Publisher FAQ

Trafficspaces is a hosted ad management service that helps publishers

1. sell more ads to advertisers - through a user friendly self-service interface,
2. increase revenue - by helping to reduce ad network commissions to zero, and
3. manage their advertising services efficiently - through an automated ad workflow.

Click here to read about the benefits of using Trafficspaces.

Trafficspaces is very easy to use. The workflow is straightforward:

1. Choose packages - Select and purchase the packages that meet your ad requirements.
2. Setup your system - Create your ad zones. Setup a link to a payment gateway, and customize your system.
3. Process Orders - Book your direct sales orders. Approve and receive payment for self-service ads
4. Run Ad Campaigns - Track all the campaigns running on your site(s) from one dashboard.
5. Track Revenue - Get paid directly into your account.

It all depends on your requirements. Trafficspaces is available in 4 packages:

Click here for a guide on choosing the right packages for your site.

Getting started is quick and easy.

1. Click here to purchase the packages for your site.
2. Once your order has been approved, we will setup a pre-customized ad platform for you.
3. Once, you've logged in, the setup your system and link your website to your new ad store.

It depends largely on the number of ad impressions that your site(s) generate.
Use our Savings Calculator to determine which packages are appropriate for you, and how much you can save.

1. In the Setup section, click on the Appearance menu item
2. Click on any color item to change it. You can type in a color code or use the palette.
3. You can change any image by specifying the URL to a new image.
4. Finally, click on the Submit button to save your changes.

_{Note: If you do not see the changes after refreshing your window, hold the Control button on your keyboard and press F5.}

First of all, you need to create a user account. This can be done from your login page.
Once that's done, you can assign one or more special roles to that user.

Steps:

1. In the Setup section, click on the System menu item
2. Click on the Users & Roles link in the link bar.
3. Select the role that you wish to assign to the user.
4. Type the username on a new line inside the text area.
5. Finally, click on the Submit button to save your changes.

It is simple. All you need to do is create a link on your site that directs advertisers to the URL of your ad store.

You will need to download and edit the Channels configuration for your system.

Steps:

1. In the Setup section, click on the System menu item
2. Click on the Preferences lower menu item, then select the Advanced Setup sub link.
3. Select the Download my current configuration option.
4. Select the Channels option from the list.
5. Finally, click on the Download button to download the configuration.

The Channels configuration is a JSON object that contains name-value pairs that each correspond to the unique code and display name of each channel. When you are done with the customization, upload the file back into the system.

An ad zone is simply a fixed area of your site in which you want to display ads.

This is a multi-step process. Firstly, in the Setup section, click on the Ad Zones menu item.

Describing the profile

1. Click on the General lower menu item.
2. In response the Create a new Ad Zone question, click on Yes to create a new Ad Zone. Select No to choose an existing Ad Zone.
3. Fill the rest of the form. (To see short tips/guides, click on the label next to the input field)
4. Finally, click on the Save Changes button to save your changes.

Setting the Price

1. Click on the Pricing lower menu item.
2. In response the Allow advertisers to bid question, select the Yes option if you want advertisers to set their preferred bid in return for higher priority treatment on their campaigns.
   The system will only accept bids above or equal to the minimum bid price you specify
3. Specify the maximum number of impressions, clicks, or days that you wish to sell to self-service advertisers.
4. Specify the price per 1000 impressions, per click or per day.
5. In response the Offer Discounts question, select the Yes option if you want to provide volume discounts to self-service advertisers
6. Finally, click on the Save Changes button to save your changes.

Designing the color themes for text ads

1. Click on the Themes lower menu item.
2. Select a theme group from the Show theme from list to see the themes in that group.
3. Select a theme to preview it, or click on the Add link to create a new one.
4. Click on any color item to change it. You can type in a color code or use the palette.
5. You can also change the background image by uploading an appropriately sized image.
6. Finally, after making all your adjustments to the preview, click on the Assign Theme or Save and Assign Theme button

_{Note: You cannot make changes to the system themes.}

Integrating the Ad Zone with your web site To display one ad at a

1. Click on the Ad Tag lower menu item.
2. Copy and paste the displayed tag in your web page.

Trafficspaces supports all the major IAB ad units/sizes. Additionally, you can create your own custom ad sizes.

