Page last modified 18:38, 18 Aug 2009 by Admin

Live Ads

1. 1. 1.1.1. Audience
2. Live Ads
1. 2.1. What Is ExactTarget for Google Ad Manager
2. 2.2. What Are Live Ads
  1. 2.2.1. Live Ads Configuration
    1. 2.2.1.1. Upload Creative Placeholders to the Portfolio
    2. 2.2.1.2. Create a Data Extension from the AdImpression Template
  2. 2.2.2. Live Ads Creation
    1. 2.2.2.1. Create Live Ad Definitions in ExactTarget
  3. 2.2.3. Live Ad Testing
  4. 2.2.4. Live Ad Usage
    1. 2.2.4.1. Include the Live Ad in an Email
  5. 2.2.5. Extract Ad Impression Data
3. Scenarios
4. Procedures
5. Glossary
1. 1. 1. 5.1.1.1. CPC
    2. 5.1.1.2. CPM
    3. 5.1.1.3. CPD
    4. 5.1.1.4. Creative
    5. 5.1.1.5. Custom Targeting
    6. 5.1.1.6. Geography Targeting or GeoTargeting
    7. 5.1.1.7. Impression
    8. 5.1.1.8. Placement
    9. 5.1.1.9. Slot

Before you can use the Live Ads integration with Google Ad Manager, the following features must be enabled on your ExactTarget account:

Also, you must have a Google Ad Manager account to integrate with and an understanding of the tools and terminology. Before you can use the integration to include your Google Ads in your ExactTarget emails, the following prerequisite tasks must be completed for your Google Ad Manager account:

The placements are defined
The slots are defined
The order is defined
The order line item content is defined
The order line item status is Ready

Audience

This document is intended for publishers, business managers, marketers, and other ExactTarget users who want to incorporate Google Ads into their ExactTarget emails.

Live Ads

This section contains conceptual information about the ExactTarget tools involved in using the Live Ads feature.

What Is ExactTarget for Google Ad Manager

ExactTarget for Google Ad Manager is an integration between the ExactTarget account you use for sending emails and the Google Ad Manager account that you use for tracking the ads on your website. Using this integration, you can include Live Ads in your email messages.

What Are Live Ads

Live ads are ads in your email whose content is determined when mail is opened instead of when the email is created. This means that a subscriber could open the same email message multiple times and see a different ad each time.

Live Ads Configuration

Before you begin using Live Ads, you must complete two procedures to configure your ExactTarget account. These procedures need be done only once per account.

To configure your system to use the Live Ads feature, first you must do the following:

Upload creative placeholders to your portfolio that match the height and width of your standard ads
Create a data extension from the AdImpression template to collect your ad impression information

Upload Creative Placeholders to the Portfolio

A portfolio is a single entry point in your ExactTarget account to manage the image, document, and media files that you use and refer to in your emails. See the Portfolio Guide for more information.

Uploading a placeholder with the same height and width of your standard ads helps you more easily envision the layout of the email and ad when previewing the email.

Except for the default image that appears if the email is not able to retrieve the ad due to lack of inventory, the images you upload to the portfolio are only a preview for your convenience in visualizing the ad.

When inventory is available to deliver, the image that appears in the email is the creative in you Google Ad Manager account, even if that image is different from the image you uploaded to your portfolio.

See the How to Import a Single Piece of Creative into your Portfolio and How to Upload a Batch of Files into your Portfolio procedures for specific steps.

Create a Data Extension from the AdImpression Template

A data extension is a table within the ExactTarget application database that contains your data. See the Data Extensions Guide for more information.

You create a data extension to contain your ad impression data and then select that data extension when you create the Live Ad. When you send emails that contain the Live Ad, the system automatically collects the following information about your ad impressions in the data extension:

Live content instance ID - identifies the Live Ad
Job ID - identifies the email job
List ID - identifies the list the email job was sent to
Batch ID - identifies the email batch the ExactTarget application sent the email in
Subscriber ID - identifies the subscriber the message was sent to
View URL - identifies the URL of the ad the subscriber saw in the email
Click URL - identifies the URL the subscriber would get to by clicking the ad
Date Assigned - the date and time the subscriber viewed or clicked the ad

Note: The data extension is only for tracking impression data. ExactTarget tracking continues to track opens, clicks, and all of the other data that you have always tracked for your emails.

If you choose to create only one data extension to contain all of your ad impression data for all email sends in your account, you need to perform this step only one time. You can also choose to create separate data extensions for different Live Ads if your business processes require them.

