Welcome to the June 2010 edition of The Pub! In this issue we'll review highlights from your feedback on the Publisher UI, provide some useful revenue driving product updates and introduce our offer to pay for your membership in the IAB. We’ll also introduce you to Matt Kaye, manager of publisher development, and showcase two of our publishers, HowToDoThings.com and AutoTraderClassics.com. We hope you had a great Q2 and enjoy this issue of The Pub!

COMPANY NEWS

Publisher UI Survey

We would like to thank the publishers who completed our Pub UI survey. We received some great input and are immediately evaluating your responses and planning a number of updates to meet your needs.

The aspect of the UI that received the highest marks is the ability to search for campaigns within the Media Manager. If you haven’t used this feature yet, it is located on the left hand side of any Media Manager page and is useful for quickly finding campaigns you want to review further.

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MAXIMIZE REVENUE

How to Maximize Revenue with vCPM

You have most likely already noticed several new campaigns in your Media Manager page that are labeled as “vCPM”. These are variable CPM campaigns and the rate that you earn from them adjusts based on how strong the performance on your site is. There are two advantages to running these campaigns. First, when a vCPM campaign is performing well on your site, the CPM for that campaign will automatically increase and you will begin earning more for that campaign (this happens after 100,000 impressions are served on any given vCPM campaign).

Alternatively, when a vCPM campaign performing below average on your site the CPM will adjust down to a level that allows the campaign to continue running, maintaining your paid fill percentage in the process. With regular CPM campaigns, the campaigns will often completely optimize off from your site, reducing your fill and earnings.

Include vCPM campaigns in your campaign selection to take advantage of this great new feature and maximize your revenue!

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LEGISLATIVE UPDATES

IAB Long Tail Alliance

Following on the heels of the IAB’s 2010 Long Tail Alliance Washington Fly-in in June and Rep. Rick Boucher’s recent introduction of draft privacy legislation, we are pleased to announce that ValueClick Media has agreed to underwrite the cost for 100 of our publishers to join the IAB Long Tail Alliance. The debate over privacy legislation is far from over, and our collective participation in the IAB’s efforts will ensure that the needs of all industry stakeholders are considered.

Space is limited to the first 100 publishers to sign up. To join, visit the IAB Member Center and when prompted enter code “VCLTA.” If you have questions or would like to take a more active role in ValueClick Media’s congressional outreach initiatives, contact your media development representative.

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MEET THE TEAM

In each issue of The Pub, we interview a different member of the ValueClick Media team.

Name: Matt Kaye
Role: Manager, Publisher Development

How long have you been with ValueClick Media?

I came onboard back in 2004, originally from Fastclick. In my current role I am primarily responsible for managing the publisher service and media development reps. I also personally manage a few large publisher accounts.

What are the main projects you are working on now in your role?

A lot of my time these days is spent interfacing between our publisher and sales teams, making sure that all the great deals our sales team brings in are delivered on as many sites on our network as possible.

What's the most important advice you can give publishers relative to inventory monetization?

It sounds simple, but selecting as many campaigns as possible. A lot of times publishers tend to set their filters very tightly, excluding tons of advertisers. This is usually to ensure the best user experience possible on their site or in an effort to protect an internal sales team. While I understand why a publisher might do this, I see many publishers being overly restrictive regarding the content of their ads. As a rule, ValueClick Media does not ever accept any adult or extremely edgy creative. Even ads that are labeled as provocative in our system would probably rank somewhere around PG-13 in the movie world. Having the largest possible pool of advertisers to draw from is a very important component of successfully monetizing a site, especially today when so many campaigns are so specifically targeted.

Based on your unique and broad experience with the company, what differentiates ValueClick Media?

Hands down, it’s our people. We have a dedicated staff on both the sales and publisher side that is always willing to get on the phone and go the extra mile for anyone we do business with. Many platforms are largely a self-serve only system and are nearly impossible to reach on the phone. Big or small, ValueClick cares about your business.

What is one interesting thing about you that most people don't already know?

