Zedo Ad Server Review
In October we purchased ad serving software from the third largest ad serving company in the world: Zedo. This is a solution for affiliate marketers that gives them the power to test/rotate banners and optimize their campaigns among many other things. First off let me mention I wouldn’t recommend this software to beginners to media buying or whatever method you are planning on promoting simply because of the pricing. The pricing can get expensive depending on how much volume you are running but it’s a bare minimum $1,000 start up fee. I’ve heard rumors you can waive this fee by signing a year contract, $1,000 minimum but I figure if you can’t afford the startup fee you won’t be able to front $12,000 either. We primarily use this software for our media buys and even though it is a bit pricey, it definitely has helped us out when optimizing our campaigns. Ryan is planning on doing an analysis of a couple of ad serving platforms so keep an eye out for that in the near future.
The main reasoning behind purchasing this kind of software is because we were tired of dealing with DART. We have never used DART for our own ads but some of the sources we were buying inventory from had chosen to use it and it was a real headache. First off, it doesn’t load on Mac computer even with a Chrome browser, which makes no sense to me personally since DART and Chrome are from the same company… Secondly, maintenance and slow update times made it very frustrating. Zedo solves both of these problems while putting a lot more control in our hands for our campaigns. It updates frequently and even has a live impression count on banners. Unfortunately the CTR/clicks is usually off by a lot so it doesn’t help too much other than to check whether your banners are live or not. The great part about Zedo is you can add/remove banners whenever you’d like instead of having to wait for the party that owns the media to take them down. This got frustrating on the weekends when we couldn’t test a banner on Friday – Sunday because of the inability to take it down. We started to really believe in the old belief “if you want something done you have to do it yourself” after a while…
Whenever you buy the software you automatically have to pay for the first training call. I can’t say this was a very enjoyable experience to be honest. We were placed on the phone with three Zedo support representatives and although they were very nice and attempted to be helpful it was a little confusing. The three people were all located in three different countries: USA, somewhere in Europe, and Sri Lanka. The lady that did the most talking and the walkthrough was from Sri Lanka and the language barrier between our questions and her answers was pretty substantial. So if you do plan to buy this software, don’t be surprised if you have to teach yourself the ropes. They do give you a visual walkthrough while you are on the phone though so if you are technically savvy you can figure it out with some practice. I was just a little nervous figuring out while we were spending $3,000 a day on a campaign; talk about playing with fire! Despite the training call the support has been good though. They have a live chat feature and usually their outsourced help can be pretty informative.
The features of the software are definitely helpful in optimizing campaigns. With a variety of graphs and reports that you can generate, not to mention breakdown of your CTR, clicks, and conversions from your banners, you definitely have more power to optimize and make your campaigns more profitable. The only downside to the tracking is that there is almost always a discrepancy between the impressions you are actually billed and the impressions that this kind of software records. I have heard the industry average is 10% but we’ve seen as much as 20% on our end. Again, the software will show 10-20% less impressions that what you were actually served. As long as this number is closer to 10% and you are dealing with a sizable amount of volume, this usually isn’t a big deal because you can still figure out which ad/banner is performing the best.
Overall, the price tag of the Zedo software can only be worth it if it’s worth it to you in terms of convenience. The way we reasoned paying $X,XXX a month was that we believed that the convenience of being able to edit/add/remove banners anytime of the day/week would allow us to increase our profits exponentially. If you have some of the same grievances we’ve had with DART and/or you aren’t harnessing all the powers available to optimize your campaigns, Zedo is definitely a tool that you should explore.
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11 Responses to “Zedo Ad Server Review”
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The only reason why you should go with a commercial adserver is because of the agency requirements to run your campaigns with only ”certified” adservers.
Most current adservers are way over priced and looks like they have never been updated since 1997 (hello Mediaplex!)
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Ryan says:
This is true, but also remember the amount of volume commercial ad servers can handle. If you were to purchase a cluster of dedicated servers to handle hundreds of millions of impressions, you’d spend the cost of the commercial server on bandwidth alone.
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I purchased media off somewhere that was using Zedo. We bid CPM and eventually tried CPC but the clicks it came up with that we were billed were WAY over the clicks showing at the affiliate network level. It was enough to make the campaign not profitable even though it should have worked out well.
