About CPMatic

CPMatic is the first optimized inventory and data buying service available for advertisers of any size. It can create, manage and track your retargeting, behavioral and other display campaigns. CPMatic sits on top of ad exchanges, publisher aggregators and ad networks, in order to find the ideal users for your ads and your products across the billions of possible display ad impressions in the online marketplace.

 

CPMatic is the only automated self-service system available today that taps into this broad range of publisher sources. Being a platform of XA.net, CPMatic buys large quantities of traffic on these systems (many of which have healthy monthly minimum spend requirements), and in return, receives robust economies of scale and attention from these firms to help identify new sites and opportunities for advertisers. Users of CPMatic can also tap into behavioral and targeting data from a variety of companies and correctly integrate pixel and cookie data with publisher media across various systems.  

Using the CPMatic interface you can:

1. Create multiple advertising campaigns (including retargeting) with different goals and targets
2. Upload your ad tags or graphical ad files and clickthrough URLs (with bulk upload capabilities)
3. Create/grab conversion tracking and retargeting codes from the interface to place on your site
4. Provide information about your campaign goals and desired audience
5. Select the appropriate systems you want impressions from, and what behavioral segment data providers you want to use (optional)
   
6. Pay for your campaigns using a credit card
7. View daily reporting on spend, impressions, clicks and conversions

 

Signing Up for CPMatic

Signing up and creating a CPMatic account is quick and easy. You can visit http://cpmatic.com and click Sign Up to begin. A credit card and $1,000 minimum spend is required to provide a valid test of display media and retargeting.  Below, a 1 minute video can show you how. 

 

Once you have created an account, you can start buying online media and data!  If you still have questions, please contact us at support .

 

Creating a Campaign 

1. Create a new campaign by going to the Campaigns tab on the left hand navigation and clicking the drop-down.
2. Choose a campaign type. There are two main campaign types: Auto and Manual. For approved accounts a third, Adserving Campaign type, will be available.
• Automatic campaigns allow you to set all of your campaign goals and let the CPMatic system determine the optimal pricing, data providers, pacing, frequency caps and all other values based on these set goals. 
• Manual campaigns allow you to have a deeper control of each element of the buy. It provides options to use data providers, and allows for certain elements to be variable. We recommend setting up a Manual campaign since it allows for distinct customization of all settings we have available. As with Automatic campaigns, CPMatic will manage and optimize towards your set detailed goals. (Recommend.)
3. Select your campaign goal. You can optimize your campaign to conversions, clicks or reach.
• Conversion track an action of user and determine the amount of money you pay for each such action. 
• Clicks determine the approximate cost-per-click you would like to pay for this campaign. 
• Reach is the number of impressions directed to your site.
4. Select the tracking code and place it on the page that a user will get to IF AND ONLY IF they have completed the action you are interested in, like a sale, finished completing a lead form, etc. The code is a short piece of javascript that is created by CPMatic and generates a "conversion" event. 
5. Enter your billing information via credit card and/or PayPal. Your credit card will be billed for the full amount of the campaign as soon as an XA.net account manager approves your campaign and sets it to start running.

Campaign Setup - Auto Campaigns

Once your campaign has been created. You can begin to set it up.

1. Choose campaign type: Manual or Auto

2. Input the Name and Category of the campaign: "Category" is useful for audience segmentation and optimization purposes. Choose the category that most closely matches your campaign.

3. Set Your Budget:  The Budget field is the total amount of money you want to spend on media only (The data budget is set elsewhere). Budgets can range as low as $1,000.00 and as high as $500,000.00.

4. Retargeting (Option) Users of CPMatic can choose to run retargting campaigns by selecting "Yes", "No" or "Retargeting Only".  Retargeting, only shows ads to users who have already visited your website(s).  Retargeting campaigns are highly recommended and have a high ROI. 

• If you choose to use Retargeting,  make sure to select or create a Retargeting Code. Once the campaign setup is complete, grab the retargeting code from the "Tracking Codes" navigation on the left-hand side of the page and place it on your website on every page except the conversion page. *Please note that Retargeting campaign volumes might be low until enough cookies have accumulated in the market, so selecting “Yes” to Retargeting Only may limit the ability to fill your chosen budget. Choosing “Retargeting Only” will also disable the data provider selection. 

