When it comes to ad networks, "remnant" is not a dirty word. Here's how to make these vital networks work for your site -- without tedious manual management.

George Carlin made an indelible impression by daring to state the seven dirty words you couldn't say on radio or TV. If he worked in ad operations, he might have added "remnant advertising" to the list. For the uninitiated, remnant is unsold ad inventory that can be filled by third-party resellers or "remnant" ad networks.

This year, some publishers have opted to ban remnant advertising from their sites. They are troubled by the quality of advertisers and creative that cycle through remnant networks' ad tags. Most often, a publisher's sentiment is expressed as follows: "The types of advertisers who cycle through remnant inventory diminish the value of my site and make the environment less attractive for major brands."

The flip side of banning remnant ad networks is that publishers rely on revenue from advertising to float their boats. This point of view is best expressed as, "We have 75 million unsold impressions a month. If I can net between $30,000 and $40,000 more a month from remnant, why wouldn't I?"

The fact that the use of remnant networks has increased dramatically suggests that the latter line of thinking is the prevailing viewpoint. For example, check out the news release titled "Use of 'Ad Networks' Surges Six-Fold as Media Companies Step Up Monetization of Unsold Online Advertising Inventory" on the Interactive Advertising Bureau's site.

Sophisticated as a hamster on a treadmill
Even if you're not so worried about who or what appears on your site in the guise of remnant, the operational aspects are extremely daunting. The revenue yield from networks can shift from day to day. Some publishers have rotated up to 10 different remnant networks at a time and then attempted to prioritize them to get the greatest yield using any number of methodologies. For the most part, that process blends the automated sophistication of a hamster on a treadmill with the operational simplicity of a Rubik's Cube.

Sites have grappled with the operational aspects in several ways, none of which are elegant. Some create a daisy chain that defaults to one remnant network after another when the publisher's primary ad server finishes serving its array of paid advertisers. Nice idea. But if you're running 10 remnant networks, how do you prioritize them? Easy. Simply log on to each of the remnant sites, write down the eCPM on a piece of paper and put it in a spreadsheet. Then repeat 10 times. Sort by highest CPM. Send the spreadsheet to a trafficker. Now do this every... single... day. Don't have enough staff to do that? Here's another elegant solution: Send the work overseas halfway around the world and let someone else bang away at the manual work.

Technology supplies new solutions
Recently, technology has been developed that provides remnant management solutions, allowing publishers to retire the hamster, throw away the Rubik's Cube and keep resources onshore. The upstarts in this regard are AdMeld, Rubicon Project and PubMatic. Although each company will point out its unique selling propositions, the basic solution works like this:

• Publishers replace their multiple ad network tags with a single tag from the remnant management provider.
• The list of ad networks and log-on data is loaded into the remnant management application.
• Any publisher restrictions on ad types and business rules are set up as well.
• On a daily basis, the remnant management app pulls delivery, eCPM and other data from the multiple networks.
• Reports are centralized in one dashboard.
• The ad networks are automatically prioritized in the ad server on a daily basis.

In general, remnant management providers claim they enable a 30 percent or more increase in eCPM.

Objections?
The primary business model for remnant management providers appears to be a share in the revenue uplift. While this may cause publishers to pause, in doing so they must also think again about the resources involved in managing their remnant networks manually, on a daily basis -- if they're lucky to even have that level of staffing.

Many publishers may be inclined to lean on a single ad network for simplicity's sake. However, although a single network's performance in one area of a site may be great, it may lag behind that which could be seen with other remnant network providers. Automating the process can put the right remnant network in the right place at the right time.

Conclusion
We in ad operations are forced to work with a patchwork of applications that force us to combine technology and manual processes in an unwieldy workflow environment. With the advent of some of remnant management applications, we are taking a small step toward automation and increased efficiency. It opens a window, just a bit, on what we may be in store for down the line. For additional insights, check out my previous article here.  Or, if you're not so concerned with what might happen in 20 years, how about simply looking forward to tomorrow when your job could get a little easier?

Doug Wintz is principal and founder of DMW MediaWorks.