Build an ad journey
Show households a sequence of ads with waits and branches between steps, and track each step, from one graph.
A journey sends a household through a sequence of ads: a first ad, a wait, then a follow-up chosen by what the household did. You draw the sequence as a graph.
Before you start
- Have an approved creative for every ad step. You choose one per step.
- Decide the journey's total budget and how often one household may see each step.
- Keep your wallet funded. A journey bills like any other delivery.
Steps
- Open Ad Journeys and select New Journey.
- Enter a Journey Name and the Base CPM (Step 1). The page shows the CPM each later step will bid, which rises with each step.
- Set the Start Date and End Date.
- Build the graph. Drag nodes from the palette, connect them, then select a node to set it. Every journey needs exactly one Entry and at least one Ad Step.
- Choose an approved creative on each Ad Step.
- Select Create Journey. It is saved as a draft.
- On the journey's row, select the play icon (Activate).
- Enter the Total Budget ($) and Max per household / day. Optionally enter Max per household / week.
- Select Activate.
Nodes
| Node | What it does |
|---|---|
| Entry | Where households start. Exactly one. |
| Ad Step | Plays a creative. |
| Wait | Pauses before the next node, for a fixed number of hours, or until the household clicks. |
| Branch | Sends households down one of two arms on a condition, such as clicked, impressions so far, hours since entry, platform, country, or completion rate. |
| A/B Split | Splits households at random between up to four arms. |
| Holdout | Sends a share of households to a no-ad control. |
| Merge | Joins several arms into one path. |
| Loop | Repeats an Ad Step a set number of times with a wait. |
| Goal | Marks a conversion. |
| Webhook | Sends a callback to a web address you give. |
| Exit | Ends the journey for that household. |
A journey can have up to 50 nodes.
How it runs
- Activating creates one line item for each Ad Step. They appear on Line Items, named after the journey and step.
- Each of those line items is an open auction line item, the same priority as one you create yourself. A journey does not buy a higher place in the ad break.
- The total budget is split evenly between the Ad Steps, rounded down to the cent. A journey with three steps and $300 gives each step $100.
- The frequency caps apply to each step on its own. With a cap of 2 a day, a household can see step 1 twice and step 2 twice in the same day. See Pacing, budgets and frequency caps.
- You can change a step's budget or caps later on Line Items.
- The first Ad Step shows on ordinary delivery rules. Each later Ad Step is shown only to households that have moved into that step.
- Households move on when their wait is over. This is checked every 2 minutes.
- Journeys need LtvAdx to identify the household, like other household targeting.
Managing a journey
Expand a row to see impressions, clicks, click rate and spend for each step. An active journey also shows a conversion postback address. Call it from your landing page or server when a household converts, replacing the placeholder with that household's identifier.
You can pause an active journey and resume it with the play icon. Resuming turns the same line items back on. Archive stops a journey permanently. Delete works only on drafts and archived journeys.
If something goes wrong
- Journey must have an ENTRY node, or exactly one ENTRY node. Fix the graph.
- Journey must have at least one AD_STEP node. Add one.
- AD_STEP node is missing creativeId. Choose a creative on that step.
- Unknown creative. The step's creative is not one of yours. Choose one of your own approved creatives.
- Set a total budget before activating, or Set a frequency cap (impressions per household per day) before activating. Fill in the activation form.
- The total budget is too small to split between your ad steps. Each step needs at least one cent. Raise the budget.
- This journey is paused. Resume it instead. Use the play icon on the paused journey.
- Your account is pending admin approval. A journey can go live once LtvAdx approves your account.
- Journey cannot have more than 50 nodes. Simplify the graph.
- Nothing plays after activation: check the line items it created with Why a campaign is not delivering.