Client and the Publisher website.

18.  Conversion tracking and how do you track the same?

What happens after a viewer sees a banner and doesn’t click ? Are they coming back? Converting?

Process of tracking the information beyond click and impression like post click and post impression. This will be tracked on the landing page. We need to use 1x1 pixel calls on the each page of the landing URL (Advertiser website) where you want to track the conversion activities.

When a browser hits a page on the advertiser’s site that contains a conversion/spotlight tag, the browser initiates an “HTTP get request” for a 1x1 pixel to the ad serving tool. In the process of making this request to DoubleClick, a user’s browser passes back information in the tag including IP address, operating system, browser type, cookie ID and the URL of the tag itself.

19.  Postclick/post impression

post-click activity :An action performed by a user in a web page that contains Spotlight tags, where the visit is a result of having clicked on an ad.

post-impression activity

An action performed by a user in an advertiser’s web page that contains Spotlight tags, after having seen an ad for the advertiser

20.  Why do we use clickTag in flash creative?

We use clickTag because it allows us to add our click tracking string to the final click through destination. Typically, clickTag is implemented in a button action like so

on (release) {

            getURL (_level0.clickTag, "_blank");

}

21.  Explain the following reporting metrics

Field	Description
Click Rate	The percentage of impressions that resulted in users clicking an ad. Calculated as: Click Rate = (Impressions/Clicks Recorded) * 100
Clicks Recorded	The number of times users have clicked ads in a campaign to date.
Effective CPM	The cost per thousand impressions. Calculated as: Total Cost [$] / (Delivered Impressions / 1000)
Impressions Delivered	The number of impressions that have been delivered to date.
Media Cost	The cost of all delivered impressions and clicks. The cost type and the cost entered against the placement are also factored in the calculation. This information is determined by the advertiser when pricing information is entered in the Trafficking module. The media cost does not take into account run dates, but does take into account hybrid pricing.

22.   What is an invalid click?

Invalid click  is any click that is not generated by an actual human user. Causes of invalid clicks: - Spiders, robots, crawlers, and other automated agents: - Programs that download entire websites for offline use:  Link analyzers and code validators: This is a click fraud technique.

23.   Why do we have to send screen shot?? Explain

Once the ad is serving live on the website for a new campaign, we need to provide a proof of the same to advertiser. So agency will take a screenshot on website once the ad is showing and this will be shared with Advertiser as a proof.

24. What a sales person in publisher end do?

Selling the ad inventory, checking the availability and booking the ad slot and preparing Insertion order.

25. What are the basic element needed to traffic an ad

Trafficking instruction/IO, creative assets and Landing page URL

26.   What are various types of creative rotations?

Random, sequential, weighted, best performing etc