Online advertising is not a straightforward process. It’s a complex one, which involves a combination of creativity, data, and the right collection of software. The latter is particularly important when it comes to ad operations.
When you think about ad operations, you might believe it’s monotonous and tedious. However, this is not the case. Due to the number of challenges it presents, you have to experiment, troubleshoot, and learn something new every day to operate in this field. The amount of work involved explains why many companies simply use a digital advertising company!
Yet if you do decide to go through with ad operations on your own, your marketing team will require a specialist set of tools. From testing to debugging and everything in between, there are several activities that need to be completed with each campaign. Miss one out, and it could negatively affect your entire digital ad strategy. Yet staying on track and completing each task is made a lot easier with the right ad operations tools.
With that in mind, below are the best tools to cut downtime in ad operations.
Testing tools
If you have worked in creative mobile advertising before, you know there are various ad types available. You should also know that each ad type poses its own set of challenges. To ensure your ads function as expected, it makes sense to test them out before starting a campaign. Below is a selection of tools to use before going live with your ads.
- HTML5 Validator: Once you’ve created your HTML5 rich media ads, you may think they’re ready to go live. However, it makes sense to check they are functioning correctly with the HTML5 Validator. This tool will show if the ad is loading if the file has any errors, and if the landing page is valid.
- Ad Manager Tag Generator & Tester: When it comes to generating GPT Tags, AMP Tags, non-JS tags, and Passback Tags, look no further than this tool. You can also test and customize your ad tags, and this can be done without editing the code manually.
- IMA HTML5 Video Suite Inspector: This tool helps with ensuring your video ad response works alongside the IMA SDK. By including a single VAST response, you also have the ability to test out your VPAID ads.
Proxy
As a business, it’s likely that you want to target multiple geographies with your ad campaign. Yet what can you do to check if an ad is functioning correctly in each targeted location? Board an airplane and visit each one to check? While that is an option, a much easier and effective tactic is to utilize a proxy tool.
There are various proxy VPN extensions available which you can use. These can even be found as a browser plug-in. Say you use Google Chrome. Simply visit the Chrome Web Store, do a quick “proxy VPN” search, and you will find multiple options like ZenMate and Touch VPN.
Once the proxy tool is installed, you can check how your different creatives are being delivered to each different location. For instance, you could be viewing the ads from the United States, but the proxy tool will make your browser think you’re logging in from, say, France.
Audit
Whether it’s a native video advertising campaign or a banner ad one, you always want to perform an audit. This helps with ensuring your ads are performing at the right level. By using specialist audit tools, you can also spot potential mistakes or opportunities that would otherwise have gone unnoticed.
In that regard, one of the best tools available is Google’s Publisher Ads Audits for Lighthouse. Specifically aimed at those utilizing Google Ad Manager, this tool performs a number of automated audits. This results in spotting numerous ways your ads can be enhanced in terms of both quality and speed.
To stop your ads – and subsequent data – from being tracked by third parties, another useful tool to use is Ghostery. You can keep tabs on trackers and block them when needed.
Debugging
When it comes to digital advertising solutions, you should already know the power of Chrome DevTools. In terms of debugging, this is the best tool to have for your ads. It offers a number of benefits, including:
- Uncover performance-related data for your ads and website
- Debug web apps
- Edit webpages on-the-go
- Monitor network activity to ensure ads are loading as normal
- Use an emulator to see how the ads appear on different devices
Conclusion
Even with these tools at your disposal, we understand they are not the solution to all ad operations issues you may encounter. Different challenges crop up on a consistent basis. By reaching out to a reputable digital advertising company – like us here at PadSquad – you can take this stress away while also receiving expert guidance and knowledge.