Tip of the Day: PPC + CPM = Total Impressions

Over the last couple of weeks, we've responded to a number of publishers asking about impressions that are apparently uncounted or underrepresented. As we've dug more deeply into these inquiries and communicated with these publishers, we've discovered the issue is largely due to the fact that only PPC (pay-per-click) impressions are shown on the MyWidgets page’s default (“Widgets”) view. To get a full picture of total impressions, you will need to also look at the “CPM Ad” tab. The Widgets tab displays PPC impressions, while the CPM Ads tab shows CPM impressions. Click on the screenshot at right to see examples of the two tabs.

Starting mid next week, we've decided to improve this display by showing a roll-up of Widget/PPC and CPM impressions and revenue to complement the existing tabbed information. Additionally, impressions, revenue and other related info will be totaled at the bottom of each each tabbed page. This screenshot gives an early sneak peek of what publishers can expect to see on their MyWidgets pages when this rolls out (the red boxes show the affected areas). NOTE: the figures displayed are for mock-up purposes only.

Here is a summary of the upcoming MyWidget page updates:

• A "roll-up" view of Widget/PPC and CPM impressions and revenue, including their pie chart equivalents
• Column totals for all relevant columns in the Widgets and CPM tab views
• The default date range upon login will be set to "This Month." This eliminates the need for publishers to adjust the date range during each visit, while still giving flexibility to manually select dates.
• A "notes" feature will be added (along with a corresponding entry field in the New/Edit Widget pages). For each widget, we are providing publishers with the ability to add internal notes that won't appear on the widget itself. For instance, a publisher can note a particular ad position (i.e. "right sidebar above About Me") or any info on recent adjustments (i.e. "changed to blue 1/28/07") in order to better keep track of their changes. Site visitors will still see the main widget "Name" assigned by the publisher.

- Dean