How To Set Up A Mobile Advertising Campaign

In this post I’m going to go step by step through the process of setting up a mobile ad campaign.  In a previous post, I mentioned that my top 3 mobile ad networks are Admob, Decktrade, and Quattro Wireless.  Today, I’m going to walk you through setting up an Admob campaign.

Here are the steps you’ll need to take:

1. Set up the account
2. Create an ad
3. Add funds
4. Turn ads on
5. Watch them closely!

Set up the Account

First, go to Admob’s website and click on “register” in the top right hand corner of the homepage.  You’ll see this.

 

 

 

You’ll walk through a simple process of entering name, email address, and other account information and then be asked to confirm your email address.  Once you’ve confirmed your email address, you can log in to continue. This step is so easy, that’s all I’ll say.  Let me know if you have questions.

Create an Ad

Creating an ad takes a little more thought.  In this example, we’ll be creating an ad for an iPhone app and sending traffic to the iTunes app store. Once you’ve logged in using the email address and the password you created, you’ll want to click on the Ads tab.  Then click on “Create iPhone Ad” which is the 3rd sub tab.  It is circled below.

 

 

 

See the iPhone Ad screen shot below. First, you pick where you want visitors to go when they click on your ad.  In our case we want to link to the iPhone app store, so we click on the App Store icon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You’ll need to:

• Name your ad
• Create your ad text (35 characters max)
• Add a tile or an icon of your own
• Enter the URL for the landing page
• Target your ad (Carrier, Country, Device, etc)
• Set your bid amount

 Here is how the screen looks as you scroll down:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once you’ve filled in all the information, simply click “Create Ad” at the bottom of the page.  You can then go back to the My Ads sub tab to view this ad.  Admob reviews the ad before approving it, so you should see that status as “pending approval”.

Tips

1. When naming your ad, choose something that will scale if you have 10-20 varations of that ad.  Something like “Widget – Test #1a”.  That way if you want to try more variations, you can call them “Widget – Test #1b”, “Widget – Test #1c” and so on.
2. Run at least 3-5 different text ads at launch of a campaign to determine which will have the best click through rate.
3. Although Admob gives you tiles that you can use in your ad, your logo or app icon will probably generate a better click through rate. But test it yourself!

Add Funds

If you are on the Ads Tab you’ll see a pinkish bar that tells you that your account balance is empty like this:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Simply click on that link to fill out the form that looks like this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enter your info, press submit, and your account is ready to start displaying ads.

Turn Ads On

 In order to turn ads on, go to the My Ads sub tab, click the box next to the ad name you want to run, and click on the “run” button.

Tips

1. If you’re in no hurry to drive traffic, start with the minimum bid.
2. On WAP ads you can insert variables like %phn% in your ad and Admob will insert the device name into the ad.

Watch Them Closely

Now that you have an ad running, you’ll want to know how it is performing.  The reporting tab will give you the ability to see your activity summarized or by ad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tips

1. If you are monitoring your spend closely use the Daily Budget tab to watch your spend.  That seems to update much more quickly that the My Ads page or the Reporting section.
2. Try Admob conversion tracking, if you have an iPhone app.
3. Don’t just stick with Admob, test on Quattro, Decktrade, Jumptap, and others.

Any questions?  Anything I can help with?

Let me know and good luck!

Tagged as: How to set up a Mobile Ad Campaign, Mobile Ad Campaign, Mobile Advertising Campaign