RTB - What is RTB?

The RTB acronym indicates a real-time system for either bidding on or buying ad inventory. The initial RTB ecosystems evolved from the efforts of DSPs to create a more efficient exchange of inventory. Due to these roots, RTB ecosystems put significant emphasis on user information (demographic and behavioral data, for example), while discounting the situation information (the publisher and context).

Ref : #IAB

What is Click Fraud?

What is Click Fraud?

Click fraud is a type of internet crime that occurs in pay per click online advertising when a person, automated script, or computer program imitates a legitimate user of a web browser clicking on an ad, for the purpose of generating a charge per click without having actual interest in the target of the ad's link.

Ref : IAB

Contextual Targeting

Contextual meaning says “ relating to or determined by or in context ” , so when it's about contextual advertising it means the Ads shown as per the content of the webpage is contextual advertising . It is also a kind of targeted advertising in which Ads are always shown as per the contents present on a webpage , e.g. if a user will be on a sports website he will be shown Ads related to sports , if in any entertainments site he will be shown Ads of movies , music , etc. Contextual advertising is also called “In-Text” advertising or “In-Context” technology, In-Text advertising has a small difference i.e. it works when a specific word or keywords within the text of a web-page are matched with advertising and/or related information units.

To define in one go “Contextual targeting is a technique in which the web page is scanned  to show the relevant Ad as per the content on the page”.

Technically if you define “Contextual targeting is a technology which uses artificial intelligence to define and understand content rich websites and match them with targeted keywords so as to show up related Ad as per the content of the page”

The advertisements themselves are selected and served by automated systems based on the content displayed to the user.Contextual Advertising is in huge demand today as it brings good profit in return plus it's the latest online advertising technological advance and allows a company to place advertisements in major websites and portals that are carrying relevant content for their product or service which thereby bringing good response.

“Just in a case , think as a user when you are searching for some property to buy and searching number of real estates site and if some good property related Ads are shown to that user , there will be percentage of chance that user will show his interest on it as he is searching the related information only .”

CATEGORIES :

We have number of categories defined but as per IAB standards the list can be of 23 top level categories and around 200 categories in total (including sub categories).

23 Top – Level Categories

Within these we have number of sub categories which can be targeted too .

How does CONTEXTUAL TARGETING works ?

Contextual targeting generally works through a piece of code that you put on your web pages. The function of the code is to look through what is on the page and pull relevant ads from the company sponsoring the contextual targeting, which it then places on the site.

Contextual targeting is totally a dynamic approach . When a user request a page , the page will have a  JavaScript  code embedded on it which will make a request to an Ad server with some meta data information about the context of the page. This information could be number of options like the URL of the page, the page content , or to be specific the section of the site where the user is… All these information are passed not as a text but as keywords (Keywords chosen plays the game in the working of contextual targeting ) which will be more than enough for a Ad server to understand the context of the page but that highly depends on the Ad server potential. Every Ad server has it own targeting rules to be followed , for e.g. thekeyword passed by the javascript say “sports” will co relate with rule or condition set for sports category in the ad server and will than serve the content specific ad from the ad sever.

Say an Ad Network is having a contextual targeting of sports channel for a particular product say a badminton racket and apublisher say ESPN sports has embedded a code ( helps in contextual targeting ) in his page to show Ads related to it's content . So whenever a user who shows interest on badminton page of ESPN site , automatically the Ads related to the same context will be pulled up from the Ad Server to be shown on the page.

Screenshot Explanation :

Advantage of CONTEXTUAL TARGETING :

1. Greater engagement

2. Higher conversion

3. Content or Ads can be automatically matched to your content

4. More benefit for publishers as higher chances of clicking on the Ad

5. Relevant Ads as per the content don't annoy the user

6. Saves unnecessary impressions

Targeting - Types of targeting in online advertising

Targeting

Targeting is defined as selection of an object of attention or attack. Same is what it means in online advertising as we target our specific users (attack) as per the requirement of the campaign.

Targeting is about catching the right user at the right time at right place so that the output coming out of it should be maximum.

Targeted Advertisement – an advertisement that is shown only to users

exhibiting specific attributes or in a specific context or at a particular time

of day.

In online industry targeting is a big world and is divided into sub parts :

Contextual Targeting : Contextual targeting is a form of targeting that the ad servers use to target a user for showing ad units based on the context of the page they are viewing.

Semantic Targeting : A type of contextual targeting that also incorporates semantic techniques to understand page meaning and/or sentiment.

Behavioral Targeting : Behavioral targeting is a form of targeting that ad server and ad networks use for targeting users based on their online behavior.

Audience Targeting : A method that enables advertisers to show an ad specifically to visitors based on their shared behavioral, demographic, geographic and/or technographic attributes.  Audience targeting uses anonymous, non-PII data.

Geographic Targeting : The targeting of users as per zip code, area code, city, DMA, state, and/or country is called as geographic targeting .

Creative Retargeting : A method that enables advertisers to show an ad specifically to visitors that previously were exposed to or interacted with the advertisers‟ creative.

Site Retargeting : This targeting enables advertisers to show an ad specifically to previous site visitors.

