Question:
Which is your best campaign and why?

Answer:
You need to be prepared with one your best ad campaign that you have done in past, it could be from any of your previous firms but make sure to be well prepared with briefs and deliveries at the end. Try to prepare one performance and one branding campaign

Question:
Which media platform is best suited for running traffic in markets like weight loss or dating?

Answer:
Preferably Facebook

Question:
Do you have an understanding of HTML, JavaScript, CSS?

Answer:
Say YES (Hint: For a general adops role, technical or programming understanding is not required at that level, if you have them you just stand out of crowd else it doesn’t impact your job. Maximum of queries you figure out in google! But if you are completely not aware of technical stuff, do accept that you don’t understand but can learn quickly to resolve issues requiring a technical background

Question:
What are the tools that you use in AdOps?

Answer:
Make sure to list the tools with it’s functionality and not just name it. The tools like:

Fiddler/Charles – Checking the tracker firing
GeoEdge
ClickTag Checked, etc.

Refer below for more details:
http://www.knowonlineadvertising.com/adops-tools/

Question:
What are the steps taken to resolve the discrepancy between two different ad servers?

Answer:
Please read the below page link to have a clear understanding of discrepancy reasons and solution.

Discrepancy in Mobile Advertising

Question:
Why are IP addresses not so reliable on mobile?

Answer:
It’s because the mobile operators differ in how they handle IP address allocation, Some operators have a fixed IP address for all of their users, others dynamically allocate IP addresses each time the device connects. But most mobiles, whether on 3G or Wi-Fi, will connect via a NAT-ed connection. This means many different handsets will appear to be coming from the same IP address, where the data connection is using a mobile network operator (MNO) gateway, the IP address will be the IP address of the MNO gateway, which will handle multiple user sessions. The handover from one mobile phone tower to the next can also result in IP changes plus dropping from 3G to 2G connection has an effect on the reliability of an IP address, and thus tracking these changes can be problematic.

Question:
Campaign A is having CTR 7%, Campaign B having CTR 0.2$ while campaign C having CTR as 3%. Which one is the most performing campaign?

Answer:
Campaign A

Question:
CPC campaign giving a CTR of 5%, what if the same ad, same targeting but used as a CPM model, what affect will be on CTR?

Answer:
The CTR will low down, and may fall down to 0.2, it is because the ads are shown as per the campaign model which affects the CTR.CPC ads are shown where chances of getting clicks are higher while CPM ads are taken as branding which is more towards throwing
Impressions.

Question:

Campaign A has CTR 6%, Campaign B has CTR 2% and Campaign C has CTR 3.5%, suppose the cost is $1000 and Impression as 10,000. Calculate CPC for all three campaign and mention which Campaign will have the lowest CPC?

Answer:
First and Foremost thing is Higher the CTR, lower will be the CPC! So let’s calculate using the above values and see if the above fact is true.

Using two formula’s:
CPC = Cost/Clicks
CTR = (Clicks/Impressions) x100

As we don’t have the number of clicks for all the three campaign we will derive it using the CTR formula:

CTR = (Clicks/Impressions) x100
So, Clicks = (CTR X Impressions)/100…………. (i)

Using (i) in formula 1 now,

CPC = (Cost x 100)/ (CTR x Impression)……….. (ii)

Using given values in the formula (ii),

CPC (A) = (10,000 x 100)/ (6 x 1,000) = $1.67
CPC (B) = (10,000 x 100)/ (2 x 1,000) = $5.00
CPC (C) = (10,000 x 100)/ (3.5 x 1,000) = $2.85

So, Campaign n A has the lowest CPC i.e. $1.67 who’s CTR was 6%.
Hence, proved higher the CTR lower will be the CPC.

Question:
Tell one scenario where you will prefer CPC model then CPM model?

Answer:
When the campaign has very low daily budget (say $5 a day) i.e. there is no sufficient budget to spent on optimization, it’s best to go with CPC.

Question:
Calculate CPC for a campaign that costs $5 CPM and generates 50 clicks and 10,000 Impressions.