See the How to Create a Data Extension with the AdImpression Template procedure for specific steps.

Live Ads Creation

Just as setting up a slot and placement in Google Ad Manager is a one-time process, setting up the ad in ExactTarget needs only be done once for each slot. After your ads are set up in Google Ad Manager, you connect them to Live Ads in ExactTarget by creating Live Ad definitions.

Create Live Ad Definitions in ExactTarget

You create a Live Ad definition in ExactTarget to tell the ExactTarget system which ad slot from your Google Ad Manager account to use. This is how the integration knows which ad to show the subscriber.

When you create a Live Ad definition, you tell the system the information it needs to include the ads in your message and track the impressions:

You specify the Ad Impression data extension where you want to track the impressions.
You enter your Google Publisher ID so the system knows which Google Ad Manager account to access.
You enter the Slot Name, exactly as it appears in your Google Ad Manager account, so the system knows which slot to use.
You enter any other Page Slots that pull creative content from the same pool as this Live Ad you are creating. These values tell the system not to include the same creative content in multiple slots on the email. © 2008 ExactTarget, Inc. Page 5 of 19
You enter the URL that indicates where the request originated. Google Ad Manager uses this URL in AdSense targeting.
You can choose to enter Customer Parameters. Customer parameters are ExactTarget customer attributes, data extension columns, or global attributes that contain subscriber data. This information supports the integration targeting the ad based on customer information. If you select this option, you must also define the customer parameter in Google Ad Manager. The same keys and values must exist in both applications, and they must match exactly, including case.
You can Target based on geographic location to allow the integration to select ad content based on the geographic location of the subscriber's IP address.

Note: To use Customer Parameters or to Target based on geographic location, the ad in Google Ad Manager must be configured to target based on this information. If the ad is not configured to use these tools in Google Ad Manager, the ad will fail.

When you create a Live Ad definition, you also tell the system information it needs to correctly display the ad in the email and in the email preview you see in the application:

You select the image that is Displayed for preview in the editor. This is the placeholder you uploaded to the portfolio. Remember, even though you see an image here, the image in Ad Manager is the one that will appear in the customers' email.
You select the image that is Displayed for invalid requests. The system shows this image in place of the ad if it cannot retrieve the real ad for any reason. Unlike the previous image, the image you select here is the image that appears in the email if necessary. If you use the same image you uploaded during the Configuration, no additional steps are necessary. If this Live Ad requires a special image for invalid requests, you must upload it to the portfolio. See the Procedures section for specific instructions on uploading to the Portfolio.
You enter the Width and Height of the slot so the system knows how much space the ad takes up in the email.
You enter the Ad Alt Text so the system knows what text to show when the subscriber pauses their mouse pointer on the ad in the email.
You enter the Invalid Request URL so the system knows what web page to show if the subscriber sees the invalid request image and clicks on it.

See the How to Create Live Ads in ExactTarget procedure for specific steps.

Live Ad Testing

ExactTarget caches the ads you include in your emails for 10 minutes. Caching the ad prevents rapid reloading of the email from inflating impression statistics. However, it can be confusing if you send two tests of the same email with a rotating within 10 minutes, expecting to see different ads.

To prevent this confusion, you can send the second test to a different email address.

Live Ad Usage

You include the Live Ad in an email to distribute it to customers. After an email campaign that includes a Live Ad, you have the option to extract the ad impression data from the data extension. You perform the following processes to incorporate Live Ads in your email campaigns:

Include the Live Ad in an email within a content area or by using HTML paste
Export the ad impression information from the data extension

Include the Live Ad in an Email

After the Live Ad definitions have been created to tell the system what ads to get from Ad Manager, you can include the Live Ad in an email.

First you must create the email message. ExactTarget offers sophisticated tools for creating an email, including features such as dynamic content, personalization, and international language encoding.

If you use the email editor to create your email messages, you can put a Live Ad in any content area. When you create the content in the content area and select an orientation that includes an image, you have the choice to include a static image or live content.

Note: Be careful to choose Live Ad as the content type. If you select the ad creative as a static image, the email will include the image in the email without any of the benefits of the Live Ads feature.

When you include the Live Ad in a content area with a Free Form or HTML orientation, you insert the Live Ad manually by selecting Live Content from the Insert menu.

See the How to Include a Live Ad in an Email Using the Email Editor procedure for specific steps.

