Insertion orders are written authorization to advertise a product or service, similar to a purchase order. This agreement is typically made by an advertiser (or their agency of record) and an ad network (or direct publisher). It includes details about how advertisements should be run, how they should not be run, and how much the advertiser will pay the ad network for the advertisements.
In TUNE, you can track statistics for offers covered in insertion order agreements. Typically, insertion orders specify the budget for one or more offers to be promoted over a period of time. Companies using the insertion order tool can report on those offers to make reconciliation easier at billing time.
This feature is available to enterprise accounts only.
What This Tool Does
The insertion order tool gives you consolidated reports on activity for various selected offers for different time periods. This helps you to see how much of an insertion order’s initial budget has been spent. At the end of your billing period, this tool shows you how much should be billed for each insertion order in your platform.
Companies can create and manage insertion orders by going to Advertisers > Insertion Orders.
Advertisers can also access their insertion orders by going to Offers > Insertion Orders in the advertiser interface.
Creating an Insertion Order
To enter an insertion order in TUNE, click Create Insertion Order at the top of the Insertion Orders table.
On the page that appears, enter information about that insertion order:
- Advertiser: The advertiser for this insertion order. That advertiser can see and edit all information in this insertion order. Only offers from that advertiser are available in this insertion order. Once you create the insertion order, the advertiser cannot be changed.
- Name: The name you use for this order.
- External ID: The unique identification number or code you and your advertiser use, such as the advertiser’s insertion order number. You cannot use the same external ID for another insertion order, even if it’s for another advertiser.
- Start Date: The date the insertion order begins. The time for this date is 12:00 am in the platform's timezone.
- End Date: The date the insertion order ends. The time for this date is 12:00 am in the platform’s timezone. This field is optional; leave it blank if you want to report on ongoing, indefinite insertion orders.
- Notes: Any information relevant to the insertion order, such as total budget. This field is optional.
Once you’re finished entering information, click Create Insertion Order. The insertion order begins as a blank order with no offer line items associated with it. Once you create the insertion order, you can add individual offers as line items in that insertion order using the steps below.
Managing an Insertion Order
From the main Insertion Orders page, click on the name of the insertion order you want to view or edit.
The insertion order page has three panels: Details, Offers, and Statistics. New insertion orders appear without any line items in the Offers or Statistics section:
Once line items are entered, you will see them appear in these panels:
Details Panel
The Details panel displays the basic information entered when creating the order: advertiser, name, external ID, start date, end date, and notes. It also shows the internal ID and order status.
To edit these details, click Edit at the top of the panel. The page that appears is similar to the form for creating an insertion order, with two key differences:
- You can’t change the advertiser.
- You can set the status to “Active” or “Inactive”. Newly created insertion orders default to “Active.”
Offers Panel
The Offers panel displays individual offers and their associated dates. Each offer and set of dates is its own line item. A single offer can be listed multiple times in the same insertion order as long as dates do not overlap. Click on an offer’s name to go to that offer’s detail page.
Statistics Panel
The Statistics panel shows stats for each line item listed in the Offers panel. Click, conversion and impression data for each line item comes from data generated during that line item’s listed dates. To see more detailed stats or apply filters on stats, you can use the stats report.
Managing Offers in Insertion Orders
To manage the list of offers in your insertion order, click Edit at the top of the Offers panel:
On this page, you can add new line items, edit existing line items, and remove line items:
- Add a Line Item: Click Add Offer. In the blank line item that appears, select an offer from the dropdown menu. The start and end dates are preset to the insertion order’s start and end dates.
- Change a Line Item: Edit the associated offer and the dates for an existing line item by changing values in that line.
- Remove a Line Item: Click the Remove button at the end of the line item you wish to delete. Deleting a line item doesn’t delete any statistics, so you can freely add the line item back if you accidentally remove an item.
Once you’re finished, click Save to update the insertion order with your changes.
Note: Line items can’t have a start date earlier than the insertion order’s start date or an end date later than the insertion order’s end date. Additionally, line items referring to the same order can’t have overlapping dates. If you enter overlapping dates or dates outside of the insertion order, you’ll be reminded with an error message: