5 ad operations disasters

Running an efficient ad operations group is difficult at best. It gets much worse if you allow yourself to fall victim to one of several common disasters. Before we discuss how to steer clear of these storms, we'll do a quick recap of the current ad operations environment.

I always find it's important for publishers to distinguish between the problems that are unique to their ad operations group and those that are inherent throughout the entire industry. Every publisher has to deal with the following difficulties:

1.   Taking an order all the way from "quote to cash" (RFP to invoice) is relatively inefficient and involves more steps than it should.

2.       Ad operations are often run with a "patchwork" of applications, instead of a single, integrated solution.

3.       Ad server envy. Most publishers look at theirs and worry that the one down the street must be better.

4.       Internet ad inventory is difficult to predict, manage and report on, because each publisher has a unique traffic and targeting profile

5.       Third-party ad serving is making a mess of reporting and invoicing for all publishers.

Late creative complicates the delivery of ad campaigns.

If this sounds like your company, congratulations! You are dealing with the same common problems as everyone else. Why? This is due to the relative immaturity of the applications and processes that run this part of the business. By applying improvisation, workarounds and custom solutions that are specific to their needs, most publishers manage to create solutions that allow them to conduct business with some semblance of order.

But this common environment is just the tip of the iceberg, and publishers have to take care to navigate carefully. Otherwise, they run the risk of experiencing disasters of titanic proportions.