Press Release: ZestADZ Expands its Global Reach
CHENNAI, India & LOS ANGELES – ZestADZ (www.ZestADZ.com) a leading performance based mobile advertising network today announced that it has started expanding its mobile advertising network to mobile advertisers and publishers in US, Europe, South Africa and in Indonesia. ZestADZ initially was focused at the Asian market. After more than a year of significant growth in the region and after having completed several mobile marketing campaigns for marquee advertisers, the company has begun expanding into these larger markets. In last few months, the company has already acquired traffic and started servicing advertisers in these regions.
Read the full press release at businesswire.com.
Feature Review – Ad Control for Publishers
In our last blog entry, we had written about new features and upgrades available as a part of the upgraded version of ZestADZ. Based on suggestions received, we have chosen to elaborate on how to use one of the new features – AD Control for Publishers.
AD Approval Policies
One thing which is on the top of the wish list for any publisher is complete control – control over the ads that he serves on his site/app. We have now added this feature to ZestADZ. Given below is a run-through on the use of this feature…
Once a publisher registers and creates his site on ZestADZ, it is taken through an approval process. Although the user can start publishing ads by choosing “Auto approval” mode for ads, they won’t be able to see the ADs in the AD control tool. This is an important option that a publisher has to decide [can be changed later] while registering the site with ZestADZ.
Approval modes
Through the review, if a site has been reviwed and if no objectionable content is found, the Site is approved in about 24 hours. A site that has been “Approved” by the administrator will enable the review of ADs by the publisher in the AD control console. The publisher can then choose to approve or reject ADs based on the creatives that are shown there.
Picture: AD Control Screen with a Site that has not been approved yet.
If you do not want to wait for the Site Approval to start publishing the ADs, choose “Auto Approval” mode so that you can start publishing ADs rightaway but don’t mind the fact that you will not be able to review and reject the ADs.
Filtering ADs in the Auto Approval Mode
Using this feature, all the active ads are automatically allotted to your network unless you chose to explicitly reject the ads.
Choose the ads, you wish to reject, by selecting the ads and clicking on the ‘Reject’ button, in which case they are removed from your site/app.
Picture: Sample AD list screen in the AD Control Tool
Manual Approval Mode
In the manual approval mode, the publisher site will display ADs which have been approved by the publisher. If you have chosen manual approval, please ensure that you have approved ADs to display otherwise your inventory will remain unutilized. Reject ADs which are not suitable for your content.
Email Alerts
For your convenience, we have also added daily email alerts which will send out those list of ADs automatically approved or available for approval for your sites for you to be able to review and decide on a daily basis.
We believe that this feature can be extremely useful for publishers who want to have better control over the ADs. Remember, the ADs you choose influence your earnings, so make sure that you do what is right for your traffic. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact support [at] ZestADZ dot com
ZestADZ – Upgrade Announcement
We would like to announce the rollout of a major upgrade of ZestADZ (v 1.5). This version contains major functionality and feature enhancements built with feedback from our partners – advertisers and publishers. Access the updated version of ZestADZ (1.5 ) at http://beta.zestadz.com
Listed below is what you can expect of the new and upgraded version of ZestADZ.
Publisher Upgrades
- Simpler, Better Interface. Easier Integration – Sites/Apps can now be integrated easily through a single copy/paste of the API. There is no need to modify and site ids, as it is taken care of by the platform itself.
- The USD ($) has been adopted as a standard currency and all billing and reports would be available in the same, which means, that publishers across the globe can expect their payments and other transactions in USD.
- The much awaited ad approval tool is now in place, and publishers can approve/reject ads that they want to serve on their apps/sites.
- Better AD Delivery Performance.
- Earnings can be transferred in a single click to generate funds for advertising on the ZestADZ ad network.
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Our system ensures that publishers receive notification emails during most important events.
- Unified account for advertisers and publishers.
Advertiser Upgrades
- Simplified user interface, easier campaign creation.
- The USD ($) has been adopted as a standard currency
- Channel wise targeting and bidding replaces demographic targeting. You can bid in over 25 different channels individually.
- Our system ensures that advertisers receive notification emails on every important issue, such as account balance notification etc.
Advertisers and publishers will receive email communication about the migration of their existing accounts. The transition process will be completed in the next few days. We hope for a better and much more satisfied user experience form our partners, and any feedback / suggestions are welcome at support [at] zestadz.com
Presentation: Better Monetization of Mobile Sites
Better Monetization of Mobile Sites – our previous entry has been very popular, so we decided to make a presentation and publish it on slideshare and here..
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Blog by ZestADZ Publisher Team
publisher[at] zestadz.com
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Strategies for Successful Mobile Advertising Campaigns & Self Service vs Managed Mobile Campaigns
We have posted a great new presentation which talks about successful mobile advertising campaign strategies and the pros and cons of managed campaigns.
