Ask HN: How do you handle direct ad sales? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How do you handle direct ad sales?

13 pointskadavy6 comments

I recently discovered that, on some properties, the money that can be made from direct advertising relationships far exceeds that of AdSense. So, do you have experience with this, and any advice?

Specific questions: please answer one, all, or just offer advice. Thanks so much.

* How do you craft your agreements? Is there a specific contract you like to use, or do you just keep it informal?

* What level of reporting do you offer to your advertisers?

* How do you handle raising rates on advertisers?

* How do you bill? Do you just manually send invoices, or is there a tool that you use?

* Any other good-to-know's?

[UPDATE] One more question: any good marketplaces for finding advertisers?

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There are companies like appsavvy.com who do it for fb games.

I always use agreements. Main things to cover are payment terms and collecting 1/2 of the payment upfront if they are a new advertiser.

Ideally on request is what I send advertisers, otherwise a dashboard is always fun if you have the time to make one.

Raising rates is more about creating competition and value for the advertising available. At the end of the day most advertisers just do the math on the ROI. If they want to stay you can raise rates. More important imo is about retention and having advertisers over the long haul.

Freshbooks.com and other invoices. I just use a google doc template I have and email that to them.

Set up recurring billing, don't chase checks every month. Send invoices if it makes you and/or the client happy, but collect the payment automatically. I use Authorize.net for billing and Blinksale for invoicing.

This will save major headaches and improve long-term advertiser retention. (And if your advertisers aren't long-term, I suspect you'll have a tough time continually generating the new accounts necessary to make this worthwhile.)

Still in private beta (which does not help) but isocket.com would provide ease in billing, reporting, and adjusting rates. Worth signing up for notifications as a future solution :)

Have never used this http://www.openx.org/ - but removes the rate adjustment problem since you are dealing with a marketplace. Might be worth investigating as well.

Ahh, you just reminded me to ask about marketplaces. Thanks.

try trafficspaces.com

oiopublisher.com

buysellads.com

Check out www.isocket.com.

isocket is commission-free and has everything you need to run direct ad sales.

TechCrunch was our first beta tester, and they are using us to manage their direct ad sales.

I'm the Founder, John. We're bringing in new beta testers now.

Shoot me a note, would be happy to tell you more. john (at) isocket dot com

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