You can show text ads with an optional 110x80 JPEG, GIF or PNG picture. The picture will be resized to fit.
Additionally, you can show conventional banner ads. The ads can be JPEG, GIF, PNG or Flash, and they can be loaded from 3rd party ad servers.

Yes, you can. Chaining multiple ad zones involves showing another ad zone automatically if ads are unavailable for the viewer of the first ad zone.

Steps:

1. In the Setup section, click on the Ad Zones menu item, then select the ad zone.
2. Click on the Ad Tag lower menu item.
3. Copy the ad tag.
4. Click on the General lower menu item, then select the first ad zone.
5. Set the If there are no ads, display a field to 3rd Party Ad.
6. Paste the second ad zone's tag in the text area.
7. Finally, click on the Save Changes button to save your changes.

Trafficspaces can show alternative ads if there are no ads targeted to the viewer of your ad zone.

Steps:

1. In the Setup section, click on the Ad Zones menu item, then select the ad zone.
2. Click on the General lower menu item, then select the first ad zone.
3. Set the If there are no ads, display a field to 3rd Party Ad.
4. Paste the ad network's ad tag or URL to the default ad in the text area.
5. Finally, click on the Save Changes button to save your changes.

You will need to create multiple versions of the same ad zone with different payment models, and chain them together.

For example, if you want to sell a 300x250 ad zone on a CPM and Pay Per Day basis such that pay per day sales have priority over CPM sales, you can

1. Chain the CPM ad zone to the Pay Per day ad zone,
2. Install only the Pay Per Day ad zone's tag on your website.

When no Pay Per Day ads are available, the CPM ads will show instead.

We recommend that you name your ad zones in a way that makes it easy for anyone to determine

1. The site on which it will be placed (if you are managing multiple sites), and
2. Contextual location on the site

You don't have to worry about describing the page position or dimensions of the ad zone. Trafficspaces displays that information automatically.

The name can be up to 64 characters and contains alphanumeric characters, spaces, and other printable characters.
Here are some examples:

1. MySite.com: Gadgets Section
2. HomePage
3. Forum -> Politics

See How do I create / edit an ad zone.

Don't worry. Many people experience this problem. Here are some steps you can take:

1. Divide the monthly cost of hosting your site by 30 days to determine your minumum Pay Per Day price.
2. As you get more demand from advertisers, increase the price incrementally until you strike a balance between demand and your price.

A Self-Service Advertiser is an advertiser who logs into your system, creates their own ads and manages their ad campaigns by themselves.

A Managed Advertiser is an advertiser whose ad campaigns you (or your direct sales team) wish to manage directly (i.e. they do not use the self-service advertiser interface) and to whom you wish to send automated campaign reports.

To create one,

1. In the Setup section, click on the Advertisers menu item.
2. Click on the Managed Advertisers lower menu item.
3. Select an advertiser from the list or click on the New link to start creating a new one.
4. Fill the rest of the form. (To see short tips/guides, click on the label next to the input field)
5. Finally, click on the Submit button to save your changes.

You will now be able to create/upload ads for the advertiser whose account that you've just created.

We recommend that you name your ads in a way that makes it easy for anyone to determine

1. its purpose e.g. promoted product, campaign duration etc, and
2. editorial version

You don't have to worry about describing the format or dimensions of the ad. Trafficspaces displays that information automatically.

