Introduction:
It is not easy when you start out with OpenX to get used to the interface and “learn the ropes”, so I went about the business of creating a complete campaign from scratch. Watch the introduction video below and keep going all the way to video n°10 where I conclude the series. It is a complete and free tutorial series, enjoy!
The idea is to use OpenX to serve the products you want to promote, as in this case, for example, the products that are included on a bonus thank-you page that the customer gets to see when he has downloaded his purchase item.
In the example that I use, I show the product page, which is a coin collecting ebook and its thank-you page.
I had found a very interesting complementary offer to pitch the customer who bought the coin collecting ebook via LinkShare, in this case , a 57% cut in price offer on a coins magazine, which was redundant a couple of weeks after I had set up the page.
Another problem, was that I was perfectly able to tell if the page received visits via Google Analytics, but I did not have a clue if anyone had ever clicked on the ad. To find out, I would have to go into deep research mode in the LinkShare interface and lose unwarranted amounts of time.
Continuity series video 1 of 10: Introduction
I started out with a plan that I changed a bit along the way and this is what I ended up with:
How to set up a LinkShare banner campaign from scratch in OpenX
Videos:
- Introduction
- Create the Account – Set up an advertiser
- Create An Advertiser – Which website?
- Create The Campaign
- Add A Banner
- A Neat Feature in OpenX
- Link Zones
- Get the iFrame Code
- Troubleshooting
- Final Thoughts – advantages
Continuity series video 2 of 10: Create the Account – Set up an advertiser
Once you know how, OpenX becomes easy to use to set up anything you want to serve via a website. I start by setting up an advertiser account. I’m not very happy with the quality of my video editing here, but what you need to see is shown and I keep it as brief as possible.
Continuity series video 3 of 10: Create An Advertiser – Which website?
I ask this question to clarify things along the way. You start by setting up an account for an advertiser, in this case, my advertiser is my coins website thank-you page, as that is where the banners will be served to. Next, OpenX needs to know which website it will be directing ads to, so, this is where we set op the advertiser account’s website.
Continuity series video 4 of 10: Create A Campaign
This is where I set up the campaign for my advertiser. There is not a single difficult thing to do in the whole process, as a matter of fact, everything is quite simple to do. Most steps involve enabling the program and choosing correct settings and one needs to have a clear picture of what one is about to do.
Continuity series video 5 of 10: Add a Banner
Finally, after all that preparation, we can add the banner.
Continuity series video 6 of 10: Add tracking pixel
Most of us will want to add tracking of some sort. Other than Google Analytics, there are many providers who will be able to accommodate you. Yet, if you are running third party advertising campaigns, most of them will require you to use their code “as is” because they have foreseen their own tracking.
It is so with LinkShare, who uses a 1 x 1 pixel tracking method. This code is provided in the links they give you and if you remove it, you are not compliant with their TOS any longer. This is how you can work around the restriction:
Continuity series video 7 of 10: Creating the Zone
When we have done all the previous, we can link the banner to the specific area on the web page that we want our advertisement to appear. In OpenX, we refer to this a creating a zone.
Continuity series video 8 of 10: The Invocation Code
The invocation code is nothing more than the code that OpenX will provide you so you can make the ad or banner of your choice appear at the precise place of your choosing on your web page. In our video example, I go fetch the code in OpenX and I immediately implement it on the web page for you to see.
And there is a encounter with a small glitch which I solve in video 9, always good to pick up along the way.
Continuity series video 9 of 10: Testing the Banner & Troubleshooting
Here, by a stroke of good fortune for you, I encounter an error and solve the issue on the fly as I am making the video, which makes this quite educational.
Continuity series video 10 of 10: About the Advantages of this method
So what started out with the intention of making 6 videos turned out to be 10 videos and a good thing too. It turned out to become a complete tutorial video series on the creative use of a banner server, in this case, serving specific products to a product thank you page.
This video talks about the advantages of the method and the multiple other uses you will probably be able to think of when you know about the technique.
