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Introduction to Platform Concepts
Introduction to Platform Concepts

This article introduces and explains some fundamental concepts in BidTheatre DSP.

M
Written by Marcus Johansson
Updated over a week ago

Glossary

Client

The business entity, company or organisation, that pays for campaigns. Usually either a media agency, or a direct client advertiser.

Advertiser

The advertiser / brand. Belongs to a specific client.

Campaign

A marketing campaign, belonging to a specific advertiser.

Market / SSP

External marketplace integrated with BidTheatre. Represents sellers.

Supplier

Publisher that supplies ad inventory. Belongs to a specific market.

Site

Web site domain belonging to a Supplier

Tag

Specific ad placement on a Site

Creative

The graphics that make up an advertisement (ad). Can be e.g. banner, video, audio or native.

Spend & Costs

In a programmatic campaign, "cost" is the sum of

  • media costs

  • audience costs (optionally)

  • platform fees

  • targeting fees (if any)

Campaign budget targeting is based on the concept of campaign "spend", which is derived from campaign costs and the spend model assigned to the campaign (see below).

Max CPM

The Max CPM set on a campaign or bid strategy will govern the max CPM for the sum of all costs and fees. This means that a given max CPM needs to account for both media costs, any audience costs and the fees. It does not, however, take into account any spend model set (see below). Before submitting a bid, the system will subtract audience costs and any fees from the bid CPM. Also, currency conversions between systems may introduce small pricing differences that you should account for.

Generally you should expect the average effective CPM paid to be less than the set max CPM. This depends on two factors:

  • In second price auctions, the paid CPM is the bid CPM of the second highest bidder

  • If the campaign uses bid minimization or bid optimization, the system will adjust the bid CPM downwards depending on the circumstances of your campaign.

Spend Model

The spend model facilitates the possibility to introduce a margin so that the costs represents a given percentage of spend. This enables e.g. an agency to have their own handling fee included in the campaign budget.

For example, consider the following scenario:

  • Campaign has a cycle with a target spend budget of 100 000 SEK

  • The campaign has a 10% margin spend model assigned

In this case, campaign spend will be costs incurred from buying + 10% margin, so that the sum of all costs at the end of the campaign cycle is 90 000 SEK. This is what will be invoiced from BidTheatre, but campaign reporting will show 100 000 SEK campaign spend. Reports will also show cost columns, if that is preferred.

Of course, it is also possible to use a 0% margin spend model, which will equate campaign spend with campaigns costs. This is probably the preferred setup for advertisers direct.

Max CPM and Spend Model

Note that the set max CPM for bids do not take the assigned spend model into account. This means that if you want to achieve a maximum spend CPM for a campaign including the spend model margin, you will need to reduce the spend model margin from your set bid max CPM.

Example: Campaign spend model is 10%. Target eCPM including margin is CPM 50 SEK. Your max CPM should be 50 SEK * (1 - 0.1) = 45 SEK.

Campaign Termination

Campaigns will eventually become terminated, and have its campaign statistics archived and/or purged. Terminated campaigns

  • cannot be restarted

  • cannot have insights reporting generated

  • cannot have performance reporting generated

To show terminated campaigns in the Campaigns-listing, use the toggle button available in filters. To re-start a terminated campaign, make a campaign copy and modify flight dates.

See the table below for current termination thresholds.

Campaign

Termination Time After End Date

Ended or In Setup Campaign (Standard)

12 months (3 months for high volume accounts)

Ended Campaign (Campaign Bundle)

6 weeks

Ended or In Setup Campaign (Sandbox)

1 year

Paused Campaigns

1 year

All Campaigns in Ended Accounts

Immediately

From March 2023:

  • an account alert is triggered one week prior to inform about the pending termination

  • a full campaign insights report is automatically generated soon after campaign end and made available in the UI

If you have a need to pull data for terminated campaigns, reach out to support@bidtheatre.com.

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