Source Optimizer
The Source Optimizer watches your campaigns’ traffic sources against rules you set (cost per conversion, click-through rate and bounce rate) and automatically blocks the sources that lose money or changes their bids.
Set a minimum spend before a source is judged and how many days of statistics to look back on, so new sources are not cut on one bad click.
On the CTR tab, set a minimum click-through rate and, optionally, a maximum (a very high CTR is often invalid traffic), each with the number of impressions a source needs first.
The bounce-rate rule uses a conversion pixel that records a real visit: sources whose visitors bounce more than your maximum are acted on. The check runs on views, on clicks, or automatically.
For each conversion type, set a target cost per conversion (CPA) and, optionally, a minimum margin. Sources that miss it are blocked or bid down; sources that beat it can be bid up.
How the Source Optimizer works
An optimizer is a saved set of rules that runs over one kind of source: ad zones, ISPs or domains. It ranks on conversion count or conversion earnings, needs conversion tracking to be set up, and acts on every source that has spent your minimum.
- Block: the source stops receiving your ads.
- Change bid: raise or lower the bid on that source by a percentage, with a minimum number of hours between two changes so bids don’t swing.
- Keep spots blocked: decide whether blocked sources stay blocked or come back when they qualify again.
Example
A media buyer runs a campaign across hundreds of ad zones with a registration as the conversion. She creates an optimizer on ad zones, ticks the registration conversion type with a target CPA of $3, sets a minimum spend of $5 per zone and a 7-day lookback, and chooses to block. Every zone that has spent $5 and costs more than $3 per registration stops receiving her ads. A CTR rule with a maximum of 15% also catches zones with suspiciously high click rates, a common sign of invalid traffic.
Who uses the Source Optimizer
Advertisers and media buyers who buy across many zones or domains and can’t review each one by hand. It works with the conversions from GoAdserver’s tracker. If you buy traffic on outside networks to fill your own ad zones, Agentic Media Buying does the same for the placements you buy there. Both are part of GoAdserver’s ad management.
Documentation
Set it up step by step in the GoAdserver documentation: the Source Optimizer.