How to Optimize Ad Campaign Using Epom WL DSP: Cases, Best Practices & Tips to Get Results

Ad campaign optimization is like the secret sauce of digital advertising. It's the strategic wizardry that transforms your ad campaigns from ordinary to extraordinary. It's the compass that guides you to the right audience at the perfect moment with a message that resonates.

In this article, we're diving into the dynamic universe of ad campaign optimization. We'll unveil what it is, why optimization is a must, and how it can turn your advertising campaigns into ROI-boosting, audience-engaging powerhouses.

Why Is It Important to Optimize Your Ad Campaigns?

You have to remember this like a mantra: no campaign will work if you just launch it and wait for results.

Imagine you are a beginner who has just come to the gym. You start your workouts, and they give you some results. It makes sense because you haven't done anything like this before. But if you continue to lift the same weight for years, run the same distances, and, in short, do not change your workload in any way, you will not make any progress, and all your efforts will be in vain.

So, why do you need to optimize your ad campaign?

1. Maximizing ROI. Ad campaign optimization is like turning lead into gold. Constant campaign analysis and optimization help to get the most out of your ad spend, boost impressions, and lead to higher ROI.
2. Cost efficiency. Ad campaign optimization helps you minimize wasted ad spend by showing your ads to the most relevant audiences. This reduces CPC and CPA, making your campaigns cost-effective.
3. Improved ad performance. Refining your messaging, visuals, and calls to action leads to higher CTR and conversion rates.
4. Competitive edge. In the digital ad arena, it's a constant battle. Those who optimize their campaigns have a distinct advantage. You stay ahead of the competition by delivering more relevant and engaging ads.
5. Better customer experience. When your ads are super-targeted and hyper-relevant, they're not an annoyance but an invitation. It builds a positive brand image and fosters customer loyalty.

Ad Campaign Optimization In Epom WL DSP: Essential Steps

Checking the Bid Price and WinRate

What is WinRate? Basically, it’s the ratio between Bids and Wins, where Bids reflect incoming traffic that matches your targeting, and Wins show your actual impressions gained in the open auction.

The WinRate metrics can help you to understand if you are buying traffic with the sufficient Bid Rate:

There are two reasons for low WinRate. The first one is the SSP policy. If you see that the campaign got enough Bids and no Wins, this possibly indicates your ad campaign is blocked by traffic sources due to the policy. Yet, if you are sure your ad campaign is compliant, then the reason is low Bid Price.

So, this is an indicator that shows where your Bid Price is on the market today.

Let’s check an example. Imagine this is your ad campaign on the screenshot below. It demonstrates that you are getting almost half of the traffic that SSPs can provide, which is good, actually. At the same time, you can notice that the Bid Price is higher than average on the market.

Of course, it’s absolutely up to your strategy, and you can even increase your Bid Rate to get all of the traffic, but if you want to move further with an efficient Bid Price, you can lower it.

The next case shows us that the client is not winning enough volumes, which is definitely connected with the Bid Price.

Here, two options are available: increase the Bid Price or arrange more cheap traffic sources, but that will affect the quality of traffic the client gets.

We recommend checking this metric a few hours after the campaign goes live and monitoring it once every few days, as the situation on the market might change rapidly.

A/B Creatives Testing

Effective ad campaigns don't go by default, as you need to deliver messages using effective creatives. So, there is a need for some preparations. To launch a campaign that will bring you measurable results, you need to test your creatives first.

It's an efficient and common practice to test a few same-size creatives with different messages, CTAs, and colors to find out what image and text will make your dollar earn more and bring the best result on the specific traffic source/ad format. Consider using at least 3 different creatives for launching your first ad campaign.

For example, if you are running a mobile display ad campaign, it would be great to use three 320x50 banners, three banners for interstitial ads, and three banners of 300x250 size simultaneously.

For a mobile video campaign, you can add three horizontal videos with different messages and the same three videos but in a vertical orientation.

After at least one day running you will be able to analyze how your ads are performing and which creatives it’s better to use.

If, from experience or other traffic sources, you know what metrics (for example, CTR) you want to achieve, you can set up the Bidding Rule in Autopilot that will pause the underperforming creatives automatically.

Check out a detailed Help Center article with step-by-step guidelines.

You go to Autopilot -> Bidding Rules -> Create New Rule, and follow our example:

Feel free to play with the conditions to elaborate and adjust your own strategy.

Checking Breakdown by App/Site URL/Site ID

After your campaign is live for a while, you must check where you bought your first ad impressions and do initial optimization by sub-sources, as there will be only success with optimization.

Remember: Don't just launch a campaign and expect results. You need to optimize each advertising campaign, analyze, look for options and adjust it accordingly again and again.

Let’s imagine you’re buying traffic from mobile applications and looking for conversions. You go to the Analytics tab and group your data by an App. Let’s check first few apps:

Blacklisting Sources Manually Using Filters

Not all the mobile apps from the list above might perform as you expect. In this case, it’s reasonable to create a filter that will act as a blacklist and deal with the low-performing apps. Thus, you choose the best sources and, applying filters to your ad campaign, omit those apps from selling you traffic.

