Ad Operations SLA & Turnaround Times for Campaign Launch

Published by: Mark Verone , Gogo, us

Published on: January 23, 2012

Ad Monsters:

I am trying to benchmark the average SLA / turn around times for campaign kickoff, development, QA and launch from the time you receive a signed contract and all creative from a client. Our current lead times seem extremely long and I am looking to see how other publishers / monsters approach it.

Below are some high-level Campaign Types...I would love to see the turn around times for these from other publishers.

*Standard Display Ad Campaign (banners, buttons, etc.)
*Rich Media Display Ad Campaign (html 5, flash, etc.)
*Video Display Ad Campaign (pre-roll, in-stream, etc.)
*Homepage or Site Takeover Campaigns (sponsor owns all display ads and/or background wallpaper)
*Standard Email Sponsorship (display ads in email)
*Custom Email Sponsorship (stand alone sponsor email)
*Custom Sponsorship (requiring development, creative or landing pages)
*Custom Partnership (requiring deep integration of content, etc)

Thanks,
Mark Verone Director, Ad Operations & Content Management
Gogo | 1250 N Arlington Heights Rd | Itasca, IL 60143 | O: +1 630 647 1473 | M: +1 847 477 8674

Comments

#1 Mark Verone - January 26, 2012

These response are GREAT - keep them coming!

#2 Darren Sharp - January 24, 2012

My team try to work to a 24 hour working day turn-around for all standard campaigns, irrespective of ad type (standard display, rich media, video, mobile, email etc or takeovers etc). The only campaigns we need longer turn-around are custom programmes where we are doing content creation, ad creation etc where lead times can vary enormously depending on the programme and how quite clients are to respond with feedback, provide assets etc as required.

One the ways we have speeded up the process, is by ensuring consistency across our entire network, with standardised key values, taggging etc to ensure all traffickers can quickly pick up a campaign for a site they wouldnt normally work on.

Clearly we manage this process by prioriting campaigns not when we recieve them but when they are due to commence.

#3 Melissa Bertram - January 24, 2012

Hi Mark ~

Hope you are well. Below are our published lead times, these are our guarantees. However, like most publishers, we make every effort to hit the start date, regardless of when creative was received:

*Standard Display Ad Campaign (banners, buttons, etc.) - 5BD from receipt of complete & in spec creative
*Rich Media Display Ad Campaign (html 5, flash, etc.) - 5BD from receipt of complete & in spec creative
*Video Display Ad Campaign (pre-roll, in-stream, etc.) - we don't offer video, but when we did I believe it was 10BD
*Homepage or Site Takeover Campaigns (sponsor owns all display ads and/or background wallpaper) - 10BD from receipt of complete & in spec creative
*Standard Email Sponsorship (display ads in email) - we don't offer
*Custom Email Sponsorship (stand alone sponsor email) - we don't offer
*Custom Sponsorship (requiring development, creative or landing pages) - dependant on the program, lead times are handled by our Product Marketing group, they solicite feedback from Ad Ops, Design, Ed Content (all impacted teams)
*Custom Partnership (requiring deep integration of content, etc) - dependant on the program, lead times are handled by our Product Marketing group, they solicite feedback from Ad Ops, Design, Ed Content (all impacted teams)

Cheers ~
Melissa

#4 Nathaniel Francis - January 24, 2012

Hi Mark,

Response below -

*Standard Display Ad Campaign (banners, buttons, etc.) - 2 working days from signed order/active in our sales system or 2 working days from receiving creative whichever is latest.
*Rich Media Display Ad Campaign (html 5, flash, etc.) - 2 working days from signed order/active in our sales system or 2 working days from receiving creative whichever is latest.
*Video Display Ad Campaign (pre-roll, in-stream, etc.)2 working days from signed order/active in our sales system or 2 working days from receiving creative whichever is latest.
*Homepage or Site Takeover Campaigns (sponsor owns all display ads and/or background wallpaper) - We only run page takeovers - 2 working days from signed order/active in our sales system or 2 working days from receiving creative whichever is latest.
*Standard Email Sponsorship (display ads in email) - Not part of our remit
*Custom Email Sponsorship (stand alone sponsor email) - Not part of our remit
*Custom Sponsorship (requiring development, creative or landing pages)- Anything requiring development would have the timelines sighed of by development; if sales pushed me on it the most they would get from me in terms of timelines would be “months”.
*Custom Partnership (requiring deep integration of content, etc)- see above

Anything we have experience with adserving we’ll generally quote a 2 working day turn around. If it requires a build from our production team or an external production team that we commissioned then we’ll generally ask for the assets three weeks in advance of the start date. If it's a new ad type that we haven't run before (crazy rich media home page takeover anyone?), then we'll ask for five working days.

Off coarse what our SLA says and what often happens can be two very different things…