Insertion Order Best Practices

The below Insertion Order guide is a list of best practices for utilizing a DSP. If you’re an Amobee DSP client, please visit our Help Center for more tips and tricks.

Overview

An IO is a legally binding contract from an advertiser that outlines campaign details such as budget, flight dates, rates, and performance goals. IOs must include:

• Flight instructions and other details related to the campaign.
• Number of packages, and/or line items for a specific duration.
• Flight dates.

You can also select the default settings that will be automatically applied to new packages/line items. Applying defaults helps to simplify the workflow and reduce errors when creating new campaigns. To monitor your campaign(s), you can also schedule automated reports to be sent to your email inbox.

Best Practices for Device Types

Before you set up a campaign, you must determine which devices you want to target.

Device types can be targeted across all media channels (desktop, video, audio, OTT, etc.), with the exception of the mobile channel, which can only target apps and mobile websites.

For example, if device targeting is not configured for a display channel package, then impressions will be served to all types of connected devices, including mobile devices (e.g., smartphones and tablets).

As a best practice, you must consider the device types that are relevant for your campaign and ensure that device targeting is configured accordingly during package/line item creation.

Best Practices for Setting up IOs

Amobee recommends the following guidelines for IO setup:

• Monitor the IO regularly to ensure that your campaign goals and objectives are being met.
• Include the campaign goal on the IO. This will help you track the campaign’s performance.

Best Practices for IO Flighting and Frequency Controls

Amobee recommends the following guidelines:

• Make sure the IO in the Platform is the same as the version that was submitted. For example, if a quarterly IO is submitted with monthly budgets, it must be set up in the Platform the same way.
• Do not build out an IO for the entire quarter. This ensures that the campaign spends exactly what the IO states and minimizes the need to issue credits due to overspend for a particular month.
• Set up campaigns with a universal frequency cap at the IO level. For example, if a campaign has a universal frequency cap of six impressions/user/day, which means a user will see an ad six times a day regardless of package or line item settings, it must be included at the IO level.
• Monitor the campaign closely to ensure that it is on pace to deliver. Placing a universal frequency cap may result in under-delivery because the campaign is limited to the number of times the user sees the ad.
• If you need to extend the campaign end date, extend it at the IO level while the flight is still in progress. You cannot edit the flight details after the flight ends.

Best Practices for Budgets, Bidding and Goals

Amobee recommends the following guidelines:

• Campaigns typically under-deliver when tight targeting constraints are applied. Always refer to Bid Forecaster before a campaign starts to determine if there is available inventory based on the applied targeting criteria.
• If you use impression caps, be aware that your budget may not be spent evenly during the flight period in the event that your impression cap is met early on in the flight.
• Budgets should be calculated by multiplying the impression cap by either the maximum average bid (Automated Bidding) or bid price (Flat Bidding) value.

Best Practices for Preparing IOs

When preparing an IO, Amobee recommends using the following Automated Bidding pricing to ensure a campaign wins bids on premium inventory sites & sources and meets performance goals depending on the tactics:

Tactic	Recommendation
Predictive	Use a minimum bid of $3.00 CPM.
Remarketing	Use a minimum bid of $3.00 CPM. For geographically targeted campaigns, use a minimum bid of $4.00 CPM.
Campaigns Using Data/Segment Pixels	Use a minimum bid of $3.00 CPM to win bids in premium inventory.
Geo-Targeted/Inclusion List URL Campaigns	Use a minimum CPM of $3.50 for campaigns that are targeting specific geographic locations to ensure that premium inventory bids are won. When setting up geo-targeted campaigns, make sure that the premium inventory bids are won in the areas where you can reach your desired audience.
Red Flags on Targeting Goals	Any campaign that targets an aggressive CPA/CPC goal will have difficulty performing. Once you target a specific performance goal, the Amobee Platform will obtain learnings to reach an aggressive goal. Low bids do not always result in fewer wins or decreased win rates.
Red Flags on Mobile IOs	Mobile campaigns usually target a CPC/CTR goal. However, if the CPC/CTR goal is very aggressive, the Amobee Platform may overly optimize many sites/apps due to poor performance. Once a mobile campaign launches, monitor the CPC/CTR goal after the Amobee Platform has obtained at least three days of learning. If your campaign is not delivering, but is meeting the performance goal, the targeted goal may be too aggressive that spend has decreased to maintain the targeted performance goal. If this happens, loosen the goals based on the eCPC so that you can make optimizations that will result in a hybrid of sites/apps that will be able to deliver and maintain a respectable performance goal.

 

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