How To Schedule Facebook Ads To Run On Specific Time of The Day

Yesterday, I created a Facebook ad to promote one of my recent blog posts with a $6 budget (approximately NGN1,000). I did not only ensure I targeted demographics and interests that will be more likely to be interested in engaging with the ads, I also scheduled the ads to run on specific time of the day.





In this post, I've decided to share with you, steps involved in getting this done. I expect you to have created your ad, making sure you use a lifetime budget instead of daily budget for your Ad set.



==> Sign in to www.facebook.com/ads

==> Click on "Power Editor". Works fine on Chrome browser.

==> Download your campaigns to the Power editor

==> Go to the ad set containing the ad you want to schedule

==> While on the "Edit Ad Set" page, scroll down to "Ad Scheduling"

==> Select "Run ads on a schedule"

==> Select the blocks of time you want ads in the Ad Set to run.

==> Click "Upload Changes" to upload your changes to the ad system.



That's all.



Below is a screenshot of my ad set scheduled to run from 6am to 12am.

NB: Your ad set must run for at least one hour. There is no maximum amount of time the ad set can run.



If you schedule your ad set to run at a specific day and time, your ad set will show in your audience's time zone. For example, if you select 8am-10am, your ad set will show to people from 8am to 10am in their local time.



Keep in mind that your insights, reports and billing will continue to show in your ad account's time zone and also keep in mind these best practices for scheduling ad sets.



Do you schedule your ads? How do they perform compared to the non-scheduled ads?

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How To Post Ad Spaces For Sale On AdAfri.com

Few days back, I published a post about AdAfri.com; a site that allows advertisers to buy ad spaces from publishers that have listed their adzones available for sale on the site. If you are a publisher (site owner or blogger), I'm sharing with you in this post, how to post your ad zones on AdAfri so that you can start making money selling your blog ad spaces on the site.





You will have to sign up at AdAfri.com and your site application must be approved before you can post your ad zones on the site. To submit your property (website) for approval, sign in to your AdAfri account, click on "dashboard" and click on "Submit New Property" as seen in the screenshot below:

Fill in the details and submit your website for approval. Ensure you place the AdAfri script (code) in the ”Head” part of your website because AdAfri will track your website or blog for 2-7 days as part of the approval process.



If you own a Blogspot/Blogger blog, place the code above </head>  in your blog's html. If you own a WordPress blog, you will have to edit the header.php file and place the code in it as seen in the screenshot below:

Once your site application is approved, you can sign in to AdAfri, click on "Dashboard", then click on "Add New Ad Zone".

You will see a web form similar to the screenshot below:

Fill in the details and click "Submit".



After you have submitted your ad zone, it will automatically show in the marketplace as seen below:



It will also show on your site if you add the codes of the zone to your site.



Advertisers will see your AdZones at AdAfri marketplace and on your site to purchase your ad zones. Once an advertiser purchases your adzone, AdAfri automatically posts the ad to your website once the payment is processed and ad placement is approved by you.



You get paid through your voguePay account or local bank account every 29th of every month if you've earned up to the ayout amount. Minimum payout amount is 5000 Naira or $40.



I hope this helps.



If you've got questions, ask via comments.



You can read how AdAfri Works here.

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AdAfri Lets Advertisers and Publishers Buy and Sell Ad Space Respectively

Today, I am introducing to you, AdAfri.com; a website that has emerged with an objective of making ad buying and selling easier for publishers (website owners and bloggers), and advertisers in the emerging countries in Africa and other parts of the world.





At the online advertising marketplace, publishers can post their ad inventory (ad space banners of different dimension) for sale. The advertisers come to this marketplace to buy the publishers ad inventory or ad placement (aka ad zones).

On the buying end, adAfri allows advertisers to search through the Premium publishers and the publishers list to find the Ads they are interested in purchasing. They can also search using categories or countries. Advertisers are prompted to upload their creatives (ad banners) after clicking the "purchase' button.

Thereafter, an advertiser will have to pay for the campaign through Vogue pay secure server or direct bank deposit. Once payment is confirmed and ad is approved, it will start showing on publisher website.



AdAfri offers analytics dashboard that tracks and shows advertisers their ad campaigns clicks and impressions. AdAfri pays a publisher after the 30 days when a promoted ad campaign has ended; a security measure to protect advertisers.



