Tyranny on board
In the best of all possible worlds, ad operations and sales work together in a spirit of mutual collaboration. They agree on basic business guidelines such as CPM floors, bonusing of impressions, and agreed-upon ad products. When disputes arise there is a clear escalation path for rapid resolution.
However, because companies go through several cycles of management during the course of their existence, most have experienced the dark side of this equation at least once in their history. When sales simply dictates to ad operations what must be done, without adhering to business rules, chaos ensues. Inventory is overbooked because campaigns are sold without asking if inventory is available. Ad products are sold that don't exist on the site. CPA campaigns eat up millions of impressions and yield sub -- $0.10 CPM.
Solution
Make sure your organization sets up a collaborative organizational structure that joins sales and ad operations together as partners, not rivals. Agree upon a budget that has at its foundation a rational forecast of ad impressions, expected sales fill rates and CPM floors. Enlist both sales and ad operations to adopt business rules insuring they have the best chance possible of achieving the budget goals.
