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by
Murat Yilmaz | March 2010 |
Open Source
In this article by Murat Yilmaz, author of OpenX Ad Server: Beginner's Guide, we will start our first campaign and show the first banner as fast as we can by using the minimum settings of OpenX Ad Server.
In this article we shall:
- Define an advertiser
- Create a campaign and banner
- Define a website and zone on this website
- Link the banner to this zone
- Serve this banner on this website zone by using a web page
Basic OpenX Ad serving steps diagram
The following diagram shows the necessary steps for the completion of the serving an advertisement on a website using OpenX Ad Server:
Sample Amazon.com banner serving flowchart
In this scenario, we will start adding an Advertiser (Amazon). Then, we will create a Campaign (Amazon Toys & Games). We will add a Banner (Amazon Puzzle Games for Kids) to this campaign. Then, we will define our sample website at OpenX. We will create a zone (Toys & Games Zone) for this website. The next step is to link a banner to this zone. Finally, we will complete serving advertisements by embedding the zone code to a page on the website and visiting this page through a browser.
Time for action – adding Amazon.com as an advertiser
In this section, we will learn how to add Amazon.com as an advertiser. As you may have probably heard, Amazon runs a very popular affiliate program that is called as Amazon Associates. You can earn commissions from each sale that results from the links and banners you placed on your website by using this program.
Read more about Amazon Associates program and register for free at http://affiliate-program.amazon.com.
As the example will be a fictional one here, you don't essentially need to register at Amazon affiliate program before starting. The example will help you understand how to add any advertiser in a similar way.
- Let's log in to OpenX Authentication panel. Use the Username and Password that we have created earlier.The login page looks like this:
- Click on Inventory tab at the top menu and then click on Add new advertiser link
.
We are now in Add new advertiser page. Fill Name, Contact, and Email fields. You can type your own information for Contact and Email fields.
- Leave other fields as they are, untouched with default settings.
- Click Save Changes button to complete adding an advertiser.
What just happened
We have learned how to add a new advertiser to OpenX. We have logged into OpenX management screen using the administrator user and provided the basic necessary fields: Name, Contact, and Email.
Time for action – adding a campaign for Amazon.com
Now, let's add a simple campaign for Amazon.com.
- Click on Add new campaign link near Amazon advertiser on Advertisers page.
- Fill the Name field in as Amazon – Toys & Games and select Contract (Exclusive) option under it
- Leave Date, Pricing, and Priority in relation to other campaign sections to their default settings.
- Leave Delivery capping per visitor and Miscellaneous sections untouched as well.
- Click on Save Changes button to complete adding Amazon - Toys & Games campaign.
What just happened
We have learned how to add a campaign for an advertiser using minimum requirements. We used Name and Campaign type fields and ignored other fields as we will cover them later.
Time for action – adding a banner to Toys & Games Amazon campaign
Now, let's add a banner for our newly created campaign.
- Click on Add new banner link on campaigns listings page.
- Let's choose Link an external banner option.
- Let's give a Name to our banner. Then, we should give the Image URL of our banner. We have used a real banner path here with a size of 728x90. Search in Google and find any image banner with the size of 728x90 and write the Image URL path.
- We have used here a real Amazon banner with size 728x90 pixels.
- Let's write a Destination URL where users will be sent when they click on the banner. In this example, we have used http://amazon.com/toys web address. Note that it is not the actual URL that the Amazon affiliate program uses.
- Fill the Size field according to image size. In our example, it is 728 for Width and 90 for Height. Leave other fields untouched with their default settings and click on Save changes to complete adding the banner.
You should join Amazon associates affiliate program at http://affiliate-program.amazon.com to get real images and links.
What just happened
We have learned how to add a banner for our campaign. Firstly, we provided a name for the banner and the URL path for the chosen image. We then provided a destination URL for the banner where the visitors will browse when they click on the banner. We also provided the size information of the image banner.
Time for action – adding a website to OpenX
In this section, we will add a website to OpenX Ad Server where the sample Amazon banner will be served.
- Click on Inventory and then Websites link on the left side menu. After that, click on the Add new website link.
- Let's fill in the Website URL, Name, Contact, and Email fields. Leave other fields in default settings and click on the Save changes button. Please be careful to provide the actual website URL where you want to place the advertisemnts. http://yourwebsite.com is used as an example here. You must provide the website address where you want to serve advertisements.
We have now added a website to OpenX Ad Server.
What just happened
We have learned how to add a definition for our website where we want to serve OpenX ads. The step required only four fields for website definition: Website URL, Name, Contact, and Email.
>> Continue Reading Start Ad Serving with OpenX- A Sequel
If you have read this article you may be interested to view :
- OpenX Advanced Reports
- Reports and Statistics in OpenX Ad Server
- Start Ad Serving with OpenX- A Sequel
About the Author :
Murat Yilmaz
Murat Yilmaz is a software developer and an online entrepreneur who lives in Antalya, Turkey. He has over 10 years of experience in different IT fields, including development of web-driven solutions, large databases, and OLAP systems. He has worked in several multinational companies in Istanbul and Moscow as a consultant. He currently runs his own blog and an e-commerce and online advertising network. He holds a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Marmara University at Istanbul. He spends his free time playing progressive rock songs, online chess, and reading scientific books.
He has also authored two other books, OpenCart 1.4: Beginner's Guide and OpenX Ad Server: Beginner's Guide.
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