Answer:
To calculate CPC using CPM, we need to derive a formula using below 2 formulas:

CPC = Cost/Clicks…….. (i)
CPM = (Cost x 1000) / Impressions
i.e. Cost = (CPM x Impressions) / 1000 ……… (ii)

Now, Using (ii) in (i), we get :

CPC = (CPM x Impressions) / (Clicks x 1000)

Using the given values:

CPC = (5 x 10,000) / (50 x 1000) = $1

Thus, CPM $5 is equivalent to CPC $1.

Question:
Which measurement metric can help you in deciding the campaign type between CPC and CPM?

Answer:

CTR (Click Through Rate) will help in deciding which campaign type should be followed as higher the CTR, it’s better to go for CPM while if CTR is low , it is better to go for CPC because if you have a low CTR then you would rather only pay for the low traffic that comes to your site. If your CTR is high, then you don’t mind paying CPM – because your cost will not escalate for more and more visitors that come to your site, but will remain the same.

Question:
A campaign running with CPM rate as $2 and having a CTR of 0.30%. Calculate what will be the CPC rate?

Answer:
Using the formula,

CPC = [CPM / (CTR x 1000)]
Using the values,

CPC = [2 / (0.0030 x 1000)] = $0.67

Question:
A Publisher rate for CPM type is $5 and $0.5 for CPC campaign type; say Impressions to be bought is 1,000,000. Now suppose the CTR is 5%, so which campaign type will be beneficial for the advertiser to take in such scenario?

Answer:
One rule follows in such scenario is when the CTR is high or good it is beneficial to have CPM as campaign type and vice versa.
To prove, using above values:

We know,
CPM = (Cost x 1000) / Impressions
So, Cost = 5 x 1000 = $ 5,000

Now,
CTR = (Clicks/Impressions) x 100
So, Clicks = (5 x 1,000,000) / 100 = 50000

Using above both we can see for 50,000 clicks it costs to $5,000

Using CPC value, i.e. $0.5

Cost = CPC x Clicks
i.e. Cost = 0.5 x 50,000 = $ 25,000, which is 5 times more the cost what we paid as CPM campaign type.

Thus, proved that higher the CTR, lower will be the cost in CPM campaign type.

Question:
A campaign running with CPC $0.5 and having a CTR of 0.25%. Calculate what will be the rate of CPM?

Answer:

Using the formula,

CPM = CPC x CTR x 1000
=> CPM = (0.5 x 0.25 x 1000)/100 = $1.25

Question:
Calculate CPM for a campaign that costs $2 CPC and generates 50 clicks in 10,000 Impressions which results in total spent (cost) as $100.

Answer:
To calculate CPM using CPC, we need to derive a formula using below 2 formulas:

CPM = (Cost x 1000) / Impressions……… (i)
CPC = Cost/Clicks
i.e. Cost = CPC x Clicks……………..(ii)

Using (ii) in (i), we get:

CPM = (CPC x Clicks x 1000) / Impressions

Now, using given values in the derived formula, we get:

CPM = (2 x 50 x 1000) / 10,000 = $10

Thus, CPC $2 is equivalent to CPM $10

Question:

Difference between Online and Offline Advertising? OR Can you differenciate between newspaper and online advertisements?

Answers:
http://www.knowonlineadvertising.com/difference-between/online-and-offline-advertising/

Question:
What are the different pricing models in online advertising?

Answers:
The different pricing models in online advertising are:

1.CPM – Cost per Mille (1000)
2.CPC – Cost per Click
3.CPA/CPL – Cost per Action/Lead
4.CPE – Cost per Engagement

Question:

What is the difference between Impression and Conversion?

Answer:
An Impression is a view of an ad i.e. each time your ad has been viewed counts as an impression while conversion is when a user performs any action on the landing page after clicking on the ad, like shopping or sign-ups. The users who perform the actions are considered to be converted users.

Question:
In Adwords, what are the “Big Three” components of ad quality?