Time-based Targeting : Time- based parting can be divided into parts : time parting – this parting enables the ad to appear on certain time in a day while another is Day parting – this parting enables the ad to appear on certain days of the week.

Demographic Targeting : The targeting of users on the basis of demographic information such as age, gender and income etc is called as demographic targeting .

Basic SEO Question/ SEO Interview Questions

Basic SEO Question

Q1: What’s your SEO experience?

When you are asked this question, if you are a fresher, you must answer the theoretical knowledge you have. Say that you know about keyword research, on page and off page SEO, link building best practices and so on from a theoretical point of view.

If you are experienced, tell them the projects you have worked on, some of the rankings you have achieved and the time you took to accomplish this. It also helps to talk about technical aspects of SEO you have handled as well.

Q2: What do you think about the latest algorithm update from Google?

You must follow industry blogs and be updated about the SEO trends. So when you are asked about the latest algorithm update, you should talk about your views on what kind of sites/ search queries got affected, how it compares to the previous update which was rolled out and so on.

Here is a scenario. Assume the latest update rolled out was the Penguin update and the one before that was panda. You could say that Penguin update was mostly targeted at low quality content and not about links as the Panda update was. It hit heavily on content farms and thin content pages.

Q3: Are you technically savvy?

Not many SEO interviews focus on your technical skills. But those who really know what SEO is all about will really put your technical skills to test.

Most of the time, you’ll have to dig deep into a site code to find issues. If you are not at all technically inclined, doing SEO might be quite challenging. No matter how many tools you purchase, you still need some basic level of technical knowledge to succeed in SEO.

Q4: Do you take on freelance projects?

There are two things that an interviewer can find out from the answer you give.

If you take freelance projects, it means you are a go getter and that you are comfortable with interacting with clients and doing business development. This is a huge plus for any employee.

On the other hand, freelance consultants have a tendency to get clients for themselves instead of the company if it’s a service company.

If you are going to work in a company and their policy states that you should not take on other projects, you shouldn’t do it. It’s not only unethical; you could also lose your job and face prosecution for violating employment agreement.

Even if your company allows you to take freelance project on the side, it’s suggested that you don’t do it. Instead channel that lead to your employer. Not only are you showing commitment in your current role, but you are also contributing to the growth of the company that is paying your bills.

Q5: Do you use any SEO tools?

If you have been in the SEO industry for some time, you’d have come across many tools. If you have used tools like SEOmoz, buzz stream, Wordtracker, Google keyword tool or any other tool, mention it.

The tools you used also gives the employer an overview of what kind of work and projects you have been associated with. If you say you are good at SEOmoz tools, then the employer will know that you are a professional because it’s a paid tool and not many amateurs can afford it.

Q6: Mention some SEO myths you know and what the actual facts are

This question helps the interviewer understand your knowledge of SEO. Instead of throwing some myths at you and trying to make you answer, this broad question will help them understand your depth of knowledge. Here are some myths and answers for reference

• Meta description is used for ranking- Meta descriptions are not used for rankings by Google and only used as a short snippet of text which users see along with search results
• Google will always use my meta-data- No. Google will not always use your meta title or meta description. Based on the query, Google may change your meta data to suit the searchers query
• More links the better- False. Even one high quality relevant editorial links can trump 1 million spam links you might get via blog comments, forum posting, site wide links and so on (Not to mention your chance to get a penalty)

Q7: Which industry blogs and sites do you follow?

This question is asked so that the interviewer can judge how well you are updated with the current SEO trends. Some of the good ones to follow are

1. Searchengineland.com
2. SEOmoz.org
3. SEObook.com
4. Seo-theory.com
5. Distilled.net

Q8: Do you do black hat SEO?

If you do black hat SEO, admit it. If you don’t, tell the interviewer why you do not follow such practices. If you are ready to stop blackhat and go completely white hat (which you should anyways), mention that as well.

Some of the reasons you do not want to use black hat are

1. Risk of getting penalty
2. Unethical
3. Not a long term strategy

Q9: Can you tell me the difference between on page and off page SEO?

On page SEO refers to all SEO activities done on the website that needs to be ranked. They include

1. Meta optimization
2. Content creation
3. Internal linking
4. Fixing technical issues like page discovery, duplicate content, implementing canonical tags and so on
5. Optimizing usage of keywords

Off page refers to any activity we do to get links to point to our site. These may include

1. Guest posting
2. Link outreach
3. Viral link building
4. Submission to niche sites
5. PR outreach

Q10: What are your thoughts on buying links, article marketing, article spinning, and directory submissions?

Buying links: Don’t do it. Not only does it violate Google guidelines, it’s also a costly method which will backfire when caught.

Article marketing: Submitting high quality articles to article directories to get traffic and some link juice is fine. However, with the latest Google updates, most article directories have been rendered useless from a link acquisition point of view. Submitting articles to 1000’s of article directories is not a good idea.

Article spinning: It’s better to syndicate content rather than creating spun content. Article spinning rarely works and most of the spun content can be easily detected by advanced algorithms Google employs.

Directory submissions: It was valuable maybe 4-5 years back. But now it’s worthless. Links from directories other than maybe dmoz.org, botw.com etc is worthless.

Good luck!