What Else to Do with Ad Campaign to Win or Advanced Optimization Tips

Set Up Conversion Tracking

Setting up conversion tracking is like having a money detector for your ads. It tells you exactly where the gold is hiding.

If the goal of your advertising campaign is any kind of action, then setting up conversion transfer is a must. You won't see any results without it there, and even our almost all-mighty CSM team won't be able to assist you in optimizing traffic with our tools.

Again, we have to repeat that like a mantra – optimize your ad campaigns. If you only want to launch a campaign, do nothing, put 0 effort into it, and say "It doesn’t convert," here’s one recommendation for you: just don't start. Things won’t work that way.

Note that to track conversions in Epom WL DSP, you need to have a tracker on your side or advertiser’s. Epom is not a tracker as it is, but logs the actions from 3rd party trackers. You can integrate Epom WL DSP with the mobile measurement partners (MMP), for example, Appsflyer, Adjust, Kochava, etc.

Find a detailed step-by-step guide on how to do this in the video tutorial below.

Analyze User Flow and Set Up 3 Events for Tracking & Optimization Using our Postback URL

Postback URL tracking helps to track and measure the success of online campaigns and allows you to attribute conversions to the ads that brought users to your website or app.

Dive deep into your user's journey. Analyze it and find those moments when they turn from window shoppers into paying customers. Then, set up event tracking with Postback URLs to catch those pivotal actions.

Epom WL DSP supports 3 Actions that can correspond to any events you want to track, such as, application Installs and in-app post-install activities.

Optimize Pre-landing Page to Heat Up the User Before Desired Action

Give your audience a taste of what's to come, build excitement, and handle objections. A well-optimized pre-landing page can make your final destination a real party. On push and native ads, pre-landing pages really help to get conversions.

There are many spy tools on the market where you can check out what competitors are doing and implement similar pre-land strategies to see how everything will work. For example, Adplexity is the most popular, but there are a few more. Note that this should be done by the agency/advertiser's team.

The conversion will drop if users are immediately directed through a push notification to the landing page. Therefore, pre-landers are used to improve the performance of campaigns.

Tip: With the help of our Postback URLs, you can track whether users click on your pre-lands and optimize traffic using these metrics, as well.

This is possible if you host the pre-land yourself and can add a script with a Postback URL to it. So, we highly recommend setting this up for effective optimisation and budget saving.

Set Up Bidding Rules for Blacklisting and Whitelisting

Block the underperformers – they're the party poopers. Whitelist the stars – they're the life of the ad party. Your budget will thank you.

When the campaign is launched, you can check the analytics in Epom WL DSP, break down the statistics by site URL or app, and see what traffic you bought and where.

You might see some sites or apps where you spent a dollar but didn't get the expected performance (for example, low CTR, no conversions, conversions are very expensive, etc.).

In this case, you have to create a filter, add these sites or apps to it, and blacklist it within the selected campaign. You can do this manually for the first time and then set up the rule, which will automatically add all new non-performing sources to this filter due to your metrics.

You can do the same with sites/apps where the client has received the desired performance.

Add the super-performing sources automatically to the filter and then use it somewhere else to boost results. For example, create another campaign with a higher bid and target only this filter with good sources there.

Set Up Bid Modifiers

Use bid modifiers to turn up the heat on high-converting segments and cool it down for the less effective ones. It's like cranking up the volume on your favorite tunes at just the right moments.

Epom WL DSP allows you to manage the bidding adjustments by specific conditions effectively and user-friendly. With it, you can apply various multipliers to the bids, considering your traffic source.

The Fundamentals of Ad Campaign Optimization

Last couple of words before we let you go to optimize your ad campaigns and achieve top results. Remember that add campaign optimization is a blend of strategies that include:

1. Precise audience targeting. Think of this as the treasure hunt. You're identifying and fine-tuning your target audience based on a trove of data — demographics, behavior, interests, and more — to make sure your ads hit the bullseye.
2. Ad creative testing. Here, you're trying out different ad creatives to find the ones that strike a chord with your audience, leading to higher engagement and conversions.
3. Bid management. Adjusting your bidding strategies is akin to a stock trader making well-timed moves. You're allocating your budget more effectively, ensuring you pay the right price for ad placements.
4. Placement optimization. Imagine choosing the perfect spot for your billboard on a busy highway. With placement optimization, you're picking the ideal digital real estate to boost visibility and relevance.
5. Ad scheduling. Timing is everything. With ad scheduling, you're launching your campaigns when your audience is most active, ensuring higher click-through rates and conversions.

Wrapping Up

Ad campaign optimization in Epom WL DSPs isn't just about numbers and algorithms; it's about making your ad campaigns a thrilling journey. It empowers advertisers to maximize their ROI, improve cost efficiency, and constantly refine their strategies for better ad performance.

Invest in ad campaign optimization, and watch your marketing efforts evolve into unforgettable adventures, creating lasting impressions and driving business success in the digital age.