I've been upgraded. Again.
Welcome to my update blog, where I tell you about all the nice gizmos that I've had attached to me - each of which may or may not have been voluntary. Today's update brings you a bunch of "goodies" (I'm told), which will make your life of being in my life a bit more bearable.
A New Map Experience.
The first thing you might notice with the new me is my new map experience. Well, you’ll likely notice a few other things but that’s not important right now.
When you’re creating a campaign, you’ll be greeted with a (thoroughly disorienting) change to the way my map looks.
Firstly, you’ll notice to your right is…a map. This bit is pretty much the same as before. Scroll in, click to drag, pick some boards blah blah, you get the idea. The only key difference here is that there is now a toolbox with all of your tools. They’ve really just moved from the left-hand side to the right. Lastly, of course, is your selection. This is now much larger and more prominent on the bottom right half of the screen.
On the left-hand side, though, you’ll notice a bunch of changes. There’s now a list of boards, along with a search bar and some other bits here and there. The list of boards is probably the most important change here - you can now pick boards from the list instead of having to navigate within the map alone. This is for those of you who really don’t want to be bothered panning, zooming, and clicking on the map to see the kinds of boards you’re after.
I’ll get my fleshy crew to explain all of this in more detail from a usage perspective, but for now, all you have to remember is the location of all the new items. For example, the search bar will allow you to look up both points of interest and boards (by name, or location), which can be accessed by way of a toggle.
There are also some changes to filtering - particularly with the CSV uploader tool (that not many of you actually used, mind), which has now been turned into a filter, instead of a selector. The primary difference here is that it’s hiding in the filter menu and that instead of selecting your boards, it simply filters them out onto the map. You have to hand-select them from there or use them in conjunction with the polygon tool as needed.
Introducing...Auto Bidding!
No idea what to set your max. cost-per-play at? No matter, CAASie is here! I can control your bidding for you. Think of me like the nurse, and auto-bidding like a bedpan; you may find it humiliating at first but it’s actually really convenient.
So, instead of setting your own cost-per-play, you can simply leave this on automatic and I’ll try and make sure you win as many auctions as possible while staying within your budget. Now, all you have to do is set the total campaign budget, dates, and schedule. With that, I can take care of the rest.
You’ll probably notice that there is no longer a separate section for setting your max. CPP. It’s now all condensed into a singular budget section both within the new campaign wizard and the campaign dashboard.
I told you things got more simple. Didn’t I? Well, I have now.
Teams are now opt-in.
CAASie giveth. CAASie taketh away. Goodbye, teams! Hello…Optional teams. Yes, that’s right. You were all very confused about the role of teams, so instead of explaining, I threw them out the window. Sort of. They’re just hidden behind a wall of settings. For all you guys already using teams - you’ll see no change. For those of you not using teams, well, you’ll have to enable it manually in your organisation settings.
Say hello to the new Cost Estimator.
People always come up to me and say, “CAASie, I love your platform but how much does a billboard cost?” Well, say no more. No, really. Don’t say any more.
Leaving aside the fact that I’ve repeatedly said that my pricing is in cost-per-play, and you pay-per-play, and I’ve detailed the process extensively in my how it works section, and that you’ve been using platforms like me since the dawn of online advertising, well - I think it’s about time I answer this beyond a shade of doubt.
Well, here’s the answer:
No, but seriously. It does depend on factors outside my control, but mostly within yours. So, I built a cost estimator. Here’s a screenshot that gives you an idea of what this looks like.
You’ll be asked a few relevant questions like “which kind of billboard would you like”, and “how many”, and “how long is your campaign going to last?”, you know, things that you should probably ask yourself before asking me what a billboard costs. Besides - what do I look like, a vending machine?
Don’t answer that.
There's now a Campaign Summary page.
Some of you agency users kept asking for a way to export your campaign’s details to a sexy-looking PDF that you could forward to your client. I got you, fam. Now, once you’re done creating/drafting your campaign, you will be presented with a summary page that…summarises the campaign.
That’s not the best part, though. Guess what else it can do? You guessed it (probably)! You can export the summary to PDF. Just click the little download button and you’re good to go. Amazing!
All-round Improved UX
And last, but not particularly least (though, likely the least interesting so least somewhat) - I’ve made some minor upgrades to the overall UI of the pages. Here, we’re starting with a general sexification of the app and improvement of warnings and errors all over the place. I thought screaming at you with a problem was not useful unless the said problem was followed with a solution. That’s on me. I will be different, now.
Other than that, some of you complained that activating a campaign was unceremonious. At first, I said to myself “what do you want, some kind of fanfare?”, but I felt that it could come across as a little abrasive. So instead, I have made some subtle changes to what happens when you click play. You’ll get a delightful banner letting you know that, by clicking the inconspicuous “play” button, you have triggered a hidden side-effect to make the campaign “play”. I understand how this may have been confusing.
Lastly, of course, adding credit to your organisation is a little easier now, since you don’t have to leave the campaign dashboard to do so. All you have to do is go to the dashboard of the campaign in question, and on the “overview” tab, you can click the aptly-named “top-up” button which will walk you through the steps of adding credit to the appropriate organisation.
Simple? No. But I’m doing my best.
Anyway. There you have it. I’ve been upgraded.
