At first, I was surely taken aback, but then, well, I actually thought it might be a good idea to try. Yet, as I don’t have any experience in this field I started surfing for convenient online ads-management platforms that could make it simpler and faster to cooperate with my future advertisers, control & manage ad placements, impressions, etc.
To be honest, I’ve checked yet a few services that provide the publishers (that’s how they call the site owners) with a set of tools for online ads-management, so for now, I can only speak about the 2 of them (mainly because the other 3 ones out of 5 checked aren’t even worth mentioning), these are Epom and AdSpeed.
I’ve checked the range of aspects which I find essential for me: design (sorry for that, but I need the site to look well-designed, it’s like one more trustmark for me), simplicity and convenience of usage, functionality, guidelines.
Let’s start with Epom: I haven’t heard much of this service, but the overall ratings seemed ok, so I have decided to take a closer look at this platform.
1. Design. The interface has the light coloursheme in orange, blue and white with decent font solutions, the comprehensive sectioning of the index page and the available tabs for different groups of clients.
2. Simplicity of Convenience of Usage. Having opened the publishers tab, I found the full range of available features and the precise info of which technology is being used to maintain the platform, which is, fortunately, formulated in a simple way (for dummies like me, as well, who aren’t professionals in the sphere and aren’t fully aware of the terminology).
The bright button “Get started now” is a good way to show where you should click to start working with Epom. Moreover, the service is free, which is, as you probably, remember, I value Very much).
Having registed as a publisher I was provided with my login and password (password can be changed anytime) and the direct link access to the publishers guide at once, so that, perhaps, I could find the answers to all my questions, before contacting the client support.
3. Functionality. The range of available services fulfilled my expectations, as although the account looks very plain at first glance, it allows the user to manage all ad-campaigns, set capping settings, manage ad zones, select preferable numbers of impressions, and even calculate the ad-campaign budget.
In addition to that you are also enabled to check the whole analytics and reports in versatile ways (including diagrams, graphics, etc.) and share the access to these analytics with your clients. Not bad, I should say.
4. Guides.
What I liked about Epom is that you’re shown what to do and where to go directly, so any info can be found in seconds. As for the offered guide for publishers, it’s quite intelligible to grasp, and you learn how to use all options in the right way.
Now about another online ad-management platform AdSpeed.com.
I’ve also heard a bit about the service before, but haven’t checked it closely yet.
To be more, or less objective, let’s stick to the afore-mentioned criteria.
1. Design. We-ee-elll…I generally liked the yellow-black colour scheme (somehow reminding of the one MegaUpload has got, but whatever)) but the fonts and the structure of the site aren’t impressive at all. Moreover, the sectioning doesn’t actually give you an idea of what to do when you enter the site.
2. Simplicity and Convenience of Usage.
I had an option to sign up at once, but eventually decided to read more about the service. This is how the complications started. On the one hand, the explanation why I need AdSpeed was clear. On the other hand, the page also contained more than 10 links (awfully plain and blue-cloured (why blue, not black at least) to a tutorial, related posts, a link to a PDF brochure without any icon or explanation what it is about, an array of materials for advertisers and networks, and even some testimonials, saying that the service is amazing.
I had to open all the main menu tabs and peruse them all to find out the info I really needed, e.g. how to work with the service and which features were available for me.
3. Functionality. This is perhaps one of the positive aspects of AdSpeed, as the offered options are really versatile with vast targeting opportunities, capping options, ads-management and analytics features that are aimed at making the usage simpler.
At least that’s how the guide and glossary tell you.
Having started registering I entered my credentials and was almost ready to sign up for AdSpeed, when I reached up to the Subscribtion bar. It turns out that you’re only given a 10-day free trial with the necessity to pay after that for the number of impressions you wish to get.
Frankly speaking, I was almost furious, because the service, in which you’re like the blindman searching for the paths, as there’s too much chaotically organized info all around, you also have to pay to be taken into its community.
4. Guides. Well, there’re a lot of guides at the site, some of them can’t be accessed directly, and some of them are placed in unrelated sections. The chaotic structure of AdSpeed.com makes it really hard to find what you need to do.
In a whole, what I should admit is that AdSpeed couldn’t resist any competition against Epom. I’m sorry, but it’s true. Those people, who know me well, would prove my being always as much objective as possible, sometimes a bit too picky, but still objective.
Anyway, this is just my perspective, hope, you find it useful. For now, I’m staying with Epom, but I’ll surely continue my research in this area.
Stay cool)
Andy
