Yesterday, Jeremy posted the image at right to his Flickr account and it made me grin like a Cheshire cat. I know the graph isn't in the direction an erstwhile media tycoon generally likes, but in this case it's a screenshot that means that we've turned off our old third-party ad serving system -- and therefore have switched to our own hand-built customized ad server.
This is a big deal for us in a number of ways:
- While we've been able to customize ad delivery within a geographic radius and based on The Daily You, it still required a developer to get involved in each campaign. Now we can target like crazy and even a layman like me can set the targets.
- We now target contextually as well as behaviorally. That means that we should be able to deliver more relevant ads even to readers who haven't opted-in to the Daily You.
- Both contextually, and behaviorally, we have more than 3,000 levers we can pull to target local ads* -- and that's before even considering geotargeting.
- We have better reporting that doesn't take hours to pull together
- As far as I know, we now have the only ad server anywhere that is actually part of the content management system. This means that while the humans here look at advertising and editorial differently the machine sees it all as content to deliver when relevant and to measure. It means that we can really understand the interaction between ads and content like place pages, contests, and events. That's potentially game-changing.
- This is the final piece in the puzzle we started designing four years ago (save for things, like a mass-printed product, that we abandoned). With this, we've completed the technological and architectural work towards enabling the ideal of "every ad a wanted ad" -- something that's obviously good for both the user and the advertiser. Now, we're not 100% of the way there by any stretch -- we still need more users and more advertisers to reach that Quixotic goal. Truth is, it would be almost impossible to get all the way there, but the closer you get, the better. And we now have the tools readily at hand.
So this means that Pegasus News version 1.0 is finally done. It also means that work on version 2.0 (which will come quicker than you think) begins in earnest today. One of the downsides of the herculean effort that the dev team put into the ad server is that other innovation has largely stalled for the past couple months during the big push. We're going to circle back and fix a few gizmos whose shoestrings and bubble-gum snapped over the last couple months, but then we're going to be making a push towards a revamp of the whole site, largely taking into account input we've gotten from the community over the last couple years. It's not too late to make your wishes known, so if there's something you've been dying to see (or stop seeing), let us know ASAP.
A couple other important notes:
- The Dev team, particularly Jeremy and David, have really put in the heroics on this one -- both through months of drudgerous coding and a sleepless weekend hammering out bugs and making sure we could make a clean break at the first of the month.
- None of this should be taken as a dis of our old ad server, AdSpeed. It's just that the level of customization we needed couldn't really be handled by any commercial ad server -- even the big boys like DoubleClick. (Believe me, we checked.) We squeezed a lot of functionality out of AdSpeed and I'd recommend it to anyone who needed a simple, feature-rich, inexpensive ad server.
*- Attention advertising shoppers: Anytime you see a content category tag around the site (looks like this):
... that means that those are categories of interest we can help you target. We've got more than 3,000 of 'em, so there's sure to be some that are a match for you.
Comments
Collin Gouldin Verified
the story tag links for this story don't work
;-)
9 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Mike Orren Staff
That's just an illustration (but I think you know that)...
9 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Jason Rice Verified
I shouldn't mention this, but I had thought you guys were getting "better" lately - specifically less ad cruft that I didn't care about. In truth, you're probably bringing on even more useless crap I don't care about... AWESOME!!!
'Cause we all know, my purchasing power plus $5 will get you a Frappucino.
Sell those (virtual) papers, Mike!
9 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Mike Orren Staff
Well Jason, if we're doing it right, you should get more useful stuff you care about and less useless crap. Let us know how it looks in a month...
9 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Jason Rice Verified
Sorry - That was probably the most circuitous compliment you've received lately.
If I were commenting right, you'd have known it's already positive ;o)
9 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
sanri56 Anonymous
Way to go, Jeremy and David. Great work!
9 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
asalter Anonymous
Sounds like you guys are on to something big.
