Optimizing towards CTR

When setting up the campaign it is worth to keep in mind that the more rules you add, under "Audience" and "Media" for each Bidding Plan, the inventory that the campaign is able to access will decrease. This will then limit your possibility of doing optimizations. And for doing optimizations it is best practice to be able to access as much of the available inventory as possible and to have as many formats as possible.

A few things to keep in mind when optimizing towards CTR:

  • Different combinations of formats and device will perform better than others.
  • "Above the fold" position and "sticky" ads might have a positive affect when it comes to clicks.
  • Viewable impressions will most likely have a positive affect on the number of clicks.

To begin optimizing your campaign towards CTR we've gathered some step by step recommendations here to get you started. When following the below recommendations, please wait at least an hour, or even a full day in-between, to see the results before moving on to the next step.

Step by step

1. Work with the Optimizers for each bidding plan.

  • Focus on CTR/Viewability when the campaign is on track. It is wise to not only think CTR optimizer here but also Viewability as to focus on placements that a browser is likely to see, due to it's historical Viewability measure, and click on.

  • Focus on Hard Click when the campaign is not on track.

    CTR optimizers

2. Adjust the Frequency-rule in Audience, lowering enough to only display a reasonable amount of ads a browser will be likely to be exposed to and click on.

3. Work with formats

  • In DrillDown: "Remove" or set "CPM Override".

  • In Portfolios: Add and/or remove formats.

    CTR optimizers

4. Work with sites

  • In DrillDown: "Remove" or set "CPM Override".
  • In Site Pools: Add and/or remove sites.

5. Target Mobile traffic in Audience.