As part of a broader push to improve the efficiency of interactive advertising campaigns, and to reduce the number of discrepancies that occur in online media buys, the Interactive Advertising Bureau
Tuesday released a set of recommendations for both advertising agencies and publishers. The white paper, dubbed the Interactive Campaign Setup Best Practices, may sound boring and mundane, but it is a
critical first step toward the kind of processing errors that have made online media one of the industry's worst offenders when it comes to media buying discrepancies.
The paper, the third in
a series of initiatives coming from the IAB's Ad Ops Council, was created with input from Madison Avenue, including input from agencies such as Avenue A/Razorfish, Digitas, MediaVest, and Horizon
Interactive, and includes a detailed breakdown on recommended steps to take when creating and scheduling an online advertising campaign. On the agency side, the paper covers three crucial steps: The
request for proposal (RFP) stage, the insertion order phase, and the campaign delivery process. For publishers, it covers steps to take during the RFP, insertion order, campaign delivery, and campaign
"take-down" stages. Additional details cover overall workflow and specific recommendation on how to manage data for insertion orders and invoices during online media buys.
The recommendations
comes two years after the American Association of Advertising Agencies held a summit to review the "eBiz" status the major media its agency members trade with, which revealed that online ironically
was the medium least capable of trading electronically, and the one generating the highest discrepancy rates for agencies and advertisers.
While great strides have been made in managing data from
an online publisher's point of view, the steps associated with inputting and managing online buys have remained a largely manual process, though several third-party data processor and workflow
management companies including Donovan Data Systems, Media Bank, and Mediaplex, have begun introducing new systems to seamlessly manage online advertising buys electronically and with fewer mistakes.
Specific recommendations coming out of the IAB's new guidelines include:
* Translation of ambivalent contract language into terms that both agency and publishers understand and can
input into an ad server.
* Clear communication of billing methods between agency and publisher.
* Education of media buyers by publishers on the intricacies of rich media fees.
* Specifics on information exchanged between parties at the commencement of the advertising campaign.
The full white paper can be viewed at:
http://www.iab.net/media/file/Campaign_Setup_Best_Practices.pdf