Seeking Development: PPC (Pay Per Click) Advertising Module
Development and Programming
ExpressionEngine Members,
I run a site about a niche topic for a very targeted audience. The site generates a fair amount of traffic per day and, due to the wealth of content, gets quite a bit of random visitors with a good conversion rate of becoming members (I don’t have stats to back this up, but the growth seems solid).
Historically, ads that have been placed on the site generally have a pretty solid click through ratio due to the niche topic and target audience.
As I will be moving the site into ExpressionEngine, I am seeking a method to manage and place advertisements on the site that would make things a bit more automated for myself and also beneficial to advertisers whom would be able to login, update their payment information, and modify their advertising settings.
I used to charge a fixed rate for advertising at very low costs to pretty much just recuperate back hosting costs, and nothing else really. But as the site has grown, I need a more advanced advertising system in place.
To make advertising accessible to almost any business, big or small, I’ve devised an idea of having a PPC advertising system that would allow business members to generate ads, determine where to enlist them (homepage, category specific, weblog specific), set/adjust pay per click, view statistics of success, and finally, to update payment information.
This undertaking will surely be quite an exhausting request for anyone. I am writing this post to garner community interest and also to seek a developer whom may be willing to take up the task.
If anybody has any comments or suggestions on the module in regards to feature requests, or just in general, please feel free to post here.
I am willing to put up a fair amount of the development costs for those who want to pitch in to get a piece of this. If nobody is interested in owning it asides from myself (sigh), I will front up all the costs (granted it is within my budget)..
Nonetheless, any input on the module regardless of your intentions is VERY appreciated!
P.S. I’ve come to the conclusion there may be ways to use existing systems out there and plug it into ExpressionEngine. Whether this is the route to go or not, I’m not really sure though.. Input is appreciated on all aspects of this request.
Interesting idea, some requests for ad mamagement popped up in the forums earlier, but I don’t know of any developments.
Before investing too much time in developing an own solution, I’d look look closely at existing systems like OpenX (http://www.openx.org). Reasons for this: - You can separate ad and content server if at one time necessary or useful. - Some systems are pretty powerful. - They bring some trust for the advertisers in your statistics because they are well known.
But of course, it depends on your needs if developing a new solution in EE (I doubt only a module will do) is the better way to go.
Just my $.02 Markus
It is a very promosing concept, and a system like this would be great if it worked and integrated into EE properly.
What sort of timeframe is your project on?
Hi, Mr. Dimsum - since you are trying to gather interest to help defray the costs, I am going to leave this. However, I highly recommend that you post on the Job Board or contact Pros through the Pro Network directly as a good many of them will never see this post, but do get RSS for the Job Board.
On the pure business end, it will be hard (IMHO) for you to beat the results offered by Google Adsense…..that is, by embedding google adsense ads into your pages. This does away with your need to find and invoice advertisers - those same advertisers usually place ads with google and with adsense you can display (and get paid for them).
On my site, I do both - run ads for paying sponsors (but not at PPC) and also run a bunch of google ads.
I use an older program, which still works very well - adverts. This can be easily integrated into EE or any CMS or static pages: http://awsd.com/scripts/webadverts/
I have used it for 10 years so can vouch for it! It can do the click tracking, etc.
There are other programs to accomplish this, such as the open ads mentioned above. I see no real reason to roll your own (at great expense).
BTW, I also did a wiki entry here about how I got the Forum to display different ads in different forums - it is handy if you have to target that way. This hack will load up a “regular” banner if you have one set for that forum, or load up a google adsense banner if you do not. http://expressionengine.com/wiki/Ad_banners_in_discussion_module/
Lisa,
If the cost isn’t substantial, I’m willing to help front these entirely myself. Also, thanks for the tip on the Job Board, I will have to take a look at that. OpenX looks interesting, I’ll have to take a further look into it.
handyman, I’m not trying to compete with Google Adsense. Rather, I’m just trying to create a system for smaller and bigger businesses to take advantage of audience. As I’ve previously stated, it is a very niche topic, and the audience covers a very specific audience (i.e., enthusiasts of the topic). There is a good amount of manufacturers and publishers that are members, as well as a ton of fans.. Hence the solution being viable.
