Outside Ad Manager FAQ
About Outside Ad Manager
Outside Ad Manager is a self-service platform that allows you to build your own campaign in 5-simple steps.
Advertise on a specific site such as Outside, Pinkbike, Backpacker and Climbing or select Run of Network to run your campaign across the entire Outside network.
Display (Run of Site and Run of Network), Connected TV or Native Ads (paid for by an advertiser however resembles editorial content on the site).
Campaigns
A campaign is set of advertisements created and displayed on our websites to reach your intended audience.
Every campaign consists of:
Budget: Set your budget based on how much you want to spend or how many impressions you want to serve.
Schedule: The dates your campaign will run.
Targeting: Where your ads will be shown.
Creatives: The actual ads displayed to your audience.
Campaigns can be set up in 5-simple steps:
Select Product: Pick from available choices.
Budget: Outside Ad Manager supports campaigns between $500 - $15,000 (if your campaign is more than $15,000 - please reach out to us directly - sales@outsideinc.com)
Schedule: Select start and end dates for your campaign. We recommend 30-days for optimal performance.
Targeting: Outside Ad Manager provides geo-targeting as an optional add-on to reach specific countries, states & DMAs, regions, provinces & cities. Leave targeting blank to reach global audience.
Creatives: Use Creative Builder to upload creatives.
All campaigns require creative review and approval. Once approved, your campaign will go live on the requested start date.
Approval will be completed within 2 business days after campaign is created and paid for.
Campaign(s) will be organized under one order. Use the Orders page to print a receipt for each transaction. You can also reach all campaigns in the left hand menu under Campaigns.
Steps to change your budget depend on the status of your campaign:
DRAFT: If your campaign is in DRAFT status, your budget can be changed.
LIVE: If your campaign is in LIVE status, your budget cannot be changed.
PAUSED: If you want to edit your budget, you can pause your campaign, copy it, cancel the original campaign and submit a new campaign with new dates and a new budget.
CANCELLED: If you cancel your campaign or if your campaign did not reach the contracted number of impressions, you will get a refund.
You can edit a campaign that has already been submitted and paid for by navigating to the campaign and clicking Edit. Targeting and flight dates can be edited, however you cannot edit your budget.
NOTE: If your campaign has already started, the start date cannot be changed.
Your campaign may no longer be delivering impressions because the end date has passed. If you want your campaign to continue delivering impressions, you will need to create a new campaign.
Your campaign may no longer be delivering impressions if you have no active creatives. You can view all of your submitted creatives by navigating to your campaign and clicking on Creatives. Make sure at least one creative is active in order for the campaign to deliver.
If you are still having issues, please contact the support team. A contact form is available through the Support button in the drop-down menu in the top right corner of the platform.
To stop a campaign from delivering, click into the campaign and select Pause from the dropdown. The campaign will stop delivering impressions. Once paused, the campaign can then be cancelled.
Click on your campaign to view the status:
DRAFT: The campaign has not yet been submitted. Please note, once a campaign has been submitted, it can take up to 30 minutes for a campaign’s status to be updated.
PENDING: The campaign has been set up and paid for but has not reached its start date yet.
LIVE: The campaign is currently delivering impressions.
COMPLETED: The campaign has fulfilled its budget or passed its end date and is no longer delivering impressions.
CANCELLED: The campaign has been cancelled and will no longer deliver impressions.
PAUSED: The campaign has been paused and is no longer delivering impressions.
FAILED: Your campaign has failed. Please contact the support team. A contact form is available through the Support button in the drop-down menu in the top right corner of the platform.
Targeting
Currently geo-targeting is available. Geo-targeting using location data to determine who sees your ad.
Geo-targeting should be used to efficiently use your budgeted impressions within your target market.
Select specific countries, states & DMAs, regions, provinces & cities to target your audience or leave targeting blank to reach global audience.
Geo-targeting for Europe is available by country. Select the country or countries that you wish to target.
Creatives
Creative is the image or video that will be shown to the audience you target. You can upload creative (like a JPG image), or create one from scratch through the easy-to-use Creative Builder.
Creative can be uploaded or built from scratch using the easy-to-use Creative Builder.
Display creatives (JPG, PNG, GIF) - use this option when your ad is a single image and already contains the image and text you want.