If you use HTML paste to create your email messages, you include the following code to specify a Live Ad:

<a href="http://cl.exct.net/LiveContent.aspx?t=2&i=7&%%=LiveContentURLParameters()=%%&u=1">
<img src=”http://cl.exct.net/LiveContent.aspx?t=2&i=7&%%=LiveContentURLParameters()=%%”                          
</a>

In this example:

http://cl.exct.net/LiveContent.aspx is the base URL of the Live Content handler. This value is static.
t parameter is the Live Content type. This value is always 2 for Google Ads.
i parameter is the ID value of the Live Ad. You can find this value on the screen where you define the Live Ad in ExactTarget.
u parameter determines whether the request is for a link.
- 0 = retrieve the URL for the image. Not specifying u is the same as u=0.
- 1 = retrieve the URL for the link
%%=LiveContentURLParameters()=%% is an AMPscript function that encrypts the additional parameters that are passed to the handler and adds a parameter to indicate whether the send is in test mode.

See the How to Include a Live Ad in an Email Using HTML Paste procedure for specific steps.

When you send your email, the system selects the ad content when the subscriber opens the email according to the information you entered in Google Ad Manager and in ExactTarget. The ExactTarget system collects impression information whenever a subscriber views or clicks the ad.

Extract Ad Impression Data

At some point after you send your email message, when your subscribers have had a chance to view and click the Google Ads you included in the message, you may want to review the ad impression data stored in your data extension.

If the data extract activity feature is available in your account, you can extract the data from the ad impression data extension. The data extract activity creates a file of information for you to use outside of the application. See the Activities Guide for more information.

If the data extract activity features is not available in your account, you can contact ExactTarget for a report of the data in your data extension.

Scenarios

This section contains scenario information that demonstrates implementing the Live Ads feature.

Scenario 1: Rotating and Expiring Ads

A publisher wants to include an ad in the weekly newsletter. The publisher wants the ad to be able to rotate each time a subscriber opens the email. This approach is consistent with a CPM or CPC-based business model.

Note: Because line items can have different goals, the same ad may appear multiple times in this scenario instead of a different ad appearing each time the subscriber opens the email. To optimize competition between line items, Google Ad Manager delivers the line item most in need of impressions to meet its goal by the expiration date.

To make the scenario work, the publisher creates an order line item with a Delivery priority of Standard, sets the Start date and End Date, and chooses CPC as the Cost type.

The publisher also sets the Delivery Rate on the line item to As fast as possible and the Creative rotation is Optimized, as is recommended by ExactTarget.

When a subscriber opens an ExactTarget email that contains the ad, Google Ad Manager decides the ad to display based on the price and quantity.

Scenario 2: Exclusive or Non-Expiring Ads

A publisher wants to include an ad in the invitation to the company's annual user conference. The ad is for a special offer from a local restaurant for conference attendees. In this scenario, the publisher does not want the ad to be able to change every time a subscriber opens the email. Instead, the publisher wants this ad to appear every time.

Note: In this scenario, the exclusive ads can be overbooked on top of each other. In this case, Google Ad Manager randomly selects from the competing ads. If you have two exclusive advertisers, Google Ad Manager assumes that each has bought half of the impressions and each will be delivered about half of the time.

To make the scenario work, the publisher creates an order line item with a Delivery priority of Exclusive and sets the Start date. The publisher sets the End Date to Unlimited, and the system automatically sets the Cost type to CPD. The publisher includes the Cost the ad sold for to ensure correct ROI reporting.

The publisher also sets the Delivery Rate on the line item to As fast as possible and the Creative rotation is Optimized, as is recommended by ExactTarget.

When a subscriber opens an ExactTarget email that contains the ad, Google Ad Manager displays the restaurant ad.

Scenario 3: Targeting Ad Content Based on Subscriber Data

A publisher wants to include an ad in the weekly newsletter and wants the content of the ad to depend on the subscriber's gender. In ExactTarget, the subscribers' gender is stored in a subscriber attribute called gender. The attribute can contain one of two values: male or female.

To make the scenario work, the publisher first sets up ad targeting in Google Ad Manager. The publisher:

Logs into the Google Ad Manager account
Clicks the Inventory tab

Clicks the Targeting link

The Custom Targeting Criteria screen appears.

The publisher created a Targeting Key called Gender and creates predefined criteria that match the valid values of the subscriber attribute in ExactTarget.

