Campaign Planning Strategies
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Hello, my name is Allie. I’m one of the client success managers here at AdOmni.
I’m going to be talking through five of the common warning messages that you may come across as you create your campaigns, which are designed to help optimize planning. Quick note: there are more than five warnings, however, these are the ones I most often run into. Let’s get started.
The first warning I’ll be discussing is the usage percentage warning. This is triggered when your campaign’s budget or impression goals are not well aligned with the number of screens you’ve selected. It’s a signal that your campaign may not deliver effectively across all chosen screens. For example, you could have far too many screens on your campaign plan for the given budget, resulting in your campaign being spread too thin. The low screen utilization warning will explain that a certain percentage of screens will likely not be reached during the campaign due to the budget parameters. This scenario can be resolved by removing devices from your campaign plan, increasing your budget to better match the number of screens selected, or adjusting your campaign duration and/or targeting to optimize delivery.
The second warning you may encounter is related to ad content. The content sizes and format warning appears when your uploaded creative doesn’t match the required specs for the screens you’ve selected. Each screen type—like billboards, transit shelters, or indoor displays—has its own set of accepted dimensions and file formats. This warning is triggered when an inaccurate file is uploaded. This could be an unsupported file type, like if an image was uploaded when the screen only accepts video, incorrect pixel dimensions, or inaccurate image orientation. One pro tip is to use AdOmni’s free content resizing tool to help adjust or create missing sizes.
The third warning is the max spend warning. This message is triggered if your budget is greater than what can be spent on the available screens during the campaign’s timeframe. For example, you select a group of screens for your campaign, but the available inventory only supports a lower dollar amount than what you’ve set as a target budget. This warning lets you know your budget can’t be fully delivered. To fix this, consider lowering your campaign budget or increasing the number of screens within your campaign to hit your target budget.
The fourth warning you may encounter is the overlapping geotarget warning. This will appear when your selected geographic targets overlap, which can lead to inefficient ad delivery and wasted budget. For example, if you select both a city and its larger DMA, or a zip code that falls within a targeted city, the same screens may be included more than once in your campaign plan. Selecting Los Angeles as a city and also the Los Angeles DMA will include many duplicate screens. Similarly, selecting a custom geofence around a point of interest and also targeting the zip code contained within that area can often result in duplication of screens. To fix this, review your selected geographies and remove any that are redundant or nested within each other. Choose the most precise or relevant geographic level for your campaign goals and use advanced targeting tools to refine your selection to avoid overlap.
The fifth warning message is related to scheduling and time zones. This warning appears when your campaign’s scheduled end time, once converted to UTC, actually falls into the next calendar month. This is crucial for advertisers with strict monthly budgets because it helps prevent unintentional overspending. For example, if you schedule a campaign in Dallas to end at 11:00 PM Central Time on the last day of November, in UTC this is 5:00 AM on December 1st. The system will interpret your campaign as ending in the early hours of December instead of at the end of November, resulting in some campaign spend occurring in the following month. For advertisers who need to keep spending within a specific monthly limit, this spillover can result in exceeding the budget for one month and underutilizing the next. By clicking the “Fix it” option at the bottom of the warning, the end time of your campaign will be adjusted so that when converted to UTC, it still falls within the intended month.
To wrap up, these warnings are designed to help you catch potential issues before a campaign goes live, ensuring your ads run smoothly and your budget is used effectively. If you ever have any questions about a specific warning or need help troubleshooting, don’t hesitate to reach out to the AdOmni support team or check out the help center for more resources. Taking a moment to review and address these alerts can make a big difference in your campaign success. Thanks for using AdOmni—happy advertising.