Run an advertiser campaign in Ad Dropper

Ad Dropper 1.9 and later can run a direct-sold campaign the way an advertiser or their agency expects: with a start and end time, the agency's own tracking codes, and separate desktop and mobile versions. Everything below is on the ad's edit screen under Ad Dropper > Ads.

Schedule the ad

In the Ad Schedule box in the sidebar, set a Start and an End date and time. Times are in your site's timezone, which is shown under the fields.

• Before the start, the ad is not shown. After the end, it stops showing on its own. Nobody has to remember to take it down.
• Leave either field blank for no start or no end.
• If the end is not after the start, Ad Dropper warns you, because the ad would never show.
• The Schedule column in the ads list shows whether each ad is Running, Starts on a date, or Ended.

Publish the ad as normal. A published ad with a future start date waits until then.

If your site uses full page caching, also turn on Load Ads After Page Load so a cached page doesn't keep showing an ad after it has ended. See Use Ad Dropper with page caching.

Add the advertiser's tracking codes

Agencies usually send a click tracker and one or more impression tags, often from Google Campaign Manager 360. Paste them into the Third-Party Tracking box.

1. Click URL: the click tracker. Every link in the ad goes through it, so the advertiser counts the click.
2. Impression tags: paste them exactly as the advertiser sent them, one per line. An image tag, iframe tag, script tag or a plain URL all work.
3. Update the ad.

Ad Dropper fires the impression tags each time the ad is shown, with a fresh cache buster each time, so the advertiser's numbers match what you deliver. You don't need to replace placeholders like [timestamp] or %%CACHEBUSTER%% yourself.

Script and iframe tags can only be added by users who are allowed to post unfiltered HTML (Administrators on most sites). If a tag is skipped, Ad Dropper tells you why.

Check the creative IDs

For Campaign Manager tags, the box lists each tag's Campaign Manager creative IDs. The click URL and impression tags for one ad should all show the same ID. If they don't, Ad Dropper warns you that the tags are for different creatives. This is the most common setup mistake: copying the click tag from one row of the agency's sheet and the impression tag from another. Fix it before the campaign starts.

Show the ad on desktop or mobile

In the Devices box in the sidebar, choose where the ad shows: All devices, Desktop only or Mobile only. Mobile means screens narrower than 768px.

This lets a desktop leaderboard and a mobile banner share the same zone. Put both in the zone, set one to Desktop only and the other to Mobile only, and each visitor sees the right size. Tracking tags only fire for the version the visitor actually sees.

Duplicate an ad

Campaigns often come with several sizes of the same creative. Set up one ad completely, then hover over it in the ads list and click Duplicate. The copy opens as a draft with the same schedule, tracking codes, device setting and subscriber display settings. Change the creative and zone, then publish.

The copy starts with no views or clicks of its own.

For developers

• ad_dropper_ignore_schedule: return true to show ads regardless of their schedule.
• ad_dropper_mobile_breakpoint: change the 768px mobile breakpoint.