You’ve done it. You’ve built your website or app and filled it with can’t-miss content. You’ve developed a great audience, and your traffic is trending up. You’re at the stage when a lot of publishers start getting excited about advertising revenue.

The next step is to monetize your site or app with ads or further optimize your digital advertising strategies to take your ad revenue to the next level. You can do this in one of two ways:

  1. Build out your very own Ad Ops team
  2. Work with a monetization partner like Playwire

The first option is the DIY approach. Below, we’ll walk you through the ins and outs of building an Ad Ops team yourself versus doing it through Playwire. Read on to learn more.

Playwire has developed the leading revenue amplification platform for publishers. Contact us to learn about how you can get more with Playwire.

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DIY AdOps Team Costs

If you’re thinking you might get away with hiring a single “Ad Ops guy,” think again. This is not a one-person endeavor, and any one person who says they can handle it all and handle it well is either lying or seriously overestimating their abilities.

In the end, doing Ad Ops well requires a full team of ad ops professionals. The question of whether that team is in-house or through a reputable third party like Playwire is yours to answer, but let’s take a look at some of the costs if you go the in-house route.

Tech Team

The first in-house hire you’ll have to make is on the technical side of Ad Ops. You need someone who can handle all the code-level work involved with programmatic advertising, header bidding, servers, video ad implementation, and much more. 

If you’re a relatively small operation, you might be able to get away with hiring a single tech person rather than a team, but even that one person will easily cost you six figures annually.

Ad Ops Expert

Of course, you can’t have an Ad Ops team without a resident Ad Ops expert. This is the person who will oversee demand-generation strategies, campaigns, anti-malvertising efforts, price flooring and statistical analysis, among other important items.

Anyone with “expert” in their job description is going to be an expensive hire. Expect to pay upwards of six figures per year to employ an Ad Ops expert.

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Relationship Manager

In Ad Ops, a relationship manager is the person who maintains relationships with the various demand sources and partners and makes sure every direct-sold ad campaign is meeting advertiser expectations. 

It’s an essential function, and while this position doesn’t usually command the higher salaries of the first two jobs we described, it’s still a full-time job. That means you’ll have to pay for the salary and any benefits.

Direct Sales Team

The sales team is critical to the success of your digital advertising efforts. Your in-house Ad Ops team will struggle to be effective without a sales component. Even if you’re relying heavily on programmatic demand, you need someone who can bring in direct sales. Direct sales almost always command higher cost per mille (CPM) rates and are essential to a well-rounded ad revenue strategy. 

Will Your Revenue Justify the Cost of DIY AdOps?

Above, we’ve described at least four salaries you’ll have to cover to build an in-house Ad Ops team. And that doesn’t account for the costs of hiring and training. Even if your new team increases your revenue, will they increase it enough to cover the steep costs of employing them? What about the costs of content creation, ad serving, and general ad operations?

There’s a reason why in-house Ad Ops teams are so rare. Facing slim margins and high operating costs, publishers can rarely afford one — unless they’re one of the publishing giants.

Playwire: The Turnkey AdOps Solution

So far, we’ve described problem after problem. Now, let’s look at a solution: Playwire. We’re the alternative to building an in-house Ad Ops team. But make no mistake — you’re still getting an Ad Ops team when you work with us. It’s just our highly trained and expert team instead of the one you were thinking about building. 

With Playwire, you get all of the ad tech, such as programmatic advertising and header bidding, with none of the headaches. You also get the benefit of direct sales — our global direct sales team brings in roughly 40% of the revenue our publishers earn. We even take care of the costs of serving digital ads, which can add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

It’s all readymade for you. We set everything up and continually optimize it to drive your revenue higher. All you have to do is what you do best: keep creating great content.

Save Money and Boost Your Revenue with Playwire

When you put Playwire head-to-head with an in-house Ad Ops team, there’s a clear winner when it comes to costs and results. Save money and time and get more revenue with Playwire. Contact us online to get started.

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