The name can be up to 64 characters and contains alphanumeric characters, spaces, and other printable characters.
Here are some examples:

1. Motorola Razr Jan 2008 v1
2. IphoneStore.com 15% Off Till June 09 v2

To show all ads awaiting approval,

1. In the Setup section, click on the Advertisers menu item.
2. Click on the Submitted Ads lower menu item.
3. Set the Ad Campaign field to "All Ad Campaigns"
4. Set the Status field to "Awaiting Approval"
5. Finally, click on the Show Report button to show the ads.

You can preview any ad by clicking on its name link.

To approve or reject multiple ads at once,

1. Select the checkbox next to each of the ads
2. Finally, click on the Accept or Reject button to process the ads.

_{Note: The ads that you create for Managed Advertisers are approved automatically.}

When you create an ad, the system will allow you to specify a Targeting Plan.
A Targeting Plan is a set of rules that help the system target each ad to the intended viewer.

You can set

1. Contextual keywords so that your ads appear around content related to those keywords or when users search for related information. Read more about how geographic targeting works.
2. Geographic locations that to which you prefer to target the ads. Read more about how geographic targeting works.
3. Demographic groups to which you prefer to target the ads. Read more about how demographic targeting workds.
4. Web domains and IP Addresses to which you want to restrict your ads.
5. Hours of Day or Days of Week on which you want to show your ads.

Yes you can reuse it as often as you wish.

The system can determine the location of each person that views your ad by examining their IP address. Your ad may only be shown to that person if their location matches the targeting preferences that you set.

You can target users by country, state, city or town. For example,

1. You can choose to show ads to users in the U.S and Canada only, or only to users in the European Union.
2. You can also show ads only to users in California or Paris, or within specific cities or towns therein.

_{Note: As the geographical area gets smaller, the accuracy of the targeting decreases and your ad may be shown to a smaller number of people. To get the broadest reach, you should target ads at the country level in markets in which you are interested.}

The system can determine the context in which each viewer views your ad in two ways:

1. It detects the search engine keywords brought the user directly to your page.
2. It allows you to specify keywords as parameters in the ad zone's tag.

The system can determine the demographic profile of each viewer views your ad if you pass special parameters describing the user to the ad zone's tag. This is usually only possible if the viewer is registered on your site and has specified their demographic information.

To create an Ad Campaign or book insertion orders,

1. In the Home section, click on the Create Ad Campaign menu item.
2. Add the ad zones on which you want to run the campaign into the cart.
3. Select the relevant advertiser, then select the ad campaign that contains the ads they wish to run. Alternatively, click on the New link to start creating a new one.
4. Type in their maximum budget.
5. Specify the start and maximum end date of the Ad Campaign.
6. Click on any of the Continue button to proceed to the Confirmation page where you can review the details of the Ad Campaign.
7. Finally, they can click on the Finish button to create the Ad Campaign on the selected ad zones.

Note:

• The budget will be allocated automatically (using a best-fit approach) to all the ad zones in the cart. You can edit the allocations manually to suit the advertiser's requirements.
  

To create an Ad Campaign, Self-Service Advertisers follow these steps,

1. In the Home section, click on the Create Ad Campaign menu item.
2. Add the ad zones on which they want to run their campaign into their cart.
3. Select the ad campaign that contains the ads they wish to run.
4. Type in their maximum budget.
5. Specify the start and maximum end date of the Ad Campaign.
6. Click on any of the available Checkout buttons to specify their payment information.
7. The payment gateway will collect their information and redirect them back to the Confirmation page to review the details of the Ad Campaign.
8. Finally, they can click on the Finish button to create the Ad Campaign on the selected ad zones.

Note:

• The budget will be allocated automatically (using a best-fit approach) to all the ad zones in the cart. They can edit the allocations manually to suit the their requirements.
  
• The system will only show Checkout buttons for the Payment Gateways with which the publisher has integrated the system.

This feature will be available soon.

Yes you can reuse it as often as you wish.

Yes you can. See How do I stop an Ad that is already live for guidance.