5. Choose Your Goal: CPMatic allows you to select a goal based on conversions, clicks or reach.

• Conversion: Choose if you are looking to drive conversions, leads, or sales. Selecting “Conversion” allows you to input a Target CPA you want the CPMatic system to optimize towards. 
• Selecting "Conversions" will require a Conversion Code you can create or select. You can name the code, select where the conversion happens is secure (https:// ) or non-secure (http://) 
• Once the campaign setup is complete, grab the Conversion Code from the "Tracking Codes" navigation on the left-hand side of the page and paste this code onto your website on the page that a user would reach only if they have completed your desired action. Please note that the piece of code you grab is javascript, and it will launch several image pixels from the various systems where your campaign is running so we can track conversions on each one. If you are working with a system (like an affiliate network) that can place only image pixels, you will need to contact us for image pixels. 
• Clicks: Choose to optimize towards clicks. You will be prompted to enter a target CPC.
•  If Clicks are chosen, the conversion code should be placed on the landing page of your ad. 
• Reach: Choose if you wish to optimize toward impressions. You will be prompted to enter a target CPM.

 

6. Campaign Run Dates: Select the start and end dates of your campaign.

7. Choose your External Systems Based on the input media budget, you will be able to select or deselect one or more systems to run your campaign on. You must select at least one system to run on. There are minimums for running on each system which can be seen in the External Systems tab. These values are not the proportion of your budget that will be spent in each system – the exact allocation of budget by system will be determined by CPMatic’s algorithms which find the best places for your ads to be run

 

8. Uploading and Assigning Your Ads: Click "Upload New Ads" or "Create HTML Ads."  You will then see all your uploaded ads on the left hand window. 

• NOTE: Each campaign set to start must have at least one live, approved ad associated with it. You can review our Ad Specifications to ensure a speedier ad approval process. 

9. Enter Targeting: You can set global targeting by selecting "Set Geography by” the geo/regions you want to target, be it specific countries (US is the default), states or DMAs.

• NOTE: You cannot combine targeting lists, i.e. United States country Targeting with DMA Targeting.

• Next enter as much of the “Optional Information about your target audience” as you are able, to help the system better optimize your campaign. To further optimize the Targeting enter demographics, URLs or Keywords that are associated with successful campaigns for your brand. The Targeting metrics you select will not strictly limit your ads from serving to other demographic groups but depending on availability will be used by CPMatic for targeting and optimization. 

10. Billing: CPMatic offiers three methods for payment: Credit Card and/or PayPal and/or Account Credits combinations. 

• Account Credits:  Credits can be added anytime. Under the billing tab in Finances you may choose to use the credits on your account or not. Payments are authorized in real time and charged in full once we approve your campaigns. When the campaign progress bar on the right reaches 100%, your campaign is ready to start! 

11. Starting Your Campaign: Once you've created a campaign, set up your ads, and funded it in full, you can start your campaign! Hit the “Start Campaign” button and the campaign will be sent to XA.net for approval. Expect approval within 2 hrs, and no more than 24. 

 

 

Campaign Set Up - Manual Campaigns

1. Input the Name and Category of the campaign: "Category" is useful for audience segmentation and optimization purposes. Choose the category that most closely matches your campaign.

2. Set Your Budget:  The Budget field is the total amount of money you want to spend on media only (The data budget is set elsewhere). Budgets can range as low as $1,000.00 and as high as $500,000.00. 

• NOTE: The max daily option may over deliver because inventory is bought across multiple systems. 

3. Retargeting (Option): Users of CPMatic can choose to run retargting campaigns by selecting "Yes", "No" or "Retargeting Only".  Retargeting, only shows ads to users who have already visited your website(s).  Retargeting campaigns are highly recommended and have a high ROI. 

• If you choose to use Retargeting,  make sure to select or create a Retargeting Code. Once the campaign setup is complete, grab the retargeting code from the "Tracking Codes" navigation on the left-hand side of the page and place it on your website on every page except the conversion page. *Please note that Retargeting campaign volumes might be low until enough cookies have accumulated in the market, so selecting “Yes” to Retargeting Only may limit the ability to fill your chosen budget. Choosing “Retargeting Only” will also disable the data provider selection. 

4. Choose Your Goal: CPMatic allows your to select a goal based on conversions, clicks or reach

• Conversions: Choose if you are looking to drive conversions, leads, or sales. Selecting "Conversions" allows you to enter a target CPA you would like the CPMatic system to optimize towards.
• Selecting a "Conversion" will require a conversion code you can create or select. You can name the code, select where the conversion happens is secure (https://) or non-secure (http://). 
• Once the campaign setup is complete, grab the Conversion Code from the "Tracking Codes" navigation on the left-hand side of the page and paste the code onto your website. Please note that the piece of code you grab is javascript, and it will launch several image pixels from the various systems where your campaign is running. If you are working with a system (like an affiliate network) that can place only image pixels, you will need to contact us for image pixels. 
• Clicks: Choose to optimize towards clicks. You will be prompted to enter a target CPC. If clicks are chosen, the conversion code should be placed on the landing page of your ad.
• Reach: Choose if you wish to optimize toward impressions. You will be prompted to enter a target CPM. 

