Below is the workflow for creating a campaign using Connected Stories NEXT in 5 easy steps:
- Strategy Planning;
- Upload assets, input widgets and trackers;
- Plan your strategy;
- Export tags;
- Campaign Monitoring.
1) Campaign, format and story creation:
1. Add a Campaign: The campaign houses all your interconnected ads. In each Campaign you'll be able to add as many formats and stories as you want;
To Add and Campain:
Click on "
" to start creating your new campaign"Name" your campaign so that you will always be able to recognize it
Select the "Industry" that your brand best fits into
Enter the amount of "Impressions" you hope to attain
.Add a "Start Date" and an "End Date" of your campaign
2. Add a Format: The format houses all your stories. In each Format you'll be able to add as many formats and stories as you want;
- After the campaign is created, you can double click on the campaign to access the "Format" page. On the left you're able to see the status of the campaign (Scheduled, Live or Expired), start and end date, and the number of impressions. You can also see the Journey-Designer tab above the search bar. In order to create the format, click the " Add" button on the right hand side of the search bar and fill out the necessary information.
- After creating the format, you can see it appear on the format page. Now you can click the "Add" button on the right side of the format you just created to create a Story. Double clicking on this story will bring you into the C-S Studio
3. Add Stories: Stories are the individual ads that you can create and enhance; stories are what users will end up watching. Each story will serve a different purpose at each stage of the consumer journey. Once editing your stories, Connected Stories NEXT offers a variety of widgets that can be added to make stories more dynamic and engaging, .
Click on "
" to create a new story"Name" your new story
Select the "Placement" that will support your assets
Enter the amount of "Impressions" you hope to attain
To see a more in-depth explanation of how to set up and edit a story visit the Stories section.
To see a complete list of the formats supported by Connected Stories NEXT and how to set them up visit the Ad Formats section.
2) UPLOAD ASSETS, INPUT WIDGETS AND TRACKERS :
- The first step to creating your creative is up to you. You can either: A. Upload your identified assets (videos, images, etc.) that will be used for your story into the Connected Stories NEXT Asset Gallery, or, B. Placing widgets into the creation area. These can be interchangeable because it all depends on how you like to work. You can even combine those two and place one widget then upload its corresponding asset and just do this as you go!
- Let your imagination roam free and create your own creative through the use of our widgets and properties tab. Just remember to insert any necessary click-through URL's as you're creating the widgets you wish to utilize the click-through function as this is the easiest way to go about it.
- Once you're done creating, you can click outside the creation area to insert any necessary third-party pixels.
- In order to check to make sure everything about you creative is function and looking the way you want it to, click "Save" and then click the "Preview"
- Now once you're ready for to set this to go live, click the arrow next to the save button and click publish.
2. Add Stories: Stories are the individual ads that you can create and enhance; stories are what users will end up watching. Each story will serve a different purpose at each stage of the consumer journey. Once editing your stories, Connected Stories NEXT offers a variety of widgets that can be added to make stories more dynamic and engaging, .
Click on "
" to create a new story"Name" your new story
Select the "Placement" that will support your assets
Enter the amount of "Impressions" you hope to attain
3) PLAN YOUR STRATEGY:
- After you're done assembling your creative, make sure to SAVE, double check you've saved, and then you can exit the C-S Studio by clicking the "<" in the top left next to the name of the story.
- Click on the "Journey-Designer" tab
- From here you can refer to the "Journey Designer" portion of our documentation
- After finishing creating your campaigns consumer journey, save, publish and then exit back to the format tab
To see how to set up a sequence see the Journey Designer section.
To learn more on how to use the Storyboard, visit the Storyboard section.
4) EXPORT TAGS:
Now you're back on the Format page. To export your creatives tags, find your format you wish to export tags for. Then click on the "Tag Export" button found in the middle of the format's bar. Then fill out the necessary macro type, hit save and click the "copy button" to copy the tag
HTML5/JS Tag: traffics stories in a dynamic way. Using this tag, you will be able to benefit from Connected Stories NEXT widgets and message sequencing
JavaScript Tag: provides a higher level of interaction on the ad unit such as an expandable unit
VAST/VPAID Tags: compatible with Video Players. Only used for Preroll and Fullscreen video formats
MRAID Tag: used for interactive ads within any kind of mobile app
Tracking Pixel and Click Command Tag: tracks impressions and clicks for any unsupported third-party redirects.
To learn more about generating ad tags see the Ad Export section.
5) CAMPAIGN MONITORING: Real-Time Optimization
Connected Stories NEXT allows you to effortlessly analyze and optimize your strategy and creativities at any point in time during your campaign. We data available to you the moment your campaign goes live so that you can see which formats, stories, and sequences are yielding the best results.
If your campaign is set t go live later, the status of the campaign will be "Schedules". When your campaign goes online, the status on the Campaign page will be set to "Live". Once that campaign is over, the status will be changed to "EXPIRED".
To learn more visit the Real-Time Optimization section.