The Antisocial Network

Hashmi Parmar is an Account Analyst at Infectious Media, responsible for strategy, set up and the day-to-day delivery and optimisation of client campaigns. Here she talks through some of her best practice guidelines around 'network' builds and optimisation.

In a business revolved around display advertising, one of the essential parts of getting a campaign to perform is to build an appropriate Network (a Network is a list of sites on which we choose to display our campaign adverts on).
Remember the phrase “Location, Location, Location”! Well, location can, arguably, play a major role in determining the success of a business. E.g. A clothes shop located on a high street will attract more customers than if it were located miles away from civilisation.

The same concept applies for online advertising. To get the best out of our campaigns, we need to locate our adverts on sites with high reach to our target audience.

Now we understand the importance of a Network, let’s look at how to build one. How do we decide which sites to add to our Network?

What not to do….

• Rely only on standardised industry classification methods
• Judge a site by its name
• Classify sites once
• Label sites- black and white
• Adopt a “one size fits all” policy where you use one Network for multiple campaigns

 
Building Networks may seem simple, however, if you don’t get the basics right, it may be harder than you think!

What to do…

Start by answering these questions

• What brand safety measures should you take?
• Who’s the target audience?
• What are you trying to achieve? (e.g Conversions, Brand Awareness...)

Always bear in mind the answers to these questions while building your network.
Search for sites you can bid on, use keywords and categories.

CHECK THE SITE! Checking the content of the site is the simplest and most effective way of deciding whether or not it is appropriate for the particular Network you are building. Remember, if you label a site inappropriate for one Network, it could still be appropriate for another Network.

Now you’ve got the basics down continue building the Network with some smarter insights. What sites worked well in the past when similar goals were required? Could they still be relevant? Why would the audience be likely to convert? What sites are they likely to visit because of this reason?

Remember, be brand safe, reach your audience, optimise towards your goals. Get these right and you’ll get a network that works!