Outbrain CTR & Bidding Question

[Ryan Bartman]

Hey everyone,

So I just started a new campaign on Outbrain using VoluumDSP and started out bidding a bit too low for CPM I think on a $50/budget on "Smooth." My CPM bid was 0.53 to start in a suggested bid range of 0.23-1.53.

My Win Rate after a day's worth of spend was 34%. I got 303,000 impressions but only 42 total visits, leaving me with a iCTR of 0.01%.

I truly think the creatives are solid but I think I ended up bidding on a lot of lower tier placements. I was thinking of increasing my bid to really "rev the engine" at say $1.53 and then scale back throughout the day. However, now that these creatives are associated with such a low iCTR, do you think I should submit the creatives as new again so that their numbers are fresh and then bid high to start? Thus, I would get a higher iCTR for these creatives right away and perhaps have Outbrain favor them more? Let me know what you guys think. Thank you!!

 

[Graybeard]

((.53*303)/42)/0.03 <<CR
$127.45

((.53*303)/42)/0.10<<CR
$38.240
How much do you make per conversion/sale?

 

[Ryan Bartman]

Hey Graybeard,

So I am actually running 2 separate offers. One pays out $7.50 per conversion and the other pays out $28 (both solar campaigns).

 

[Ryan Bartman]

Ok, thank you. In your experience, have you had ads not winning bids/not getting shown due to very low iCTRs associated with said ads?

 

[Graybeard]

I would set a firm spend limit for those ads

 

[Ryan Bartman]

I actually have tested about 90 different ad creatives (different combos of images and headlines), along with 3 different landers (all of which have proven successful before). This is why I was thinking my very low bid just put my ads in subpar placements/widgets and why I was thinking of restarting the campaigns with a top-tier bid.

 

[Ryan Bartman]

Thanks for that. Yea I really think starting out with a lower-end bid sort of doomed the two campaigns from the get go. Just wasn't getting good traffic placements and I think rebooting the campaigns anew starting with a high bid to gain top-end placements will help build up good CTR metrics and then I can sort of scale back my bid and settle in a comfortable position.

 

[Graybeard]

I haven't experience with *Outbrain* so I have no definite answer.
However, you have 42 clicks
.53*303
160.59
((.53*303)/42)
3.82357

-$3.84 EPC
RISK another $150 max on a higher bid and find out.

My gut hunch is that your CTR is the problem from your creative
303000*.0025
757
That's 1/4 of 1% pretty mundane ... for CPM

How many creatives have you tested? a,b or 1,2,3,4

 

[Graybeard]

What goes on with traffic SSP DSP Brokering

I posted this a while back and there was no response to it -- what you are saying reinforces what he is saying (sort-of) are you being dealt cards from the bottom of the deck. hmmmm...