Starting the Countdown to Black Friday. The Steps You Need To Take To Get Prepared.

What comes to mind when you think about the number 100 in the middle of August? That’s right! There are just 100 days left until the most profitable day of the year for the Digital Advertising industry – Black Friday. And of course, some of you might say that it is a pretty long period of time to get prepared. But I assure you there is a lot to do to make the most of the approaching period. Let’s get started then!

Black Friday, as everyone knows, is a time when most of the ad budgets are spent in the digital world. Also, there is not only Black Friday, but Cyber Monday, and what’re more Advertisers often cover the entire weekend or the week with campaigns to make the most of those late November days. The success of a Black Friday peak is a huge factor for annual financial results for every Publisher. Check out 6 things you have to do to make sure that your business is prepared.

How to prepare your business for Black Friday?

1. Clear the situation

It’s important from the get-go to know which stage you’re at. Try to remember if all the initiatives you took before the vacation period have been finished and properly summed up. It is crucial to be sure that all the things currently running on your ad stack fulfil the roles expected of them. For example, if you run a technology test aimed at assessing revenue improvements – make sure that it has been completed and that you know the results. Make a decision – keep or remove them if they are not generating more money. Finish all the tasks, make all overdue decisions to make the situation as clear as possible. This is the only way to understand what boxes have been ticked, and what boxes need ticking.

2. Top-down approach

Don’t focus too much on details. Begin with a general view of your ad stack. Determine the most important revenue sources for your business and ensure that they have been secured. If the main source of your income is Direct Campaigns – check their delivery status. Look at all the campaigns planned for the next several months, which will take you up to the end of the year. List the Advertisers you work with and make sure that everything has been planned. Check the additional possibilities for new deals to run, and don’t forget to optimally estimate the inventory you have to achieve to make sure that everything works smoothly. If you earn money Programmatically – secure all sources. Check the settings of Header Bidding, Ad Exchange and Open Bidding.

If something catches your attention from a previous general perspective, now is the time to dig deeper. Look at every entity in your ad server and decide if it works at its maximum. Remember about less popular methods of optimization such as protection rules, ad technologies enabled on your server, optimizing the number of supply-side platforms and their timeouts, pass backs on remnant inventory, and enabling native formats either in AdX and Open Bidding. Also, check the version of your Prebid engine to provide more technologies from your partners etc.

3. Ask an objective and experienced partner

Some might say it is all not that simple. In fact, there are so many possibilities to open that no one knows them all. Programmatic is growing so fast, and technology is changing so much, but we can make things easy for you. Yieldbird is an expert in advertising either from a technology and demand perspective. We have experience cooperating with Publishers worldwide, which has given us both knowledge and perspective. That’s why we believe we can help you. It is not enough to look at all the processes and technologies you use day by day to simply examine if they are functioning optimally. Meet our AdStack Review product, which helps Publishers to assess their everyday work and consider all the aspects that are being made, or have to be made, to have better results. What has been set up properly and what needs to be upgraded or updated. Pick up a ready-made guide to your own inventory and make it as profitable as possible.

4. Implement, test, make a decision

The next 100 days represents the last call for testing new opportunities for additional revenue. Take 2 maybe 3 possibilities and focus on them. Plan the implementation, test and ensure that you know the results before the big day. Don’t look to grab every opportunity that shows up on the market. If any test is protracted and prevents you from making a decision, then abandon it. The most profitable period of the year should be predictable and secure. Don’t expose yourself to unnecessary risk – there is too much to lose.

5. Think about the value you are delivering

Every inventory in the digital world has its own value. Depending on what area you operate in and the quality you deliver, it is very important to know what is the real value of the things you create. Being a Digital Publisher demands much effort to meet the needs of your audience. But don’t worry, every effort in this matter will be rewarded. The question is how to establish the value of your digital property. How do the Advertisers view your audience and how much are they willing to pay for it?

These are important questions, especially when such a lucrative period is fast approaching. For example, do you know for what price your competitors are selling their inventory? In the end, being more competitive and aware of market rates can give you an advantage; and this will tell you if you are losing money when the rest of the market is selling for more. It’s not as simple as walking into a supermarket and checking for what price your competitor is selling their goods. But let me introduce MarketScout where you can independently check the prices of the others. Learn the rates by which Advertisers can buy your inventory as compared to your most important competitors. Adjust your strategy more adequately. Be more aware and prepared. Sounds good, doesn’t it?

6. Prices are important

As I mentioned before, knowing the environment you operate in is of great value in itself. But being up to speed with market trends and changes is a different thing. On the Open Market prosperity comes and goes, profitable campaigns appear and disappear in a way that is hard to grasp. That’s why it is so important to take the opportunity of addressing all these opportunities. To keep your inventory at the best value, use floor prices. Think about what part of your inventory is most valuable and price them more than the rest. Cluster your ad placements by geo, device, size, viewability level, and adjust the prices accordingly. Check the results regularly and try to be in line with the market situation. Pricing strategy not only increases the market value of your inventory but also increases competition among Advertisers to buy your content at higher rates. The best solution for doing this is to have a proper technology that reads the situation on the market and automatically adjusts prices accordingly. Check out PriceGenius by Yieldbird which is the best step for addressing this challenge.

Happy preparations!