AdDuplex is all about helping indie developers promote their great apps and games for free. In order to be able to do that we are using part of that exchange inventory for paid campaigns and support the free service this way. This means that paid campaigns was always more of a support function of the main service and we tried to provide it in a minimum viable way that is of value to advertisers, but doesn’t distract us from the main focus – the cross promotion network.

Having said that, over the years we’ve introduced additional features (various targeting options) and statistics provided to advertisers. But the core principal was stuck in 2011 – campaigns were sold in preset fixed price packages. This meant that advertisers willing to spend more and get a bigger chunk of the traffic in popular demographics weren’t able to do so, and advertisers with focus on less lucrative areas were essentially overpaying for space that not many other advertisers wanted.

So the time has come to change that…

Bidding based campaigns on AdDuplex

From now on you will be able to specify how much you are willing to pay for a user with particular characteristics and we will take care that you pay up to that rate (usually less) for this campaign.

The system still works on the CPM basis (cost per thousand impressions) and you will be able to get campaigns running for as low as $0.10 CPM.

Setting up bidding campaigns

In order to enable that, we’ve introduced a new block called “Budget” at the bottom of each campaign’s details page.

As you can see the daily budget moved down there and a bid field was added alongside it. We also provide a bid suggestion based on your currently selected targeting. The suggestion algorithm is a little bit rudimentary at this point and will improve over time, but it should get you a quick way to determine what it would take to get a high probability of getting your ads displayed to your target audience.

Keep in mind that your bid is the maximum you are willing to pay. In reality we will charge only as much as needed to outbid your “competitors” for the same space. So, in reality you will most likely pay less than you bid.

Stats for bidding campaigns

To track your spending we’ve added a new chart to the budget stats to demonstrate your average bid for that day.

Here’s a screenshot from one of our real beta testers who had a campaign under both old (static) and new (bidding based) systems.

As you can see, after the switch he was able to utilize almost all of his allocated daily budget while paying 3-4x less for each impression.

What’s going to happen with my account?

Hopefully I’ve convinced you that this model is better for everyone, but you can’t see any of this when you visit our Client Area.

In case you never had any campaigns with AdDuplex you will be automatically converted to the new system and you can start taking advantage of the new system right away.

On the other hand, if you have some funds in your account we didn’t want to force you into the new world right away. If you prefer to continue doing things the “old way” you will be able to use up all of your current credits until the end of 2015. All accounts will be automatically converted on January 1st, 2016. Additionally you won’t be able to add extra funds to the non-bidding enabled account.

But to be honest we tried really hard to make converting a no-brainer for everyone. So I’m struggling to find a reasonable scenario when continuing with the old system would make more sense.

Additionally, to sweeten the deal for early adopters we will double (or even more) the credits in your account if you convert before July 7th, 2015. And, naturally, early adopters will have an opportunity to take advantage of lower CPMs due to lower competition in the early days and weeks of the rollout.

How do I start?

To convert your “old school” account to the bidding system go to:

Buy ads –> Billing –> Add credits

and you will be presented with the conversion page explaining the details of the process. The “meat” of that page explains what’s going to happen to funds in your account.

The logic is this – we take the “base CPM” for your account, which is the list price of impressions that you have in your account. This means that if you’ve purchased impressions with some sort of discount in the past, you will still get the funds converted as if you bought them at full price (effectively preserving your discount). Additionally we will apply an early adopter bonus if you don’t wait too long.

By the way, you can definitely visit that page even if you don’t plan to convert right away. Nothing will happen until you press the “Convert now” button.

After you click on the “Convert now” button, your currently running campaigns will be stopped, outstanding fees for them calculated and deducted from your balance. Bids for your campaigns will be preset to the “base CPM” value you can see above. (You will be able to adjust the bid for each campaign based on your preferences.) Then we will convert your remaining balance based on the rate above and reactivate your campaigns the next day (UTC time).

 

Start today and win!

As noted above, by switching early you will will get 2x more credits than those who wait, and you will compete for the same users with smaller number of other advertisers effectively guaranteeing a lower winning bid.

So what are you waiting for? Switch now!