Right Media Exchange

[Westech]

I've decided to give RMX a try and was wondering if anyone else here is currently using the system and has any tips.

For those who don't know, RMX is an advertising "exchange" that lets multiple networks bid for each ad impression on your site. There are 7 "RMX linked" networks that are tied directly into the system and bid in real time for each of your impressions. You can choose to include or exclude each of these networks from your auction individually.

RMX also allows you to import ad tags from 3rd party networks (Casale, Valueclick, etc.) and give each network a proxy bid based on what cpm you think they will pay. These networks are then included in the bidding against the "RMX linked" networks.

So far it seems good for two things:

1. A free adserver that allows you to manage your 3rd party networks and geotarget, frequency cap, etc. You don't even have to serve any ads to the RMX-linked networks if you don't want to... Just give artificially high bids to your 3rd party networks and they'll always be served instead.

2. The included RMX-linked networks seem good for filling your defaults at pretty good rates, provided you have enough inventory to meet each network's minimum payout requirements.

Here's what RMX recommends: You import the ad tags from all of your 3rd party (non RMX) networks and set the cpm bids for each to what that network has been paying you in the past. I think this might be a little flawed, since if you had a network in your top tier and then start sometimes serving it lower in your chain when it's outbid then your cpm from that network will most likely start creeping down.

Here's what I'm trying out: I've set up a "site" in RMX direct and called it "mysite.com - 1st tier." Then, I've taken my top tier networks (Casale and TribalFusion) and given them artificially high cpm bids ($5.00) for this site to make sure that they display first. I'm also playing around with the geotargeting and frequency cap settings to try to get the best possible cpm and fill rate from these two networks. Defaults from TF and Casale are passed to a second "site" that I've set up in RMX called "mysite.com - backfill." This backfill site is set up to allow ValueClick (at a proxy bid of what they're really paying) plus the RMX-linked networks to bid over the remnant inventory.

So, that's what I'm doing so far. I'll report back later on how it's working out. If anyone else is currently using RMX I'd be really interested in hearing how you have things set up.

[MaxS]

Just to clarify, are you defaulting from your top tier via each network's control panel? RMX is not able to determine when outside networks run out of inventory.

I'm pretty satisfied with RMX Direct, but I wish they offered some sort of impression limiting system so I could add private advertisers into the system.

What are you going to do when private advertisers contact you, assuming you entertain such offers.

[Westech]

Right. I've set up each 3rd party network's control panel to default to our "backfill" RMX tags. "backfill" is set up as an entirely separate site in RMX.

We sell some of our ad space directly, but not our banner ad spots. It's something I'd like to start doing. When we do, I guess I'll just add the private advertiser into RMX as a 3rd party tag, watch the impressions, and disable it manually once the impressions are filled (possibly allowing them to go over a little bit before I caught it). I agree that it would be MUCH better if they'd allow you to limit impressions.

How are you handling 3rd party networks within RMX? Do you just set each network's bid at the cpm they're actually paying?

[Chris]

I don't run it as complicated as you. I also allow them access to the impressions before TF (which they use... 0.001% of the time or less).

Also... most of their network networks are poor to say the least. I only use a few.

[Westech]

So Chris, are you just putting in each 3rd party advertiser's bid at the actual eCPM they pay you and updating it periodically? Is this working well for you?

[Chris]

Yes, that is what I'm doing, more or less. I take into account their commission & whatnot and also fudge it a little bit for advertiser quality concerns.

It works, sure, but nothing spectacular about it. Its rare that RMX can beat tf's rate so mostly its a free ad server for me.

[rpanella]

That is a very interesting set up Westech, I like the idea.

I have been considering using RMX as an ad server as I currently just chain TF > Casale > VCM. Since I don't think any of the RMX networks will likely outperform my current networks with any significant volume (which you guys seem to confirm), I basically see the main benefit as being able to rotate/geotarget/freq cap my current networks instead of chaining them.

I'm interested to know if any of you have seen any cpm or fill rate improvements by doing this over simple default chaining.
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CREAMPIE TUBE

[Westech]

It's a little too early to say for sure, but so far things are looking very good. I'm still playing around with my setup. I lost some money over the first week or so as I played around with different setups, waited to see the results, and readjusted. Now that I have things tweaked pretty well I am seeing an overall increase in earnings over my previous setup, which was almost exactly the same as your chain. The frequency capping seems to help quite a bit, and the RMX networks do a great job of filling a good portion of my remnant traffic that no one else wants.

Here's my current setup:

TF and Casale at artificially high bids. TF is higher for some ad sizes and Casale for others. Both are capped at a frequency of 6 per day and then the next in line starts filling. Each defaults to the other with separate ad tags (TF -> Casale, Casale -> TF) to try again to fill at a high CPM. defaults go on down the chain to Valueclick (capped at 6 imps per day) and the RMX networks.

I'm also experimenting with another one of our sites by just putting in actual ecpm bids for each 3rd party network and updating them every few days. All 3rd party defaults go back to "RMX backfill" tags and are bid on by RMX networks only.

I think there's a lot of potential here to increase your overall earnings if you have a pretty large amount of traffic and don't mind spending the time to experiment and continually tweak things to get the best yield.

[rpanella]

Thanks for the info Westech. It seems like the frequency capping would be most beneficial for sites with high pageviews per visitor, like I would guess your game site receives. My site on the other hand averages just under 2 pageviews per visitor, so I'm not sure freq capping would make much of a difference for it. If I capped mine at 6 imps per network like you are, 99% of my visitors would only see the TF tags, which is what currently happens anyway with my chaining.

I may still try giving it a go, maybe with just one ad size at first, and if I do I will let you guys know how it works out for me.
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NATIVE AMERICAN SPIRITUALITY FORUMS