Video ads (:15s MP4, VAST) - use this option when your ad is a video.
Third-party script creative - use this if your creative is served from a third-party provider.
All creatives you upload or create are always available in your Creative Library.
The “Build a Creative” option is available in the add creative step. This option is great to use if you do not have creative readily available. To use this option, simply upload an image, add your logo, text, and click-through URL, and the creative will be built for you.
Yes. To add new creatives once your campaign is live, click your campaign and navigate to the creatives tab.
Creatives will be approved or rejected by the Outside Ad Manager team within 2 business days. You will be contacted if there are any issues with your creatives.
Click HERE to review the Creative Approval Policy.
PENDING: The creative has been submitted and is pending approval.
ACTIVE: The creative has been approved.
REJECTED: The creative was rejected. If this is the only creative, the campaign will not deliver.
Creative must be uploaded individually for each ad size.
Multiple creatives (A/B testing) can be used to determine which performs better.
Upload the same creative with a unique name for each click tracker - repeat as many times as needed.
Upload the same creative with a unique name for each click tracker - repeat as many times as needed.
Geo-targeting is defined at the campaign level. To geo-target different creatives or click trackers, create individual campaigns for each.
Reporting
You can view campaign performance at any time by navigating to your campaign and clicking on the performance tab. Here you can view real-time campaign performance by date range. Click on the creatives tab to view overall performance by creative.
To download a report containing all performance related metrics click on Reports in the left hand meu. You can also schedule automated reports to be sent to your email at a frequency of your choosing.
The following metrics are available in the exported reports in the Reports section. Note that some of these metrics may not be available, depending on the date range you selected when creating the report. Metrics listed in the reports include:
Booked impressions: The amount of impressions that were calculated according to your budget when you created your campaign.
Budget: The dollar value you set when creating your campaign.
Clicks: The amount of clicks during the selected date range.
Delivered impressions: The amount of impressions that delivered during the selected date range.
CTR: The “click-through-rate” is the number of clicks received, divided by the number of delivered impressions. The CTR is presented as a percentage.
Spend: The total amount of the campaign budget spent based on the number of delivered impressions during the selected date range.
Billing and Costs
Pricing varies based on site, however is easily visible as you create your campaign.
Once you have finished creating your campaign, you will be taken to the checkout page. From here you can choose to pay for the campaign, or add more campaigns. Outside Ad Manager supports payments via credit card through our secure payment provider, and accepts many major credit cards.
You will be charged at checkout for your campaign’s total budget.
If your campaign delivers an impression amount lower than what you budgeted for, the platform will automatically refund the amount that was not delivered to your credit card after the campaign has ended.
In the event of under delivery, the value of non-delivered impressions will be calculated and refunded. Please note that the validity period of the credit card used to purchase the campaigns should cover the entire delivery period for all campaigns that were part of the order, as refunds can only be issued for the same card that was used to pay for the campaigns.
Please check the Terms and Conditions for more details about Outside Ad Manager’s refund policy.
You can update your payment information when you checkout or within your user profile, located in the dropdown menu in the top right corner of the platform.
Payment statuses are listed in the orders section. Payment statuses include:
SETTLED: Payment is confirmed and the budget has been captured by the credit card.
SENT FOR REFUND: A refund was issued due to under delivery. It usually takes 2-5 business days to complete the refund.
COMPLETED: All campaigns that were part of order are complete. Any potential under delivery has been been calculated, and a refund has been issued.
CARD INVALID: There was an issue with your credit card. For more information please contact support. A contact form is available through the Support button in the dropdown menu in the top right corner of the platform.
My Account
You can update your account information by clicking on your user profile located in the dropdown menu in the top right corner of the platform. Here you can edit your company details, account details, and billing information.
You can edit your password by going to your user profile located in the dropdown menu in the top right corner of the platform. Click on Reset Password under Account Details. You can also reset your password by logging out and clicking on the Forgot Password link on the login page.
To change the email address associated with your account, you will need to contact support. A contact form is available through the Support button in the dropdown menu in the top right corner of the platform.
For assistance with your account or to cancel your Outside Ad Manager account, you will need to contact support. A contact form is available through the Support button in the dropdown menu in the top right corner of the platform.