9 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
jondadunck Anonymous
¡Felicidades, cariño! Te adoro y estoy muy orgullosa de ti. Excelente esfuerzo:)
9 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Teresa Gubbins Staff
already, that ProFlowers ad with the purty roses is speaking to me far more eloquently than the cellulite-ridden torso who lost all the stomach fat
9 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Jeremy Dunck Staff
Alas, Teresa, we can not claim credit for that, as it is a remnant (as opposed to sold) ad.
9 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
mystinarie Anonymous
Well done to all... Especially that little brother over there. We always knew you were a genius!!!
9 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Travis Bush Verified
'already, that ProFlowers ad with the purty roses is speaking to me far more eloquently than the cellulite-ridden torso who lost all the stomach fat "
Replaced by Rachael Ray and her "how I lost pounds" ad, uhg!...I might do naughty things to that one, as long as she stayed the hell out of my kitchen!
9 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Collin Gouldin Verified
Thanks mystinarie!!
9 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Pavel Lishin Verified
TBush - same, but domestic violence would occur the first time I heard the word "delish".
9 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Billusa99 Anonymous
There are ads here? Sorry, but parts is parts.
...AdBlock+, custom Hosts file editor and cookie exception list guru
9 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Jason Rice Verified
::.AdBlock+
Now, Bill. How will Mikey buy a new sportscar if we let on we block the ads with plugins and addons?
Fib like a good consumer and don't let this happen again.
9 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Laura Evans Staff
How will Mikey buy a new sportscar if we let on we block the ads with plugins and addons?
better yet, how will laura and the other pegnews staffers afford to eat everyday :(
9 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Jason Rice Verified
:: eat everyday :(
Why every day?
9 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Pavel Lishin Verified
They're obviously a spoiled bunch, and haven't been paying enough attention to the RachelRay flabby something or other diet.
Speaking of which:
9 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Jason Rice Verified
Actually, I'm now a tad worried. I keep getting Pippi Longstocking at the Eisemann (about a -5% I'll go, but in my line of typical interests) and Studio Grill ads... almost everywhere, but I can't click them, even though the Studio Grill one says click to buy.
(Ok, tough exterior aside, I do want Laura healthy and fed well enough to keep a nice pelt)
9 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Brett Hoerner Verified
Working on the clicking problem now, Jason. Are you using Firefox?
9 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Jason Rice Verified
Firefox - Guilty
IE - Logged in - Pippi clicks through fine (shudder)
9 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Collin Gouldin Verified
IE is evil, and should be avoided at all costs... how dare you Jason.
9 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Laura Evans Staff
Just had lunch, so jason will be happy to know my belly is nice and full. :) Let's hope future lunches are as filling.
In the meantime, here is the link for the studio movie grill gift special
https://shop.studiomoviegrill.com/Sto...
9 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Jason Rice Verified
::how dare you Jason.
Collin - trust me, were it not for the good of the clan, I would never have even considered it.
Harsh debug requires harsh action.
9 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Billusa99 Anonymous
Fib.
9 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
jtmbls Anonymous
Well, the Lily Cai Chinese Dance ad is working it’s mojo on me but the one for Sullivan’s Valentine’s Day Dinner isn’t just bad marketing, it’s downright cruel. :(
9 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Mike Orren Staff
For Jason and jtmbls and others, who pay attention to such things, a bit of expectation management:
The level advertising customization is largely proportional to the pool of advertisers we have at a given moment. So, if we only have four advertisers running in a given hour, that's what you'll see. As we keep adding more ads, the variety will improve.
Also, we have a frequency limit setting so that in a perfect world, you don't see the same ads over and over and each advertiser gets in front of more people. We're still dialing that in, and it will improve over time. (Note that individual remnant ad creatives can't be controlled in this way.)
Long way of saying that the tech is working properly, but we humans still have some work to do on what we feed the machine.
9 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
JW Richard Verified
Great job, Jeremy and David! Looking forward...
9 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Jason Rice Verified
::expectation management:
I expect you to do what it takes to keep the lights on despite Bill using adblock.
Beyond that is just gravy.
9 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
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