Google Adsense is great, but I wouldn’t dare run it on my website for aesthetic purposes.. At least not on this site. The system is meant to work solely on the site, and the site alone. I like my advertisers knowing they don’t have to spend an “X” amount of money per month and only nudge a couple visits out of it.
If anybody else has any other input, feel free to post it here. I don’t want to be close-minded and not include any ingenious ideas others may have before I push it out to the Job Board! :D
Cheers, D.
The adverts or openads can do stuff like allowing you to set up accounts for your advertisers, and then allowing them to actually see the performance of their ads. In my case, these “house” accounts have always trusted me (I have a niche site also, with niche advertisers), and I used to simply bill them every quarter for the click throughs.
The tough parts of your requirements is allowing the advertisers to place their ads in various locations, etc. - seems like a tough nut to crack - as such a systems would have to have priorities (what if too many advertisers wanted to use one space, etc.).
Maybe you will want to use something basic like adverts and then see how it goes… In my case, advertisers are usually too busy and understaffed to find time to follow their results closely. They want ME to be the decider as to what positions and rotations are best. Keep us informed, and good luck.
handyman,
In regards to how ads are placed, that’s the entire point of the PPC system I’m thinking about. Priorities are placed for ads whom bid higher, similar to how Adwords functions.
I haven’t given it a very deep thought yet, but I suppose an SAEF form, and using a weblog to run the ads would be fine.
That being said, OpenX does sound like what I’m looking for, but I’m ultimately looking for something a bit more connected to the EE platform.. But obviously if the price is going to be out of range, I will be looking more into OpenX and getting it integrated.
Cheers!
The idea is interesting and sound, and it might even be something I would use.
But there is more to it than meets the eye. Google makes things look easy, but often there is complicated programming behind them. For instance, you have to do things like trap IP’s when someone is falsely clicking on a banner multiple times. You also have to account for daily budgets, that is stop showing even the best ads once the customer has run out their daily PPC. Most importantly, there are the angles that we haven’t thought of yet - those are the ones that get ya!
Incorporation of external programs into EE is not a problem at all- in fact, that is part of the pleasure of using relatively open (PHP) systems. So an integrated solution should not be looked at as superior - many times it is not.
The EE developers have not, in the past, done a lot to support advertising and sponsorship (specifically) on EE……and the same can be said somewhat of us users. I know that when I was looking for the forum banner solution I was unable to get even the slightest hint on how to do it. Not dumping on the community - but it just must not be a priority need of many of the users. Who knows? Maybe EE 2.0 has some hooks or other stuff related to ad banners, etc. that we are about to see!
I’m with you, dimsum, it sure is nice to get paid for all this stuff…..and sponsorship is the best way!
Thanks for the reply. I’m not exactly the most advanced PHP developer.. Can work my way around it, but unfortunately, OOP is out of my range (for now). :D
I’m still looking into it and might seriously consider getting this developed depending how much commitment I put into my sites (which are still a hobby and nothing that is close to full-time). I just feel I have this huge untapped audience, and while advertisers are there and the hosting costs are getting paid.. I feel there could be more. I’d be happy with serving more businesses and having it more in par with the overall design, topic, and philosophy of the site rather than serving flat-rate banner ads or context based ads done through Adsense, et al.
It’s a hobby and a community. If I can serve more businesses and fans within that community, I am both cultivating the topic and also getting something out of it. At least that’s the way I look at it!
Just a quick note on openx and EE. There is not really any need to integrate the systems for the reason that they are addressing completely different needs. Just because they both use the web and can be used for delivering either content or ads into a site… does not mean they should be integrated. Why?
OpenX is really more than just a single site solution. One installation can handle ad delivery on a boat load of sites. Its better to think of OpenX as an outside service that you can use in any of your sites. Whether you host OpenX or use the service model they provide. It’s a separate system and should be kept separate.
If someday you have 20 sites you sell advertising on and some of those advertisers want to spread ads across numerous sites that you control… it would be best if they could login from just one advertiser account and then be able to select which site in your network of sites to manage ads on. This is a better approach and much easier to manage and maintain.