Answer:
The three big components of ad quality are:

Expected click-through rate: The likelihood that the ad will be clicked
Ad relevance: How closely the ad matches the intent behind a user’s search
Landing page experience: How relevant, transparent, and easy-to-navigate the page is for users

Question:
In Adwords, how many types of extensions are you aware of?

Answer:

  • Universal (sitelink) extensions
  • Callout extensions
  • Location extensions
  • Affiliate extensions
  • Call extensions
  • Structured snippets
  • App extensions
  • Price extensions
  • Promotion extensions
  • Message extensions

NOTE: Suggested is to have 3 key extensions to showcase where 4 is the maximum that can be shown

Question:
What is TSPL?

Answer:
TSPL is Target Search Page Locations. It is a type of portfolio bid strategy that automates bidding across multiple campaigns to show your ad on the top of the page or on the first page of Google search results. Source:support.google.com

Question:
What is TOS?

Answer:
TOS is Target Outranking Share. It is a portfolio bid strategy that helps your ads outrank ads from another domain.
Source:support.google.com

Question:
What is RLSA?

Answer:
RLSA is Remarketing lists for search ads which is a feature that lets you customize your search ads campaign for people who have previously visited your site, and tailor your bids and ads to these visitors when they’re searching on Google and search partner sites.

Question:
What is DSA?

Answer:
DSA is Dynamic Search Ads which is a feature that creates and show ads for pages on your website without using keywords. Dynamic Search Ads complement your existing keyword-based campaigns to deliver more clicks and conversions with less effort. During pilot testing, most advertisers saw 5-10% more clicks and conversions. Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) brings machine learning to ads and offers advertisers incremental traffic and high performance with no cumbersome keyword management required.

Question:
What is the four key benefit of dynamic search ads?

Answer:
Reach and Frequency
Efficiency and time saving
Coverage security
Transparent and control

10 thoughts on “Interview Questions”

  1. HI Avinash,

    Can you please send me the detail about the CPA campaign and it’s Optimization technique.Detail about the Cookie,What is the advantage of Web debugging tool? What is difference b/w keyword and key values? Why we use Button Action for Flash?

    Regards,
    Jay~

    1. Hi Jay,

      Thanks for your questions.

      For CPA campaigns, you may get some answers here: http://www.knowonlineadvertising.com/facts-about-online-advertising/basic-formulas-in-internet-advertising/advantage-and-disadvantage-of-cpocpl-metric-model/

      Rest detail we will update soon.

      Cookies – http://www.allaboutcookies.org/ad-serving/ , we will add an article related to cookies usage in advertising for your reference
      Web debugging tools are the one used for troubleshooting ad serving or creative placements in advertising, you can also check tracking and tagging using these tools.
      Button actions are added in flash ads to perform desired action when a user clicks on it or mouseover on it, completely depends on the interest or requirement you have.
      Difference is in our queue we will add them soon too

      Regards,
      kOA

  2. Hi Avinash

    Can you please calculate the 4 Question once again, because when we calculate CPC A (10000*100)/(6*1000)= 166 .

    Can you please share us how the calculation is counted as 1.66.

    Thanks
    Vipin

    1. Hi Vipin,

      We have divided the result by 100 for all three CPC to minimize the number of zeros. If you still take it without dividing by 100, the proof will remain same i.e. Higher the CTR lower will be the CPC.

      Regards,
      kOA

  3. “Hello,

    We’d want to advertise – in the form of a hosted article.

    Our article will be created to match the theme of your website
    knowonlineadvertising.com and will include a link to a finance/education website.

    How much is this going to cost?

    In case you do not accept links to finance/education sites, we may still be interested if you include a rate for regular links.

    If you have any additional sites to offer, please send them along with a price list.

  4. “Hello there,

    Good day. I sent you an email a few days ago but I did not receive a reply. I am not sure if you got that email or not. We are very much excited to post an article on your site knowonlineadvertising.com, which is related to the finance/education site. If it is possible, how much does it cost?

    If you are not interested in the above request, We will accept regular links also.

    In case you have sites to offer, please send us a sites list along with prices.

    Plz, mail me back if you are interested or not.

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