Groups & Rotations

Ad Groups are a very flexible method to bundle Ads together, meaning that when you display an Ad Group, you are displaying all of the Ads that belong to that group, though not always at the same time. You can use them to display random Ads in the frontend, run split tests, set the order in which ads appear, display ad block, but also just for informational purposes. Ad Groups can have multiple ads, and any Ad can belong to multiple Ad Groups.

Setting up an Ad Group

Ad groups are for Ads what categories and tags are for posts. They can be created on the edit screen of an Ad using the Ad New Ad Group button. All the other information about the Ad Group, e.g. the group type or the number of ads to display can only be selected on the group overview page.

Ads and Ad weight

To assign an Ad to a group visit the edit page of the Ad and find the Ad Group box, in the sidebar. Click on the Ad Group you want to assign the Ad to and click the Save button. Keep in mind that you can assign one Ad to multiple Ad Groups.

Ad weights

On the Ad Group overview page you can also set the Ad Weight for each Ad. Ad weights control the proportion of views or the order in which Ads of the Group are displayed. By default, any Ad assigned to an Ad group has the weight of 10. Therefore, in an Ad Group with equal ad weights, each Ad would get about the same impressions as the other. You can disable an Ad within an Ad Group by setting the Ad weight to 0.

Ad Group Types

There are 2 AD Group types:

  • Random Ads – this type displays ads randomly based on the ad weight
  • Ordered Ads – displays the Ads in the order set by the Ad weight option

Random Ads

Some use cases for the Random Ads ad type:

  • display random Ads on one place
  • run split tests
  • rotate Ads in an Ad block to decrease ad blindness

Using ad weights with Random Ads

Keep in mind that the Ad Weight does not influence the order in which the Ads appear, but just the chance an Ad could appear.

Ordered Ads

Some use cases for the Ordered Ads type:

  • define a specific order or Ads in an ad block
  • define fallback Ads that show up if the other Ad conditions prevent the main Ad from showing

Using ad weights with Ordered Ads

With Ordered Ads, the Ad Weight doesn’t define the proportion of the views an Ad gets compared to the other Ads from the same group, but the order in which it is displayed. The higher the Ad Weight, the higher the position in the chain.

If two ads have the same Ad Weight, they are displayed randomly. This allows you to add a small rotation into a normally fixed order.

Posted in Banner Ads