5. Set Your Pricing: CPMatic allows for three types of pricing models:

• Max Dynamic CPM (dCPM): Allows for real time bidding, great for all campaigns, especially retargeting campaigns. (Recommended) 
• The best inventory is available  via real time auctions in the ad systems we work with. We recommend selecting “Max dCPM” for all of your campaigns, especially retargeting campaigns. For retargeting we suggest a high CPM value of $6 or more, since you want to be sure you win the impressions auctions when your user is seen. 
• Fixed CPM: Allows you to set a fixed CPM price that you will pay every time.  Spend for this type of campaign can be determined in advance.
• CPA Hybrid: Allows you to bid on a CPA basis and covers adserving costs. Our system will prioritize your ads based on how well they are performing in generating revenue for the publisher and CPMatic will turn off your campaign if it doesn’t convert well. 
• NOTE: If the CPA is set too low,  the campaigns are subject to disapproval due to their inability to perform. For these campaigns you will pay the small serving CPM indicated and the CPA you have selected in the Goal section. 

6. Set Your Frequency - Frequency refers to the number of times that a single user will see any of the ads in the campaign in a given day or hour. We recommend selecting "Variable" so that CPMatic can automatically optimize the frequency.

• CPMatic does not guarantee strict frequency caps if multiple systems are selected.  If you are using ad tags, please ensure that your tags will display your campaign ads regardless of the frequency. If you would like to set up campaigns with multi-day or lifetime frequency caps, please contact support.

 

7. Campaign Run Dates:  Select the start and end date for your campaign.

 

8. External Systems: Based on the input media budget, you will be able to select or deselect one or more systems to run your campaign on. You must select at least one system to run on. There are minimums for running on each system which can be seen in the External Systems tab. These values are not the proportion of your budget that will be spent in each system – the exact allocation of budget by system will be determined by CPMatic’s algorithms which find the best places for your ads to be run.

9. Segments CPMatic offers data providers to enhance your campaign, such as BlueKai, eXelate, AlmondNet, and Lotame. Segments from each of these providers can be purchased by CPMatic with zero markup cost.

Simply set a Data Budget and click on “Choose Segments.” --> Expand each data provider and find the segments that you would like to purchase.

• NOTE: If the data is available, the estimated number of users in each segment will be shown here under Estimated Audience Size. This is the number of US users available on a monthly basis.

At any time you can select a segment or sub-segment by clicking the “Add” button next to that segments name. Once added you will see the name of the segment and sub-segment(s) in the window above. Once you start your campaign, these are the segments that we will purchase from the data providers subject to the data budget you have provided. The pricing for data provider segments varies, but is typically either a fixed or variable CPM fee (BlueKai – usually $1.00+) or a revenue share (eXelate or AlmondNet) that typically varies from 20-30%.

10. Uploading Your Ads: Click "Upload New Ads" or "Create HTML Ads."  

To associate ads with this particular campaign drag and drop them into the right hand window. You may also select the ad and then use the yellow arrow to move it over to the right hand window. Similarly if you no longer want an ad to be associated with the campaign drag or arrow it back into the left hand window. You can now “Save Changes” and continue with the campaign setup process.

• NOTE: Each campaign set to start must have at least one live, approved ad associated with it. You can review our Ad Specifications to ensure a speedier ad approval process. You will then see all your uploaded ads on the left hand window.  

 

11. Enter Targeting:  You can set global targeting by selecting "Set Geography by” the geo/regions you want to target, be it specific countries (US is the default), states or DMAs.

•  NOTE: You cannot combine targeting lists, i.e. United States country Targeting with DMA Targeting.

Next enter as much of the “Optional Information about your target audience” as you are able, to help the system better optimize your campaign. To further optimize the Targeting enter demographics, URLs or Keywords that are associated with successful campaigns for your brand. The Targeting metrics you select will not strictly limit your ads from serving to other demographic groups but depending on availability will be used by CPMatic for targeting and optimization. 

12. Billing: Once your campaign setup is complete you will be prompted to fill out the Billing section. We offer three methods for payment: Credit Card and/or PayPal and/or Account Credits combinations.

• Account Credits:  Credits can be added anytime. Under the billing tab in Finances you may choose to use the credits on your account or not. Payments are authorized in real time and charged in full once we approve your campaigns. When the campaign progress bar on the right reaches 100%, your campaign is ready to start!

13. Starting Your Campaign: Once you've created a campaign, set up your ads, and funded it in full, you can start your campaign! Hit the “Start Campaign” button and the campaign will be sent to XA.net for approval. Expect approval within 2 hrs, and no more than 24.