Welcome to the GaiaAds ecosystem. This comprehensive guide is designed to take you from account creation to launching your first high-performance programmatic campaign. Whether you are a direct advertiser or an agency, following these steps will ensure a smooth onboarding process.
1. Account Verification & Setup
GaiaAds operates a premium, fraud-free marketplace. As such, we require all new advertisers to undergo a business verification process before they can purchase inventory. This helps us maintain high traffic quality and brand safety for all participants.
Step-by-Step Verification
- Create your Login: Use your corporate email address to sign up. Public email domains (gmail, yahoo, etc.) are automatically flagged for manual review and may delay your access.
- Complete Business Profile: Navigate to Settings > Organization. You will need to provide your legal business name, registration country, and tax identification number (EIN, VAT, etc.).
- Upload Documents: For spend limits exceeding $10k/month, please upload a Certificate of Good Standing or equivalent business license.
Pro Tip
Ensure the billing address matches the address on your corporate credit card or bank statement to avoid automatic payment declines.
2. Navigating the Dashboard
Once logged in, you will be greeted by the Main Dashboard. Here is a quick tour of the key areas you will use daily:
- Overview Tab: Real-time visualization of spending, impressions, and conversions. You can toggle the date range in the top right corner.
- Campaigns Manager: The command center for all your active, paused, and archived campaigns. Use the "Columns" button to customize which metrics (CPM, CTR, CPA) are visible.
- Creative Library: A centralized repository for your banners, videos, and native assets. Upload once, associate with multiple campaigns.
- Audiences (DMP): Create retargeting lists, upload first-party data (hashed emails), or browse our third-party data marketplace.
3. Creating Your First Campaign
Ready to launch? Our campaign wizard simplifies the complex world of RTB settings into a logical flow.
Defining the Objective
The first selection you make—Campaign Objective—is critical. It tells our bidding algorithm what to optimize for:
- Brand Awareness: Bids to maximize Viewable Impressions (vCPM).
- Traffic: Bids to maximize Clicks (CTR) while keeping CPC low.
- Conversions: Uses our pixel feedback loop to bid aggressively for users most likely to purchase or sign up (eCPA).
Targeting Configuration
GaiaAds offers granular targeting capabilities. You can layer these to pin-point your exact audience:
- Geo: Country, Region, City, or Zip Code radius.
- Device: Desktop, Mobile Web, In-App, CTV. You can also filter by OS version (e.g., iOS 15+) and Connection Type (Wifi vs 5G).
- Contextual: Target pages based on content categories (e.g., "Finance," "Travel") using our NLP engine.
4. Creative Upload & Approval
Your campaign cannot run without assets. Navigate to the Creative Library to upload your ads.
We support:
- Display Banners: JPG, PNG, HTML5 (zip). Max 150KB.
- Video: MP4, VAST URLs. Up to 30 seconds.
- Native: Requires a Headline (25 chars), Body (90 chars), Icon (1:1), and Main Image (1.91:1).
Audit Process: Once uploaded, creatives go into a "Pending Audit" status. Our team reviews them for policy compliance (no malware, no misleading claims, no adult content). This typically takes 2-4 hours during business days.
Compliance Reminder
Check our Compliance Guidelines to ensure your creatives meet our strict standards and avoid rejection.
5. Launch & Optimization
After your creatives are approved and your campaign is set to "Active," bidding will start immediately. However, it may take up to 60 minutes for data to populate in the reporting dashboard.
The Learning Phase: For conversion campaigns, allow 3-5 days for our algorithm to "learn" which inventory sources yield the best results. Avoid making drastic budget changes during this period to ensure the bidder stabilizes efficiently.