Presentation delivered at eMetrics summit in San Francisco, March 7 2012, on the challenges of creating a dashboard to report on the monetization of a complex content site or network through display advertising.

1. Designing the perfect Display
Monetization Dashboard
Ian Thomas
Senior Director, Business & Customer Intelligence
Microsoft Online Services Division

2. Your dashboard…

3. The brief
• Create a dashboard that captures the dynamics
of display ad monetization for use in an exec
briefing context and/or to be distributed to a
broad audience
3

4. The rules…
• The dashboard must be two-dimensional
 Unless you plan on buying a 3D printer
• The dashboard must be self-sufficient
 Unless you plan on wasting time explaining the numbers every time you
have a review meeting
• The dashboard should contain no non-essential numbers
 Unless you plan on wasting time focusing on pointless numbers every
time you have a review meeting

5. The archetypical dashboard (or scorecard)
Need to be
consistent and
Need to be easily
consistent and understood
easily
understood

6. The Dashboard
The Data

7. Challenges in measuring Display Ad
Monetization
1. Product/pricing complexity
2. Supply uncertainty
3. Channel complexity
4. Noise

8. Challenge 1: You can sell the same supply lots of
different ways

9. Ways to sell/package online display inventory
Method Details Key measure of value
Sponsorship All impressions during a particular time Deal value ($)
window. Usually linked to a specific site area
or page.
Reserved/guaranteed CPM Guaranteed # of impressions over a CPM
particular period at an agreed CPM. Usually
linked to a specific site area or page.
Unreserved/discretionary Target # of impressions at an agreed CPM. CPM
CPM Sometimes linked to a specific site area, or
sold as “Run of Site”.
Negotiated CPC/CPA Target # of clicks/conversions at an agreed Negotiated CPC/CPA
rate – usually sold “blind”.
Bidded CPM/CPC/CPA Impressions/clicks/conversions delivered up Actual CPM/CPC/CPA
to agreed budget at bidded rates, usually
sold blind.
9

10. Non-
Delive
deliver
ry
y
revenu
revenu
e
e
Reven
ue
Imp-
CPM ressio
ns
Volum
CPC Rate Clicks
e
Con-
CPA versio
ns

11. The importance of a common currency
Wow!

12. Where we are so far…
12

13. Challenge 2:
Supply
Uncertainty
13

14. The Michael Jackson effect
Home Page volume and revenue
Home Page eCPM
$3.00
5.0 Revenue $3.5
Revenue (Millions)
Volume (Billions)
$3.0
$2.50 4.0 Volume
$2.5
$2.00
3.0 $2.0
$1.50
2.0 $1.5
$1.00
$1.0
$0.50 1.0
$0.5
$-
0.0 $0.0
When supply is uncertain, sell-through rate (impressions sold as a
percentage of impressions available) is the most reliable measure of volume

15. Where we are so far…
15

16. Challenge 3: Channel complexity
100%
Amount of inventory sold direct
How much of your inventory
50%
you can sell direct
(at a decent price)
0%
1 10 100 1,000 Your The
entire entire
Size of your sales team (log scale) company industry

17. Dimensions of supply and demand
• Supply dimensions:
 Site area (content taxonomy)
 Creative size
 Audience attributes (e.g. demographics)
 Delivery system
• Demand dimensions:
 Sales channel (direct/indirect)
 Pricing method
 Delivery system
 Creative type (rich media vs non)
• Remember the challenge: The dashboard must be two-
dimensional
17

18. Inventory flow – avoiding double-counting
Impression
Supply
E.g. DFP
First-party ad First-party served
server impressions
Unused
impressions
Dedicated Network/AdEx
Ad Network or
remnant served
Exchange
impressions impressions
E.g. Microsoft Ad
Exchange, Google AdSense

19. Inventory flow
Impression
Supply
First-party ad First-party served
server impressions
Unused
impressions
Dedicated Network/AdEx
Ad Network or
remnant served
Exchange
impressions impressions

20. Combining dimensions to simplify
• Example: Sales Channel and Pricing Method
CAMs
(CxO Aggravation Metrics)
20

21. Where we are so far…
21

22. Challenge 4: Noise

23. Example: Reducing noise (1)
Total eCPM
$1.00
$0.80
$0.60
$0.40 eCPM
$0.20
$-
Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Total revenue and impressions
40,000,000 $25,000
35,000,000
$20,000
30,000,000
25,000,000 $15,000
20,000,000 Revenue
15,000,000 $10,000
Impressions
10,000,000
$5,000
5,000,000
- $-
Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
23

24. Example: Reducing noise (2)
Impressions by size
40,000,000
35,000,000
30,000,000
25,000,000
20,000,000 Small Revenue by size
15,000,000
Large
10,000,000 $25,000
5,000,000
- $20,000
Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
$15,000
Small
$10,000
Large
eCPM by size
$5,000
$1.40
$1.20 $-
$1.00 Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
$0.80
Large
$0.60
Small
$0.40
$0.20
$-
Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
24

25. Our finished dashboard
25

26. Those challenges again…
Challenge Approach
Product/pricing complexity Focus on eCPM, Impressions and
Revenue
Supply uncertainty Focus on sell-through on supply
Channel complexity Deduplicate and simplify
Noise Filter out noisy signals – you do not
have to report on everything

27. Thank you
More information:
www.liesdamnedlies.com
ian.thomas@microsoft.com
27