Thanks for the writeup. I’ve been comparing between Zedo and Adjuggler and I think I’m going to go with AdJuggler. The interface on AJ is way more user friendly. I’m only wondering how much volume it can handle and how accurate it is compared to Zedo.
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Ryan says:
Wes, I used AdJuggler YEARS ago, but it was for actually selling inventory rather than buying. However, your story is interesting, as we haven’t seen this. We’ve actually bought inventory on sites that use DART and have noticed that DART bills 15 – 20% MORE impressions than Zedo. The IAB industry standard is around 10%. Good luck with AdJuggler, please let us know how it works for you!
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Hey John, great review!
I’m a regular reader of JonathanVolk.com, I followed your interview there to your blog. I have found a lot of informative posts here, well done.
I have some experience with self-service media buys, will start my first managed media buy campaign tomorrow(signing I/0). I have a few questions here about Zedo and media buys.
1. ‘You can add/remove banners whenever you?d like’. Do new banners need to be approved by REP at media buy company?
2. What websites do ads run on? On self-service platform you can choose sites or category. With managed media buys, you submit your targeted audience, the REP helps to target them. Is this right?
3. The different impressions. I read somewhere you can be billed off of the impressions recorded by Zedo after negotiation, if the media buy network accepts IAB certified ad server, such as Zedo.
4. I talked with Zedo before, they sent me an I/O. Signing a year contract, $1,000 minimum will waive the setup and training fee of $1500. I’m not clear with this $1000 minimum. Does it mean you have to spend at least $1000 each month?
5. For Ryan’s last comment, I guess it’s because of different ways to serve ads, for example javascript or iframe, or different blocking rules(most blocking rules may have doubleclick.com included). Ad block software may have different effects to block these ads.
Thanks,
Bryan
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John says:
Hey man, thanks for the feedback I replied to this earlier but evidently it didn’t post.
1. Yes, most of the time they will make you run it by them but we have a couple of companies that allow us to just throw them up whenever we please because we’ve been working with them for a while. Usually it’s not a big deal to get it approved though, maybe a couple hours at most.
2. Not sure if I understand the first part of your second question. Yes, with that kind of setup the rep would have to turn on/off certain channels/sources.
3. Yep, you are right. We just never have had any luck getting them to bill on our numbers.
4. Yes, that means you have to pay them $1,000 every month no matter what kind of volume you run with them.
Thanks for posting and feel free to contact us with any more questions about your buy. Good luck!
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Great writeup! I am looking to do multiple direct buys on lots of medium traffic sites.
I was wondering if you guys have used Adshuffle or AdSpeed? They have a low startup cost and they seem to be scalable…
Also, do you think AdShuffle and/or AdShuffle are billable servers?
Thanks!
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John says:
Hi there,
We haven’t used either of those servers but they are definitely familiar. The source would have to decide whether they are billable servers but usually people are pretty picky and will only bill off 1-2 particular servers. (Usually Zedo is one of them from what we’ve found)
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Hey John, nice post on Zedo Ad Server. I am looking into contacting them for the Ad Server, just to be clear, its $1000 a month to use it?
and training fee of $1500? But if I sign a 1 year contract, the training fee is waived? if this the case, will I be paying $12000 up front or can I pay $1000 on a monthly basis for 12 months? thanks for any info.
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Ryan says:
Dave,
We’ve actually started using AdSuffle. Zedo is cheaper but they do require a 6 month contract with that pre-paid in advance. AdSuffle simply ‘bill as you go’.
I think we paid around $9,000 for the first 6 months… Hope this helps!
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[...] I could continue to go on and on about the benefits of having an ad server, but after my $30K figure I’m sure you get the picture. For those of you that can’t afford an ad server, I suggest working with the self-serve advertising networks before moving to a media buy. Get things profitable, learn the ropes, and then move into the ‘big leagues’ with your own ad server. Several months ago John posted a review on the Zedo Ad Server Review which you may want to check out again at this link. [...]
The only reason why you should go with a commercial adserver is because of the agency requirements to run your campaigns with only ”certified” adservers.
Most current adservers are way over priced and looks like they have never been updated since 1997 (hello Mediaplex!)
