Welcome to the world of CitrusAds! If you’re a brand looking to boost your visibility and sales on some of the world’s largest retail websites, CitrusAds offers a powerful, scalable platform to help you achieve your goals. This guide will walk you through everything you need to know to get started with CitrusAds, from understanding the basics to launching your first ad campaign.
What is CitrusAds?
CitrusAds is a scalable, auction-based advertising platform designed for e-commerce retailers. It allows advertisers to place targeted ads directly on retailer websites, giving your products prime visibility at the digital point of purchase. Using first-party sales data from retailers, CitrusAds ensures that ads are relevant, personalised, and strategically placed.
With the CitrusAd API, retailers can fully control ad placement, while advertisers can create campaigns, bid for ad space, and track performance in real-time. The platform’s user-friendly admin portal simplifies the process of selecting products, setting budgets, choosing advertising strategies, and optimising search terms for maximum impact.
Benefits of CitrusAds for Brands
Why should your brand consider using CitrusAds? Here are some compelling reasons:
- Fast and Easy Ad Creation: CitrusAds makes it simple to set up and manage your campaigns. With just a few clicks, you can target specific search terms, select SKUs, set your maximum cost-per-click (CPC), and launch campaigns that deliver immediate results.
- Immediate Impact: Your campaigns can go live within minutes, offering the flexibility to plan long-term or respond to market changes in real time.
- Clarity of Performance: CitrusAds provides crystal clear reporting with real-time insights into clicks, impressions, CPC, CPA, CTR, units sold, sales value and Return on Ad Spend (ROAS). The average ROAS across all retailers ranges from 200% to 400%, making it a highly effective tool for increasing market share and driving sales.
- 1:1 Attribution: Every ad served has a unique identifier, ensuring accurate tracking from click to sale.
- Simplicity and Efficiency: The platform ensures that media is only placed for in-stock SKUs, preventing wasted ad spend on out-of-stock products.
Getting Started with CitrusAds
1. Account Setup
Setting up your CitrusAds account involves a few key steps, depending on your retailer’s integration. CitrusAds offers three main integration workflows, each tailored to different needs:
- Standard Integration: The most seamless option, ensuring quick delivery of ad results to customers’ browsers.
- Individual Browser Requests: This option reduces development resources by handling CitrusAds requests separately.
- Merging After Display: The quickest to integrate, showing organic product listings first and merging CitrusAds content afterward.
2. Campaign Creation
Before launching campaigns, you’ll need:
- Sandbox Access: Work with your Technical Account Manager to gain access.
- Team ID and API Key: These credentials are crucial for syncing products and interacting with the CitrusAds API.
- Active Campaigns: Ensure that your catalog is synchronized with at least one product before creating campaigns.
3. Ad Formats
CitrusAds supports various ad types, making it a versatile platform:
- Product Ads: Prominent placements that blend seamlessly with organic listings.
- Static Banner Ads: Great for brand messaging and driving both online and in-store sales.
- Responsive Banner X Ads: Adaptable banners that maintain brand consistency across different devices.
- Brand Pages: Customizable landing pages that showcase a wide range of products, editable in real-time without needing additional development work.
Go Live Checklist
Before going live, ensure you’ve completed the following:
- Catalog Sync: Regularly sync your product catalog with CitrusAd.
- Ad Generation: Request ads from CitrusAd on every page load—no caching.
- Ad Rendering: Make sure all ads are correctly displayed to customers.
- Impression and Click Reporting: Accurately report all impressions and clicks.
- Order Reporting: Ensure orders are correctly attributed to the ads.
- UAT Testing: Thoroughly test your integration to verify everything works smoothly.
- Configuration Update: Confirm that your production configuration is set to the correct BASE URL with the appropriate keys.
Marketplaces Connected to CitrusAds
CitrusAds connects with some of the world’s largest and most influential marketplaces, including:
- B&Q Marketplace
- Tesco Marketplace
- Carrefour
- Target
- Ocado
- Sainsbury’s
- Argos
- Woolworths
- Coles
- Petco
- Wicks
- Officeworks
- Wowcher
- Gopuff
- And more!
This broad reach allows your brand to be seen by millions of potential customers across various markets.
CitrusAds offers a powerful, user-friendly platform for brands to boost their online presence and drive sales across major retail websites. By following this guide, you’ll be well on your way to creating effective ad campaigns that deliver measurable results. Ready to get started? Set up your account, create your first campaign, and watch your products rise to the top of the digital shelf.
Optimizon are official partners with B&Q and Tesco Marketplace with accredited CitrusAds advertisers ready to take your multichannel marketplace game to the next level. Contact us to find out more.