Here it goes.. Hope you enjoy it.
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Blog by ZestADZ Campaign Management Team
advertiser [at] zestadz.com
Earning better revenues on your mobile site – The ZestADZ Guide!
Mobile ad publishing is not something uncommon these days as advertising is becoming the mainstream revenue model for mobile apps and sites. A simple Google on ‘mobile monetization’ or ‘mobile publishing’ throws up thousands of links, proof enough, to show us the huge market and growth of this business area. I just thought, this would be the right time to share some information and tips on the ‘how to’ of better monetization.
Earning Better Revenues
Almost every publisher we talk to is only concerned about learning how to improve earnings per thousand impressions (eCPM) and better revenues. In this blog, we will try to cover this topic and offer you meaningful suggestions as to how you can increase eCPM and subsequently revenues.
Here are some of those suggestions and tips
#1: Ad Placement Matters. Placement of ads on top of the mobile page, below the logo is always recommended. Certain studies have shown that if the ad is placed just above the bottom end of the screen, it also has a significantly higher impact for clicks. Provide some free space around the ads, to improve visibility of the ad.
#2: Sponsored Ads Page. Multiple ads in a single page could be used as a way to redirect traffic to the ads. Please be mindful of not misleading the user. They must know that they’re going to a sponsored links page or as a link to other mobile sites.
#3: Ensure that the ad is well targeted. This is mostly the function of the ad network but good targeting can do wonders for better revenues. For example, an ad for a great free iPhone app on a mobile site that is being browsed through an iPhone will have a better chances of a click through.
Device targeting, keyword targeting, etc are all important. Pass the right keywords to get better targeted ads.
#4: Filter unwanted or low performance/paying ads. If your ad network gives you a choice, filter out non-performing ads or ads that have extremely low CPCs. An ad which has the same creative for a very long time or is irrelevant to your site, they must go.
Also – those ads whose landing pages don’t open up fast must also be avoided.
#5: The Utopian scenario is to ensure that you have a good supply of ads. However we know that this may not always be possible. But, low inventory can reduce your CTR and your revenues.
#6: Forget the CPM guarantees. Try out different networks and work with anyone who is willing to listen to you and optimize their inventory for you. Often at times, we have seen that optimized inventory delivers much better performance and earnings are more than what you might think that you may get. So work closely with ad networks to see better results.
#7: Avoid using irrelevant keywords or misleading keywords while displaying ad Example – If a user clicks on the static html link “Free Hot videos” which redirects to a social networking site, it would result in a bad click which no one benefits. Remember advertisers are willing to commit good money for quality inventory and not just for large number of clicks.
#8: Ensure that the ads are optimized for the end user phones. This is normally a function of the ad networks. But it is very important to keep a close watch on this issue
#9: Do not add any unnecessary additional delays for the ad clicks or ad retrieval. Many companies tend to add unnecessary third party code or tools to monitor clicks and impressions. Well here are our comments on that
- the ad network may not give you any extra revenue, than what it shows on the reports. This is irrespective of what shows up on your console.
- due to network delays etc, there might be a difference in the actual number of clicks and impressions that you have recorded vs what they have recorded.
- adding an additional overload will slow down the page and slow down click throughs.
#7: Re-iterating a previous point, work with an ad network that wants to work closely with you. Many large ad networks want to go the google way of having no communication points. They don’t want to hear you and they won’t write to you even if you have issues. We always suggest in that case work with an ad network who is willing to hear from you and work closely with you to optimize the monetization of ad inventory.
If you have any comments or feedback, write to us @ publisher [at] zestadz.com
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Blog by ZestADZ Publisher Team
publisher [at] zestadz.com
Mobile Advertising Bad Practices Exposed II
The last time we published a list of bad practices in the mobile advertising industry, it caused quite a flutter. The resulting consequences were bad for some companies indulging in such practices. Although, we won’t like to go into those details, here’s a round up of the Top 5 Mobile Advertising Bad Practices in 20o8.
#1 – Misleading (mostly porn) ads leading to unnecessary clicks
This is number one bad practice in mobile advertising still dominant amongst most players. Networks create a dummy porn Ad link which takes them to another page which contains several set of other actual ads. To add salt to the injury, these ads were put on adult inventory.
This practice stopped briefly after we posted the last blog entry but it has made a resurgent come back with a few smaller ad network players.
Here’s the AD screenshot taken just 3 days back.
Here’s what a user actually see’s when he clicks the ad
What is surprising is though most networks stopped this practice, several newer networks have adopted it including copying the exact ad text creative.
#2 – Advertisers getting charged for fraud clicks?
Although we’re not sure of this, there is a strong possibility that this could be happening because we’ve seen that several advertisers get very high CPA charges on a few networks. Though fraud clicks may not be the exact reason, but it could be one of them. Most advertisers don’t tend to use detailed tools to analyze their campaigns and therefore mobile ad networks can take advantage of them if they want to. This highlights the importance of having detailed advertiser analytics – something that we will cover in another blog.
