What are Programmatic Ads?
As an email newsletter publisher using programmatic ads, you can automate ad buying and placement, ensuring relevant ads are displayed to your subscribers. This approach optimizes ad revenue, enhances user experience, and simplifies ad management through real-time bidding, targeting, and performance tracking.
How does it work on PostApex?
We provide a unique tracking pixel (essentially a HTML snippet) that you embed into your newsletter.
Every time someone reads your newsletter, the HTML snippet will call our server and render the advert banner image. Here's an example of a programmatic advert in The New York Times.
The banner image you can see for the advert, is generated when the email is opened.
What ads will be shown to subscribers?
When a reader opens an email newsletter containing programmatic ads, the ad server connects to our ad exchange, where multiple advertisers bid in real-time for the available ad space. Our ad exchange selects the highest bidder, and their ad is then displayed to the reader. This entire process happens within milliseconds, ensuring a seamless experience for the reader, while delivering targeted and relevant ads based on their interests and preferences.
Each subscriber will see a unique advert that is tailored to them, based on their location, time of day, interests and other demographic factors.
Which ESPs does this work with?
Programmatic advertising can work with various Email Service Providers (ESPs), as long as the provider supports integration with custom HTML content. Some popular ESPs known to support programmatic advertising include:
Please note that Substack is NOT supported.
How do I get started then?
Login to your account and then head to Adverts -> Programmatic Ads
Click Open Advert and you'll then see two different ad sizes. A long banner ad (600x150) or a medium sized ad (300x150).
Copy one, or both of the below snippets and paste them into your newsletter provider. You can alter the styling of the advert to match your regular newsletter content.
Make sure you paste the code snippets correctly.
Go to your ESP and paste the HTML snippet into your newsletter. You might need to use the code block if your ESP supports a drag and drop builder. Here's an example from Mailchimp.
Once the advert is inserted and you can see it rendering, you can publish the advert as usual. The clicks from the advert will display automatically in your dashboard in real-time. Commission earnings may have a slight delay as we aggregate earnings data from various sources and feed it back into your dashboard.
How much can I earn running Programmatic Ads?
The amount you can earn from running programmatic ads in your email newsletter depends on several factors, such as your newsletter's audience size, engagement rates, and the demand for ad inventory in your niche.
Programmatic ads use real-time bidding (RTB) to determine ad prices, meaning that advertisers bid against each other for the available ad inventory. Ad prices can fluctuate depending on the demand and supply of ad inventory, as well as the competition among advertisers.
In general, programmatic ads tend to generate higher revenue than traditional display ads, as they are optimized to display relevant and targeted ads to your audience. According to some industry reports, programmatic ads can generate CPM rates (cost per thousand impressions) ranging from $2 to $15 or more, depending on the factors mentioned above.
To maximize your earnings from programmatic ads, focus on growing and engaging your newsletter audience, optimizing your ad placement and targeting, and keeping an eye on the ad performance and revenue reports.
