The next step is to prepare for your buy. Ideally, you want to have the following minimum points in place before starting, first determine which campaign you are going to test. Most likely you will want to rotate with at least one or several similar campaigns.
Try to gather as much information as possible in terms of both click through rate and click to conversion rate. Next determine your publishing channels. Remember it is not uncommon to spread a buy across at least four to five known channels as well as allocate a test budget evenly across all channels. Be sure to diversify media types to include, for download and gaming campaigns, search, display buys, parked domains and contextual. All of this of course depends entirely on which media type may work particularly well for the chosen campaigns. Set daily budget caps, per campaign per channel, out of your total test budget in order minimize your overall risk. Minimize investment risk – you will want to minimize overall investment risk in addition to setting daily budget caps, by ensuring the following: What the “out clause” is on your IO? Typical periods are anywhere from 24-48 hours. Have your frequency caps set. This is particularly relevant if you are doing contextual buys or CPM. Typically, and of course depending on how much more you are willing to pay, 1/24 views or 1/12 is not uncommon. Next have your creative ready. With graphical creative’s especially, you will want to ensure that you have the correct sizes. Normally, on a display buy, it’s always good to have a good mix of creative sizes so that you have the flexibility to rotate. This includes a leader board (horizontal), skyscraper (vertical) and rectangle unit of various dimensions. (Note: creative sizes experience greater click through, contingent of course on the campaign and media type, but 300 x 250 medium rectangles have always typically worked out best in most cases).
The following have been a basic outline of how to open up your marketplace with non-CPA buying called CPM or media buying. It is just one way to open up your business to marketplaces and keep your revenue healthy through diversification. Remember, each buy will be different of course based on your individual terms defined by your IO. There is not an exact formula to media buying, so have patience and remember it is always a process. The key really is to ensure that you have minimized your risk by a) diversifying your publishing types b) diversifying your campaigns and c ) diversifying and minimizing your financial risk.