I bought my first car (a blue Mustang) when I was 16 with money I earned selling virtual items in an online video game.

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PUBLISHER SPOTLIGHT

Brian McDonald from HowToDoThings.com

Tell us about your site.

At How To Do Things, we strive to provide informative and engaging how-to articles and videos that will help our readers confidently improve their lives in ways both large and small. How To Do Things has become a destination for those who want to learn how to do (almost) anything.

How has ValueClick Media affected your business and/or business goals?

ValueClick Media has been very helpful as we have experimented with different kinds of ads to ultimately find what we believe to be the best ad format for us (pop-unders!). ValueClick can help you improve your revenue thanks to the flexibility and variety of its offerings.

What account feature do you find the most valuable when viewing your ValueClick Media account?

The filtering features are very helpful; if you don’t want ads with sound, for example, you can filter them out. I also love how quickly and easily I can pull up performance reports that are valuable to me on a weekly or daily basis. ValueClick’s reporting is extremely user-friendly.

What advice can you give other ValueClick Media publishers looking to maximize their ad revenue?

Ever heard the expression, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it"? One of the challenges as publishers is to never heed that advice. Labor under the belief that anything can be improved. Learn what elements make your website successful and always looks for ways to improve them. Never become complacent even when you achieve success because online competition never rests!

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Lynne Greene from AutoTraderClassics.com

Tell us about your site.

AutoTraderClassics.com is the leading source for Classic and Collector Car enthusiasts. As a revitalized member of the AutoTrader family of websites, AutoTraderClassics.com has over 780,000 unique visitors monthly. Enthusiasts visit our site to escape into our thousands of vehicle listings from classic car dealerships and private sellers, as well as our comprehensive inventory of both parts and accessories for maintenance, restoration, and even custom builds of classic vehicles. It’s a true destination for the classic car lover.

How has ValueClick Media affected your business and/or business goals?

ValueClick Media has been an important part of monetizing our remnant inventory on both DealsonWheels.com and AutoTraderClassics.com. Having the ability to run both direct buys and standard redirect buys has allowed us to increase our overall network revenue as well as connect our enthusiast with relevant advertisers.

What account feature do you find the most valuable when viewing your ValueClick Media account?

My favorite area of the ValueClick system is the Media Manager. I appreciate the transparency offered here, as it allows me to make sound judgments on the campaigns I would like to run. Also, if there is a problem with a particular ad, the search functionality is extremely efficient in removing it from our sites.

What advice can you give other ValueClick Media publishers looking to maximize their ad revenue?

My advice to publishers is to continuously optimize. Campaigns, Fill Rates, and Performance can vary depending on the season, the traffic, and the longevity of the relationship. Staying on top of these changes will help you make the most of your inventory.

If you want to speak with an account manager please contact support@valueclick.com and include your website URL.

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USER TIPS

How to Set a Floor eCPM

We have received several inquiries regarding how to set a floor eCPM. Setting a floor eCPM is easy and can be accomplished using the floating default feature. The floating default allows the publisher to set a specific eCPM and percentage of traffic to redirect to the default once the selected eCPM is reached. To set a floor eCPM, follow these steps:

1. Find the Defaults page in your publisher account by clicking on the “Site Admin” tab at the top of the page and then clicking on the “Defaults” link in the list of links on the left side of the page.

2. Complete the information for “Add a New Default”.

3. Select “Floating Default” under Default Type. This will allow you to set a specific monetary amount in the eCPM box and a percentage redirect amount from 5% to 100%.

4. Let’s say you want to set up a floating default and establish an eCPM of $0.50. Since the eCPM is a moving average of all the campaigns served month to date, you’ll want to initially set your floating default at $0.25 with 100% fill. This will allow us to serve campaigns above and below the $0.50 eCPM, thus reaching an average $0.50 eCPM.

5. After 5 to 7 days you’ll want to review the performance and adjust the floating default eCPM up or down as necessary.

Once you complete the default set up and click submit, your new floating default will be displayed in the default list and in the Media Manager.

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