-
This is true, but also remember the amount of volume commercial ad servers can handle. If you were to purchase a cluster of dedicated servers to handle hundreds of millions of impressions, you’d spend the cost of the commercial server on bandwidth alone.
I purchased media off somewhere that was using Zedo. We bid CPM and eventually tried CPC but the clicks it came up with that we were billed were WAY over the clicks showing at the affiliate network level. It was enough to make the campaign not profitable even though it should have worked out well.
Thanks for the writeup. I’ve been comparing between Zedo and Adjuggler and I think I’m going to go with AdJuggler. The interface on AJ is way more user friendly. I’m only wondering how much volume it can handle and how accurate it is compared to Zedo.
-
Wes, I used AdJuggler YEARS ago, but it was for actually selling inventory rather than buying. However, your story is interesting, as we haven’t seen this. We’ve actually bought inventory on sites that use DART and have noticed that DART bills 15 – 20% MORE impressions than Zedo. The IAB industry standard is around 10%. Good luck with AdJuggler, please let us know how it works for you!
Hey John, great review!
I’m a regular reader of JonathanVolk.com, I followed your interview there to your blog. I have found a lot of informative posts here, well done.
I have some experience with self-service media buys, will start my first managed media buy campaign tomorrow(signing I/0). I have a few questions here about Zedo and media buys.
1. ‘You can add/remove banners whenever you?d like’. Do new banners need to be approved by REP at media buy company?
2. What websites do ads run on? On self-service platform you can choose sites or category. With managed media buys, you submit your targeted audience, the REP helps to target them. Is this right?
3. The different impressions. I read somewhere you can be billed off of the impressions recorded by Zedo after negotiation, if the media buy network accepts IAB certified ad server, such as Zedo.
4. I talked with Zedo before, they sent me an I/O. Signing a year contract, $1,000 minimum will waive the setup and training fee of $1500. I’m not clear with this $1000 minimum. Does it mean you have to spend at least $1000 each month?
5. For Ryan’s last comment, I guess it’s because of different ways to serve ads, for example javascript or iframe, or different blocking rules(most blocking rules may have doubleclick.com included). Ad block software may have different effects to block these ads.
Thanks,
Bryan
-
Hey man, thanks for the feedback I replied to this earlier but evidently it didn’t post.
1. Yes, most of the time they will make you run it by them but we have a couple of companies that allow us to just throw them up whenever we please because we’ve been working with them for a while. Usually it’s not a big deal to get it approved though, maybe a couple hours at most.
2. Not sure if I understand the first part of your second question. Yes, with that kind of setup the rep would have to turn on/off certain channels/sources.
3. Yep, you are right. We just never have had any luck getting them to bill on our numbers.
4. Yes, that means you have to pay them $1,000 every month no matter what kind of volume you run with them.
Thanks for posting and feel free to contact us with any more questions about your buy. Good luck!
Great writeup! I am looking to do multiple direct buys on lots of medium traffic sites.
I was wondering if you guys have used Adshuffle or AdSpeed? They have a low startup cost and they seem to be scalable…
Also, do you think AdShuffle and/or AdShuffle are billable servers?
Thanks!
-
Hi there,
We haven’t used either of those servers but they are definitely familiar. The source would have to decide whether they are billable servers but usually people are pretty picky and will only bill off 1-2 particular servers. (Usually Zedo is one of them from what we’ve found)
Hey John, nice post on Zedo Ad Server. I am looking into contacting them for the Ad Server, just to be clear, its $1000 a month to use it?
and training fee of $1500? But if I sign a 1 year contract, the training fee is waived? if this the case, will I be paying $12000 up front or can I pay $1000 on a monthly basis for 12 months? thanks for any info.
-
Dave,
We’ve actually started using AdSuffle. Zedo is cheaper but they do require a 6 month contract with that pre-paid in advance. AdSuffle simply ‘bill as you go’.
I think we paid around $9,000 for the first 6 months… Hope this helps!
[...] I could continue to go on and on about the benefits of having an ad server, but after my $30K figure I’m sure you get the picture. For those of you that can’t afford an ad server, I suggest working with the self-serve advertising networks before moving to a media buy. Get things profitable, learn the ropes, and then move into the ‘big leagues’ with your own ad server. Several months ago John posted a review on the Zedo Ad Server Review which you may want to check out again at this link. [...]
11 Comments