#3 – Taking user clicks directly to those pages which charge the user
Several forums were abuzz this year about another India based advertising network directly routing the users clicks to a page where they are billed for. When a user clicked on ads, content was downloaded (without the users’s permission), the money was deduced from his phone balance and a ‘thank you’ message was sent to (mock) the user! This is a classic case of misusing mobile advertising. The responsible advertiser or ad network must understand that such an event undermines the effectiveness of the medium and can have long term consequences. It is also the duty of advertising networks to check and advise an advertiser against it if he has put such a URL willingly or by mistake.
# 4- Auto Redirection to Landing Page
Another bad practice, this one by mobile publishers has come to my notice is auto redirecting the end user to an advertiser’s landing page. Recently when I was talking with a wap site publisher, he told me about this feature, some of his partner sites were using, wherein the site has a no. of ad links and if the user does not click on any of the links within a time frame, the publisher automatically takes the user to any 1 of the landing pages of the advertiser. I am not sure if such a thing is possible but if it is possible, then again advertisers and users are being taken for a ride.
#5 – Expired Ads
Some large players in the mobile ad business end up showing ads which have already expired but display “Nothing to show” when clicked. We’re not sure what is the reason why this is happening – it could be that the ads have already expired but not removed from some temp cache or it could be to create a false impression that there is inventory available where as it is not available. This misleads publishers and leads users to a dead end.
Time to update the Mobile Marketing Association Code of Conduct?
I think it is high time that MMA take notice of such bad practices, updates its Code of Conduct, and inform all stakeholders in this ecosystem to avoid such practices.
Players in the mobile advertising ecosystem must behave responsibly otherwise the medium will loose its credibility with advertisers. Given the tough economic climate and recession in several countries, advertisers might start expecting the rates to be further commoditised or might just stop using this medium until credibility is re-established.
Publisher Team
Announcing the new ZestADZ Landing Pages Tool
ZestADZ announces the launch of a powerful new landing page tool for advertisers. Through this tool you can create amazing landing pages to enhance the success rate of your campaigns. This tool is now a part of your advertiser console.
Types of Landing Pages Supported
You can now create the following types of landing pages by clicking on the create a landing page option
- Click-to-call pages
- Lead generation forms
- Mobile brochures
- RSS feed page
- Or a customized mobile page
Once you select an option you will be taken to page where you can add any number of landing page elements
Adding Elements
You can now add several important components into your page including Heading, body text, image, RSS feeds, links etc. These components can be used to create your customized landing page, in line with your requirements, for your brand.
Sorting Elements using Drag & Drop
You can sort the elements using drag and drop, select the colors of fonts and fix alignment or set font sizes for every text element. You will be able to add as many as elements as you want except RSS feeds and Images which is restricted to one.
Previewing the landing page
After you are done, the landing page is saved and you are given a permanent URL where your landing page would be available http://zestadz.com/preview/landingPage?page_id=<id>.This landing page can be previewed by clicking on the preview button. The landing page is temporarily previewed in a web browser for your convenience
Device Specific Rendering
The landing page that you have created will be then rendered based on the device and the kind of properties the target device supports.
As you can see, the landing page tool is feature rich and can be used to create full fledged mobile web sites for advertisers who do not have WAP sites.
Do review this feature and send us your feedback to support [at] mobile-worx dot com. To use the tool, log on to http://www.zestadz.com
You get what you pay for / Why we don’t offer a 25% signup bonus to advertisers @ zestadz.com
Anytime any seller offers an outlandish discount to earn a client’s business I am reminded of a few age old adages – “cheap things are not good, good things are not cheap”
What does this have to do with the mobile advertising business?
We see a number of competitors who seem like perfectly fine professionals provide asinine discounts to win new business. While providing low prices to win business is in perfect keeping with Free Market economics, one should also realize that providing predatory pricing hurts the industry overall. As we have seen in a number of industries – PC industry, Memory industry, Asian Toy industry selling products/services below cost results in poor or no innovation; poor customer services, low value for customer and unstable companies (or even worse as the Asian Toy industry painfully revealed).
The only for the industry to evolve and all parties in the eco-system – ad networks, publishers, advertisers and carriers to make a living is for us as an industry to deliver superior value to advertisers and get paid for the value we deliver.
Is good quality worth paying for? Ultimately advertisers have to make their own judgment as to whether they are getting value for their ad budgets. Rather than give outlandish and non-sustainable discounts, we at mobile-worx have been working on the following key product attributes.
While other ad networks are focused on rock bottom pricing, we at Mobile-Worx are focused on developing highly value added capabilities to give marketing executives the best value for their money.
As they say, “The bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.”
Nat D Natraj
http://www.zestadz.com