You can stop an ad by simply removing it from the Ad Campaign. To do this,

1. In the Home section, click on the Manage Ad Campaigns menu item.
2. Click on the Open button next to the ad campaign from which you wish to remove the ad.
3. Select the checkbox next to the ad you wish to remove.
4. Finally click on the Remove link.

This will cause the ad to stop playing.
_{Note: it may take 15 minutes for the changes to take effect.}

1. In the Home section, click on the Manage Ad Campaigns menu item.
2. Select the checkboxes next to the Ad Campaigns that you wish to pause or stop.
3. Finally, click on the Pause button to pause the campaigns.

_{Note: it may take 15 minutes for the changes to take effect.}

1. In the Store section, click on the Reports menu item.
2. You can display broader or more specific data by changing the settings in the form.
3. Finally, click on the Run Report button to display the new report.

1. Status - indicates the state and the progress of the ad campaign
   1. Playing - the ad campaign is being actively targeted to the appropriate viewers.
   2. Pausing - the ad campaign is being paused. This may take up to 15 minutes to complete.
   3. Paused - the ad campaign is not active but may be restarted.
   4. Stopping - the ad campaign is being stopped permanently. This may take up to 15 minutes to complete.
   5. Stopped - the ad campaign has been stopped permanently and cannot be restarted.
2. Ad Campaign - shows the ad campaign that is running and the ad zone on which it is running.
3. Requested - show the amount of ad inventory (impressions, clicks or days) booked to the ad campaign.
4. Delivered Impressions - shows the number of impressions that have been logged for the ad campaign.
5. Delivered Uniques - shows the number of unique visitors that have been logged for the ad campaign.
6. Delivered Clicks - shows the number of clicks that have been logged for the ad campaign.
7. Revenue / eCPM - Shows the amount spent on the ad campaign at the top, and the effective CPM (CPM equivalent price) at the bottom.
8. Run Time - Shows the number of days during which the ad campaign ran.

1. In the Setup section, click on the Managed Advertisers menu item, then select the advertiser.
2. Change the Email Campaign Reports field to Yes.
3. Finally, click on the Submit button to save your changes.

Advertisers can pay via credit card, or PayPal Express Checkout.
They choose an ad zone they like, add it to their shopping cart, pay for it, and their ad campaign starts.

Trafficspaces can be integrated directly with your existing payment gateway account.
All payments from the advertiser are paid directly into your account.

You can either track it through Trafficspaces or through your payment gateway's dashboard.

To track it through Trafficspaces:

1. In the Home section, click on the Track Earnings menu item
2. Select either the Self-Service or Direct Sales revenue account to see the earnings for that type.

You can pay via credit card (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover), or PayPal Express Checkout.
We renew your subscription automatically when your packages expire, unless you disable auto-renewal.

Trafficspaces uses 3rd party payment gateways to process all payments. Both payment gateways use the industry standard Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol and other commercially reasonable efforts to keep your payment information secure, including verifying and storing all credit card information in an encrypted format.

Your ad may not be showing because of multiple reasons. Here is a checklist of reasons to consider:

1. Your campaign may be very new. It may take up to 15 minutes before it starts to show.
2. The Targeting Plan may be too restrictive. To fix this, remove or relax some of the restrictions. For example, You can use more keywords or none at all. Remove city-specific or state-specific geographic restrictions.
3. Your Ad Campaign may not contain any ads suitable for the ad zone. To fix this, create ads that match the ad zone's ad format and size.
4. The suitable ads in your Ad Campaign may not have been approved. To fix this, inspect all the ads to ensure that all have been approved. Re-edit them if necessary and resubmit for approval
5. There may be too many ads contending for the ad zone. You can increase the priority of the ad campaign manually, or you can increase the daily spending limit.

This is probably because your ad zone has not been setup correctly. Here is a checklist:

1. Make sure you've set a price for the ad zone.
2. Set at least one content channel (category) for the ad zone.
3. Make sure that the Include in Search Results option is set.