Campaign Insertion

The Campaign Insertion interface is designed to work like a "wizard", a popular interface design for tools for novices. It is intended to step the user through the creation of a new campaign, validating each piece of information as it is entered, leaving no room for error.

The initial screen prompts the user for advertiser information. If the advertiser is already in the database, you can just select it from the dropdown box. Otherwise, you must enter all the fields that have asterisks by them. These fields are required because of their importance in invoicing.

Hit "Next" to proceed to the next screen.

On this screen, you must enter a Campaign Name and a value in Fixed, CPM, or CPC. You may enter 0 for Fixed if this campaign is not a revenue-generating campaign. By default, invoices are not generated for non-revenue campaigns. If you wish an invoice to be sent to a client (of course, it will show $0 due, but it will provide a report of the campaign's performance), check the box labeled "Force Invoice".

CPM
Enter the CPM (cost per thousand) here. You can leave it empty or set it to zero.

CPC
Enter the CPC (cost per clickthrough) here. You can leave it empty or set it to zero.

Fixed
Enter the fixed cost of the campaign here. You can leave it empty or set it to zero. If you set it to non-zero, you have to specify a start and end date for the campaign (for invoicing purposes) Also, select how the fixed cost is to be paid:

Agency Commission
If there is an agency commission involved, enter the percentage here. This will be applied to the total charge of each invoice and will be deducted from the net amount due from the advertiser.

Purchase Order
If the advertiser is using a purchase order to place the buy, enter the number here so that it will appear on the invoice.

E-mail Reports
A list of e-mail addresses to which should be sent weekly reports of the campaign's performance. Separate multiple addresses using commas. By default, the e-mail address supplied for the advertiser should appear here. You can remove it if you like or add more to it.

On this screen, you must enter a start and end date. You can use the "Prev month" and "Next month" buttons to jump forward and back in increments of one month (these buttons will always default to the first of the month for the start date and the last of the month for the end date).

Deliver
This setting determines how the campaign will be scheduled to meet its impression target. You can have the delivery done evenly by day, week, or month.

On this screen, you assign the campaign to sections. You see the entire section tree, with the option to "Include", "Exclude", or make "Exclusive" the campaign/creative on a particular section.

Each hour, the maintenance script assigns creatives to sections, propogating these assignments down the section tree. They are processed in this order:

  1. Campaign Includes
  2. Creative Includes
  3. Campaign Excludes
  4. Creative Excludes
  5. Campaign Exclusives
  6. Creative Exclusives
In this way, creative assignments always override those of their parent campaigns. Also, exclusive assignments override all others.

Now it is time to add the creatives to the campaign. For each creative, enter a name and a clickthrough URL. You'll also need to either browse for a local file or enter a URL for a third party ad server.

If this ad is a third-party redirection, enter the other ad server's banner URL here. Use the special tag [CB] for a random cache-busting number:

http://ad-adex3.flycast.com/server/ad/WRALOnLine/FlycastROS/?cb=[CB]
At delivery time, [CB] will be replaced with a random number to prevent caching.

If you want to set up another creative, hit "More". Otherwise, hit "Finish".

The last step is to look over the summary of the campaign. If all looks well, hit "Save". Depending on how the administrator has configured the server, your campaign may go live immediately, or it may be entered as an "Inactive" campaign, with e-mail going to the administrator, who can make it live.