On the selling end, once the site of a publisher (website owner or blogger) is approved after submission, the publisher can go ahead to post ad zones (advertising spaces) for sale in adAfri marketplace with their prices.



As a publisher, after submitting your ad zone, you place the advertising code in the place where you want the advert to show on your website. Advertisers will find your ad zones in AdAfri marketplace and on the pages of your site to purchase them. Adfri automatically posts the advetisers ads to your site once the payment is processed and ad placement is approved by you.



Publishers don't upload ad banners nor handle billing. They don’t need to remind advertisers that their ad is about to expire. AdAfri handles all that and takes 15% off the top for the services. So, if you sell an ad for N10,000, you receive N8,500.



AdAfri pays all publishers through VoguePay or local bank account on the 29th of every month provided they meet the payout amount. The payout amount is 5000 Naira or $40.



AdAfri doesn't charge publishers until they sell, so it is free to post or list ad space(Ad zones or Ad inventory) in the marketplace. AdAfri also design ad banners for those advertisers who need banners for their adverts.

You can go to www.adAfri.com to get started now.

After you sign up and submit your site for approval, ensure you add the verification code to the "head" part of your site html. Important!

What's your take on this ?



Recommended: How To Post Ad Spaces For Sale On AdAfri.com

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Adzerk Ad Server Alternatives

On June 23, 2014, Adzerk CEO James Avery, announced that free accounts and accounts who purchased apps from the Adzerk Marketplace will be terminated by August 2014. The termination date was later extended to September 5, when some users informed the management team that they were not aware of the announcement.







As at the time of publishing this, the free accounts have been terminated. All active ads I am serving with Adzerk on my blog and other partner blogs are no longer displaying. When I tried to sign in to my account this morning, I saw an alert that my account is no longer active.

Why Is This Happening?



Below is an excerpt from the warning message:

Adzerk has moved away from being a general-purpose ad server and has become a technology company that provides “ad serving as an API”, enabling publishers to build innovative native ad units by automating campaign creation, delivery and reporting.



Our new direction means that we’re not able to support the features used by customers outside of that focus, such as Network Tools. Overall, the users of our freemium product are no longer a good fit for Adzerk, and we had to make a very difficult decision about the future of our company.

What If I Want to Keep Using Adzerk?



If you would like to continue to use Adzerk as your ad server, you will need to contact the sales team to arrange for an enterprise contract. This starts at $1000/month. If this pricing is too much for you, you can try some alternatives.





So, What Are The Alternatives To Adzerk ?



Adzerk CEO James Avery was kind enough to recommend SaaS platforms for small publishers and networks such as DoubleClick for Publishers – Small Business, AdColt, and Smart AdServer. If you prefer to host your own ad server, check out Revive Adserver (the successor to OpenX Source).



He also recommended BuySellAds, which grants access to thousands of advertisers who can purchase their inventory directly.



I've downloaded my reports before my account was shut down and I have moved to a cheaper premium ad server.



What's your take on this especially the pricing ? Do you know other alternatives to Adzerk?

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How To Set Up CPM Bidding in Google Adwords

Yesterday, I decided to experiment with the CPM bidding instead of the CPC so as to test which one will work better for the promotion of my bulk SMS site on Google display partner sites using Google Adwords.

I opted for the "Search Network with Display Select" option when setting up the campaign. When I got to the point where I will have to select my bidding strategy, I didn't see any option to make the campaign focus on impressions (CPM bidding). This baffled me.



I decided to check the Adwords forum for tips on how to set up CPM bidding and fortunately, I stumbled on a thread which explains how to create a campaign that focuses on impressions using Google Adwords.



According to the thread, you can only setup CPM bidding when you have chosen the "Display Network Only" option when setting up your campaign. Selecting this option, automatically enables the CPM bidding option via the campaign settings tab, thereby allowing you to choose whether to focus on clicks (CPC) or impressions (CPM).

With CPM bidding, you bid for your ad based on how often it appears on the Google Display Network. You set the max amount you want to pay for 1000 impressions, whether your ads are clicked or not.



This bidding type is recommended to businesses that just want to get their name in front of more people, i.e businesses that care more about ad views than about clicks and visits to their websites.

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