To begin the campaign creation process, just click the +New button in the upper-right corner of the RTB interface.
To create a new campaign, choose the campaign type from the +New menu. The options available are Desktop, Mobile and Advanced Campaign. The most basic option is Desktop > Website Campaign.
Creating a new campaign starts by filling in the campaign basics. Decide whether you want the campaign to be saved in ONLINE of OFFLINE mode. If it starts in online mode, your campaign could start running as soon as the campaign is saved. If you’re not using flight dates, it is recommended to start your campaign in OFFLINE mode. If you are using day parting, you probably want to start your campaign in ONLINE mode. Next, name your campaign and enter the destination URL in the spaces provided. The destination URL is the web page that users will be sent to when they click on your ads.
Flight Dates are optional and used to control the dates that your campaign will run. Day Parting is also optional and allows you to control the time of day and the days of the week your campaign will run. Day parting can be a useful tool for campaign optimization. Even if you run your campaign without day parting, you may discover that your campaign performs better at certain times of day or on certain days of the week.
Frequency Cap allows you to control the number of times your ad is shown to a unique user. The default setting of 3/12 indicates that your ad will be shown to any given user 3 times within a 12-hour period.
There are a number of ways that geo targeting can be done on the Centro DSP platform. By default, every campaign is set to target all of the United States. To change this, click + Browse and Add Locations to bring up the list of other countries, regions and cities. To target a different country, uncheck the United States and check the country that you would like to target. To target only a state or province, uncheck the country, then use the plus icon to expand the region list and select the regions that you want to target. It is also possible to un-target regions or cities. For instance, you can target all of United States, and exclude specific states from targeting.
In addition to country, region and city targeting, you can also target your campaign using DMA, ZIP and Area Codes in Canada and the United States. Enter the list of codes into the space provided, separated by commas. Click the +Add Codes button to add the codes to your targeting or Exclude Codes button to exclude the codes from targeting.
The last necessary step in the 'General Settings' is to set your budget and your default bid price. The Max CPM Bid is the maximum price you are willing to pay for one thousand impressions. Since Centro DSP is an auction-based platform, the amount you actually pay will always be 1 cent over the next highest bidder. For instance, if your bid is set at three dollars and the next highest bidder sets their bid at one dollar then you will only pay one dollar and one cent CPM. It is important to note that the Default Bid price applies to your entire campaign but can easily be overridden at a more granular level. For example, you can set the default bid to $3.00, but then set individual site or placement bids at a different price. Unless a different price is set, all sites and placements will inherit the default bid price.
The Budget feature allows you to control the amount of money that your campaign will spend, and has a few different options.
- If the budget is set to All-Time the campaign will not spend more than the amount specified in it’s entire lifetime, regardless of how long it takes. Once the campaign has spent the All-Time budget, it will stop running.
- If the budget is set to Daily the amount you enter in the budget field will be spent each day until the end of your flight dates or until you turn the campaign off. Once the budget is hit for a single day, the campaign will stop running, but it will start again the next day and spend the same amount.
The Even Delivery feature, which is only available for Daily budget campaigns, allows you to spread out impression delivery evenly across a 24-hour period.
Click Next Step to select inventory.
Use the search box to find specific websites. You can also use the filter tools to search for sites that fit within certain requirements such as geography, category, ad size and exchange provider. Stats are provided that show you yesterday’s impression volume and average CPM price.
Once you have found the sites you are looking for, use the checkboxes to select the ones you want and add them to the campaign.
When you’re done selecting inventory, click Next Step to proceed.
Click on the +Add Creative button to bring up the menu of options. Select Upload Creative and you will be able to search your hard drive for banner images to upload.
Click Next Step to proceed to the 'Summary' screen. Here you can review the settings and save the campaign. If you would like to change any of your settings at this point, you can do so by clicking the Edit button next to any section you would like to edit. The last setting you should double check before you save is the 'Status'. If you want your campaign to start as soon as possible, or if you have used Flight Dates and want it to start immediately on the Flight Date, keep your campaign set to ONLINE. If you would rather control when your campaign starts manually, then leave it set to OFFLINE for now and you can turn it online in the future. Click the Launch Campaign button to save your campaign. If you are creating the campaign in OFFLINE mode, it will ask you to confirm, click Yes.