On the order line item, the publisher specifies which value to display the line-item for. For example, this line-item should be displayed for male subscribers. The publisher sets the targeting criteria on multiple line items so that there is ad content for each value.

Note: The Browser, Browser Language, Operating System, Bandwidth, and User Domain criteria are not supported for use with the integration with ExactTarget.

Finally, the publisher creates the corresponding Live Ad in ExactTarget.

In the Customer Parameters field, the publisher enters the following text to tell the Google Ad Manager system to use the Gender subscriber attribute to decide the ad to display:

Gender=%%Gender%%

When a subscriber opens an ExactTarget email that contains the ad, Google Ad Manager displays an ad that is appropriate for the gender of the subscriber.

Procedures

This section contains procedural information you can use when implementing the Live Ads feature.

How to Import a Single Piece of Creative into your Portfolio

Use the following steps to upload a single file:

Click the Content tab in the navigation bar.
Click Portfolio.

The Portfolio workspace appears.

Click the Single Upload button on the toolbar.

The Upload Item window appears.

Complete the Upload Item window:

Choose a file	The file to puload. Click the Browse button to navigate to the file.
Name the file	The name of the file. The name must be unique in the portfolio. The name can contain only numbers, letters, and spaces.
External Key	The unique identifier of the file used by the API. This is a mandatory field. The system defaults this value to the file name. You can change the default value.
File description	A description of the file. This description helps you manage the files in your system.

Click OK.

How to Upload a Batch of Files into your Portfolio

You can use this procedure to upload multiple files or a compressed file (.ZIP) that contains multiple files.
Use the following steps to upload a batch of files:

Click the Content tab in the navigation bar.
Click Portfolio.

The Portfolio workspace appears.

Click the Batch Upload button on the toolbar.

The Upload Item(s) window appears.

Complete the Upload Item(s) window:

Select the file to upload

The file to upload. Click the browse button to navigate to the file.

Repeat step 4 for each file to upload.
Click OK.

How to Create a Data Extension with the AdImpression Template

Use the following steps to create a data extension using the AdImpression template:

Click the Subscribers tab from the navigation bar.
Click Data Extensions.
Click My Data Extensions.
Click the Create from Template button.
Select the checkbox next to the template to use.
Click the Select button.
The Data Extension screen appears.
Complete the information in the Properties section:

Name	Name the data extension. Use this name to identify the data extension in the ExactTarget application
External Key	A unique value that identifies the data extension. Use this value to identify the data extension with an API call.
Description	Description of data extension. You use this description to further help identify the data extension within the ExactTarget application.

Complete the information in the Type section.

Used for sending checkbox

Indicates whether you intend this data extension to have messages sent to it. Do not select this checkbox.

Complete the information in the Fields section for each field you want to add in addition to the fields that are required for the template. Click Add to create a new field in the data extension.

Name	The name of the column
Data Type	The data type of the contents of the field. Valid values include: Text - A combination of letters, numbers, and spaces. Number - An integer. Decimal values are not supported. Date - A system date. You can use an AMPscript function to format this value when you present it in a message. Boolean - A 0 or 1 value. Email Address - An email address. A field of this type must exist in order for you to send an email to a data extension. Note: ExactTarget does not verify that the value in this field is a valid email address when importing data.
Length	Maximum number of characters, including spaces, you can import into this column. This value is required if the Primary Key checkbox is selected.
Primary Key	Determines whether ExactTarget system considers field to be the primary key of the table. If you select this checkbox, the system requires that the value in this field be unique so it can use this field to uniquely identify a row. If you select this checkbox for more than one column, then the combination of the values in the columns must be unique. If you do not select this checkbox, the system does not require the value in this field to be unique.
Nullable	Determines whether this column can be empty. If you select this checkbox, you can import a NULL (empty) value for this column. If you do not select this checkbox and you try to import a NULL value for this column, the system will respond as you specify in the Skip Rows with Bad Data field on the import definition.
Default Value	Determines the value in the column if no other value is specified. The default value must satisfy the requirements of the Data Type and Length values. A default value is not allowed on a Primary Key column.

Click Save.

How to Create Live Ads in ExactTarget

This procedure does not create placements, slots, or content in Google Ad Manager. You must create your placements, slots, and content in your Google Ad Manager account before you begin this procedure. You also must create the data extension to contain your ad impression tracking data before you begin this procedure.
Use the following steps to create Live Ads in ExactTarget.

Click the Content tab from the navigation bar.
Click Live Content.
Click Google Ads.

The Google Ads workspace appears.

