Floodlights 8211 Your Foundation For Campaigns
Management Summary
- Trafficking
- Planning
- Reporting & Attribution
In this article, we explain what floodlights can do, how they are created and categorized, and provide insight into the depth of functionality that floodlights offer.
Floodlights – the campaign power tool
Floodlights are created in Campaign Manager under Trafficking. They are set up for each advertiser – but there is also the option of sharing a floodlight between advertisers. Then the advertiser where the floodlight was created becomes the “parent” and the other advertiser becomes the “child”.
What do floodlights do?
Floodlights measure conversions – what is counted as a conversion and the frequency with which conversions are counted can all be set via Floodlight.
A floodlight itself is a pixel created through Campaign Manager. This pixel is then installed on the website or web pages on which the measurement is to be carried out. Every time a certain action takes place on these websites, it fires a signal. These signals are then counted and attributed in Campaign Manager.
A conversion does not necessarily have to be a purchase; for many advertisers, other actions are also important, e.g. newsletter registrations, ordering loyalty cards, etc.
In contrast to these hard conversions – conversions where customers come into direct contact with the company through a purchase or registration – there are also soft conversions. These types of conversions are especially important in the awareness funnel – this is about measuring a person’s interest in the product or brand. Examples of soft conversions include dwell time, button clicks, product folder downloads and much more.
When measuring conversions, a distinction can be made between click-through conversions and view-through conversions. With click-through conversions, a conversion is counted when a click is made on the advertising material and a floodlight is triggered within the lookback period. For example, if the lookback period for a click is 10 days and a user converts 5 days after the click, then this is measured as a click-through conversion.
View-through conversions count conversions even if no click was made but the advertising material was seen by the user.
What is important to note here is to select realistic lookback periods. Campaign Manager allows you to set the lookback periods for click-through and view-through. Lookback periods can be a maximum of 90 days, but should be shorter for most advertisers.
Most often, lookback periods of 30 days are chosen for a click and 14 days for an impression.
All conversions measured via Floodlights are attributed to the campaigns set up. This means that both campaigns for which the advertising material is hosted in Campaign Manager and campaigns for which impression pixels and click trackers are created are taken into account. Conversions can also be counted for directly booked campaigns where the publisher hosts the advertising material itself, as long as an impression pixel and a click tracker are installed.
Conversion measurement is not only relevant for reporting – but also for optimization during the campaign period. When Campaign Manager and DV360 are connected, floodlights can be selected in a campaign’s DV360 set-up. Using the “Maximize Conversions” option, DV360 then optimizes for these selected floodlights.
How are floodlights created?
When creating floodlights, there are two different types: counter tags and sales tags.Counter tagsmeasure conversions that do not have order information associated with them. These conversions can be counted in three different ways:
- Standard: Each conversion is counted separately.
- Unique: The first conversion of a user within a 24-hour period is counted.
- Per session: One conversion is counted per user per session.
An example of a counter floodlight could be a “newsletter subscription”. When setting up the Floodlight, you can select Standard as the counting method, as newsletter registrations are usually only made once. The “Newsletter Registration” floodlight is then called up on the website where the registration is completed.Sales Floodlightsare used to count conversions that result in sales. When setting up Sales Floodlights, there are two ways in which conversions can be counted:
- Transaction: All conversions and the associated sales are counted.
- Items sold: All conversions and all items sold and their total sales are counted.
What are Activity Groups?
Floodlight Activity Groups group together floodlights that have the same goal. Each Floodlight must be assigned to an Activity Group – and each Activity Group can contain either Counter Floodlights or Sales Floodlights, but not both types.
Activity Groups are primarily used to group floodlights.
u variables – Custom Floodlight variables
User-defined floodlight variables – or so-called u-variables – are used to measure certain values with a floodlight. For example, sales and product IDs are often tracked. For example, it can be tracked which products are purchased most frequently.
When installing using Google Tag Manager (GTM), it is defined where the floodlight gets the values for the respective u variable from.
Up to 100 variables can be defined – however, it is not necessary to enable every variable for every floodlight.
A well-thought-out concept is the basis for meaningful reporting and valuable insights.
Furthermore, in DV360 it is also possible to create custom bidding scripts that relate to the values of floodlights. This means that higher sales can be given greater weight, or certain transactions can be given higher priority.
Conclusion:
Floodlights are an essential part of the campaign setup. They are needed not only for reporting, but also for the control (=bidding algorithms) of the campaign.
