Guide
Quick Start
for Advertisers
for Advertisers
Onclick / Popunder
Choose a pricing model
Name your campaign
DEFAULT
With time, the number of campaigns will grow, and finding the right campaign can become a real problem. We suggest using a disciplined approach to naming:
At PropellerAds, you can choose from 3 effective pricing models: CPM, SmartCPM and CPA Goal 2.0. Make sure you review your options, as it’s essential for planning your budget and interpreting results.
Paste in the target URL
What webpage or landing page do you want your potential customers to visit? Paste the URL of this page and proceed with other settings.
OPTIONAL
Format_Name_Platform_Pricing model_GEO_User activity. For example, Onclick_Sweepstake_Android_CPM_US_High)
Set up your tracker
Decide on frequency
Optimize ad exposure by defining the number of times a day a user would see or click your ad. Read our guide on how to optimize ad frequency.
Select traffic options
At PropellerAds, you have the possibility to tailor traffic specifications according to the source and behavioral characteristics of users. These settings are important because they determine what kind of users will be visiting your website.
Traffic sources
When setting up your campaign, you can select an option to get PropellerAds Traffic, broker traffic (3rd party traffic), and traffic from anti-adblock zones. These options are commonly used for scaling campaigns.
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Onclick / Popunder
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You can choose what audience will see your ads: High activity — the most engaged users (note that the expected reach is likely to be lower), medium —- less active, low — saturated audience, but big traffic volumes are here. This feature allows you to distribute the budget more effectively and align creatives with specific audiences.
User activity targeting
Set up your geo-targeting
Choose the area where you want your potential customers to see the ads. You can select from preset regions, countries, and the cities in these countries.
To achieve the maximum results, we recommend selecting specific countries rather than targeting the whole world. Follow the golden rule of optimization: 1 GEO = 1 Campaign. To speed up the process of creating campaigns, you can clone campaigns. Read about geo-targeting best practices.
If you are looking for even more precise targeting, you can take advantage of our city and state targeting features. Choose in which cities/states your ads would be shown to the target audience.
Once you have selected the desired GEOs, proceed with your bid. Learn how to set the right bid for your campaign.
Once you have selected the desired GEOs, proceed with your bid. Learn how to set the right bid for your campaign.
Each time you change the targeting settings, check the expected campaign results (number of impressions, clicks, etc.) on the traffic estimator.
PRO TIP
If you want our system to choose the most effective real-time bid for you, select CPA Goal as your pricing model. While you are paying by CPM, the system is finding the best traffic and optimizing your campaign according to the desired CPA and targeting. Note that it's essential to set up the S2S tracking when you work with the CPA Goal.
Select your budget
This step is a financial part of your campaign setup. First of all, you should estimate the total campaign budget. Do you have the numbers?
Total campaign budget is a crucial parameter for an affiliate. You should define how much you are willing to spend on testing the CPA offer beforehand. The amount shouldn’t be too small; otherwise the test results might be inaccurate: traffic volumes would be insufficient to provide reliable data. As well, the testing budget shouldn’t be too big, as you risk wasting your money without getting any result
PRO TIP
Now check the Estimator tool to compare an approximate number of impressions or clicks with the anticipated campaign results. It’s important to mention that this tool displays general traffic and rate data as of the previous day. It is not guaranteed that you can get all the available traffic because it depends entirely on your bid. The budget will be defined by your targeting settings: GEOs, devices, user activity groups, etc. - all these aspects will impact the final sum.
*Please note that the Estimator is not available if you selected CPA Goal as your pricing model in Step 1, but you can still get a general idea and expectations on the volume available.
The next step is allocating your daily budget. Depending on your campaign goals and the pricing model, the budget may vary. Usually, affiliates calculate the daily budget for test campaigns according to this formula: total budget = daily budget x3. Make sure to check if the CPA offer has a daily capping. Complete guide to budgeting in advertising.
If the CPC rate is $0.1 and you are planning to buy 1000 clicks (0.1 x 1000), your budget should be $100.
HERE'S AN EXAMPLE
Make your targeting more specific
The final step of the campaign setup helps ensure that your ads reach only the desired audience on a budget.
Set OS targeting
Start with OS targeting to control on what devices your ads are shown to your potential customers. You can also define the type of device: desktop, phone, or tablet. Please note that if you target Android, you can't target devices.
This setting allows you to efficiently optimize campaign performance and creatives, because users on different devices have different needs and goals, therefore, conversion rates would differ.
This setting allows you to efficiently optimize campaign performance and creatives, because users on different devices have different needs and goals, therefore, conversion rates would differ.
If you are promoting an Android app, there is no point in trying to reach iPhone users.
HERE'S AN EXAMPLE
Select the tools for narrow targeting
Besides device targeting, a range of settings is available, including connection type, OS type and versions, mobile ISP (internet service provider), and browser type and language. Here's a full list of targeting options.
We also suggest reading our article about wide and narrow targeting.
We also suggest reading our article about wide and narrow targeting.
You can determine the zones (i.e., ad placements) you want your campaign to be limited to, or exclude specific zones. In other words, once you have enough data on your campaign’s performance, you can use white- and blacklists.
Please read our detailed article on blacklists.
Please read our detailed article on blacklists.
Choose ad zones (optional)
Schedule your campaign
At this point, you already know the audience size and the locations where your ads will be shown. Now you can customize your advertising campaign even further by using our smart scheduling tool.
You can decide what days of the week and the time your campaign would be active.
You can decide what days of the week and the time your campaign would be active.
In addition, you have an option to select an ad delivery method: standard - a faster way to deliver your ads, in case you have something urgent, for example, or a distributed method – your ads will be shown throughout the day, evenly spending your daily budget.
Learn more about creating an efficient campaign schedule.
Learn more about creating an efficient campaign schedule.
When you are done, click to start the campaign or save it as a draft. Enjoy your advertising!
By the way, it usually takes only 2 minutes and 24 seconds for a campaign to pass the moderation.
By the way, it usually takes only 2 minutes and 24 seconds for a campaign to pass the moderation.
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