Click the Create button in the toolbar.

The New Google Ad screen appears.

Complete the information in the Properties section:

Name	The name of the live ad definition in the ExactTarget application. This value helps you identify the live ad when you are working in your ExactTarget account. The value you enter in this field is not visible to subscribers who receive your email.
External Key	The unique identifier of the live ad definition. External key values are used to identify things in the ExactTarget account when they are referenced by the API. The value you enter in this field is not visible to subscribers who receive your email.
Description	The description of the live ad definition in the ExactTarget application. This value helps you identify the live ad when you are working in your ExactTarget account. The value you enter in this field is not visible to subscribers who receive your email.
Ad Impression	The data extension that tracks your ad impression data. See the How to Create a Data Extension with the AdImpression Template procedure for more information.

Complete the information in the Fields section:

[Fields]	Determines the fields that appear in the data extract file. Select the checkbox next to a field name to include it in the data extract file.
NotificationEmail	The email address to receive the notification email when the data extract activity completes.

Click Save.

How to Include a Live Ad in an Email Using the Email Editor

Before you begin this procedure, you must create the live ad.

Use the following steps to include a Live Ad in your email using the email editor.

Click the Content tab on the navigation bar.
Click my emails.
Click the folder that contains the email, if applicable.

The folder workspace appears.

Open or create the email to contain the live content.
Click Create on the content area to contain the live ad.

The wizard to create a content area appears.

Select an orientation and click Next.
- If you select an orientation with a space for a graphic, when you are prompted for the graphic, you select Live Content as the Image Type.
- If you select Free Form or HTML, you place your cursor where you want the ad to appear and select Live Content from the Insert menu.
Select googleads as the Live Content Type.
Select the live ad as the Live Content and complete the wizard.

The live ad appears in your email preview.

Save the email.

How to Include a Live Ad in an Email Using HTML Paste

Before you begin this procedure, you must create the live ad.

Use the following steps to include a Live Ad in your email using the email editor.

Click the Content tab on the navigation bar.
Click my emails.
Click the folder that contains the email, if applicable.

The folder workspace appears.

Open or create the email to contain the live content.
Enter the following code in the email where you want the Live Ad to appear:

<a href="http://cl.exct.net/LiveContent.aspx?t=2&i=7&%%=LiveContentURLParameters()=%%&u=1">  </a>

Where:

http://cl.exct.net/LiveContent.aspx is the base URL of the Live Content handler. This value is static.
t parameter is the Live Content type. This value is always 2 for Google Ads.
i parameter is the ID value of the Live Ad. You can find this value on the screen where you define the Live Ad in ExactTarget.
u parameter determines whether the request is for a link
- 0 = retrieve the URL for the image. Not specifying u is the same as u=0.
- 1 = retrieve the URL for the link
%%=LiveContentURLParameters()=%% is an AMPscript function that encrypts the additional parameters that are passed to the handler and adds a parameter to indicate whether the send is in test mode.

Save the email.

How to Extract Ad Impression Data

If you do not have the data extract activity feature enabled for your account, you can call ExactTarget for a report on your AdImpression data extension.

After you complete this procedure, you can start the activity or include the activity in a program.

Use the following steps to create a data extract activity:

Click the Interactions tab on the navigation bar.
Click Activities.
Click Data Extract.

The Data Extract workspace appears.

Click Create on the toolbar.
Complete the information in the Properties section:

Name	Name of activity. You use this name to identify the activity in the ExactTarget application. Subscribers cannot see the name.
External Key	A value you choose that uniquely identifies the activity. You use this value to identify the activity when using the API.
Description	Description of the activity. You use this description to further help identify the activity within the ExactTarget application. Subscribers cannot see the description.
Filing Naming Pattern	Name or naming pattern of the file. You can enter a static name, or you can include placeholders for the date. For example, you could enter tracking.tbl to instruct the system to always look for a file named tracking.tbl or you could enter tracking%%Month%%.tbl to instruct the system to look for a filename where the last two characters are a two-digit month.
Extract Range	Determines the date range covered by the tracking information in the extract file. Valid values include: 1 day Tracking data for the past day. 7 days Tracking data for the past seven days. 30 days Tracking data for the past 30 days.
Extract Type	Select Data Extension.

Complete the information in the Fields section:

[Fields]	Determines the fields that appear in the data extract file. Select the checkbox next to a field name to include it in the data extract file.
NotificationEmail	The email address to receive the notification email when the data extract activity completes.