Infolinks AdShop Review for Advertisers

AdShop is the latest platform released by the popular advertising network Infolinks. It was designed specifically with the advertiser in mind. With the amount of attention, they had been placing on the publisher’s side of things, providing them with the tools they need to succeed in the online advertising world, they felt it was time to start focusing on the advertisers as well.

It was created to give advertisers all the opportunities that the publishers already enjoy through the network. The focus of this platform is aimed at providing the best possible experience for advertisers as they work alongside of publishers to advertise and promote their websites, services and products.

The Design

Designed to accommodate advertisers in all aspects of their sites’ promotion and campaigns, once you are signed up as an advertiser, it only takes a few minutes to get up and running. You will be able to start reaching the audience that you want to target almost immediately upon setting up an account on the platform.
AdShop provides an efficient way to target your ideal demographics, and advertise directly to them. Because of how effective their platform is, you will be able to reach more targeted users without overspending to do so. AdShop has set out to provide a highly optimized way to reach and exceed all of the goals that a typical advertiser has.

Who Is Using It Today?

AdShop is being used by all types of advertisers at the moment. They are not catered towards any specific type of advertiser. They are both rookie and professional bloggers, major companies, and highly authoritative websites that have been doing advertising for decades.
The majority of the advertisers that actively use the platform are those that own individual sites, small businesses and affiliates. They attract advertisers from all over the world because of how accommodating they are to the variety of needs that their groups of advertisers rely on.

What Makes AdShop Unique?

The AdShop platform as a whole is very simple and straightforward. It took us no time to figure out how to get a campaign up and running as soon as we opened the control panel. As far as ease-of-use goes, it is one of the networks that have the easiest learning curve that we have come across.
Navigation throughout the dashboard is easy. There are no hidden features or technical details that you need to know before you can get started. Everything is clearly labeled and positioned exactly where you would expect it.
Once we created an account, we were able to put up a campaign and define the countries that we wanted to target. We were also able to define the devices and keywords that we were targeting.
Of course, we have a lot of experience navigating through new advertising networks, however, we feel that beginners would have the same type of user experience that we had.
AdShop also provides a variety of advanced tools for the more experienced advertisers. These tools can be used to better target your audience, and track them using more variables.

What Type of Advertising Is Offered?

AdShop uses cost per click advertising. This means you will be paying for every click that your ad generates. They do not offer pay-per-view advertising to their account holders.

Are There Minimums to Start a Campaign?

They have adjusted their campaign minimums to accommodate all of the small-time advertisers that use their network. You can create a campaign for as little as $25. This is a lot lower than other networks that require deposits of multiple times this amount.
This is one of the many reasons why small-time advertisers are flocking to this platform. Although it is not specifically catered towards these small advertisers, it offers a lot of features that would appeal to them. The end result of this is that new or small-time advertisers will tend to use this platform over a comparable network.

Network Security

The staff behind AdShop works diligently to provide their advertisers with a safe and secure network that they can use to advertise their sites, products or services through. They investigate all fraud attempts or claims. This helps to prevent any fake clicks that could run up the advertising fees.
This also helps to improve the conversion rates for the advertiser since they are reducing the amount of fake clicks that would otherwise not convert for them.

Sign Up Process

As we mentioned above, the sign-up process for AdShop is easy. You will sign up through Infolinks on the AdShop page located here. Once you have entered your details, you will be taken to the dashboard where you can begin setting up your first campaign.
There is no approval process. Once you set up your account and deposit the minimum of $25 to run your first campaign, you will be ready to start advertising.

Interface and Navigation

The entire platform has a straightforward and simple to use interface. As we mentioned above, there is a very low learning curve once you start using this platform.

Pricing

The AdShop platform is priced very reasonably for advertisers. The low overhead allows more flexibility for advertisers to test different campaigns and approaches.
The money that you save will allow you to run test campaigns more extensively, resulting in better-optimized campaigns in the end. It only requires a low deposit of $25 to run your first campaign as an advertiser.

Targeting Your Audience

AdShop has a smart interface that allows advertisers to target their audience with a high degree of accuracy. More advanced advertisers will have a better understanding of how to leverage the interface to pinpoint the type of audience that they are aiming their campaigns at.
Those who are new at targeting will still have an easy time aiming their campaigns at the demographics that they want.
The network will display your ads on websites that are related to your ad and topic. This, combined with all of the demographics that you choose, will allow you to optimize your campaigns for the customers who will be most likely to convert for you.
AdShop claims that over 99% of the ads that they display will fall within the same niche that the publishing website is based on. This is great news for advertisers that place an emphasis on optimizing their campaigns for the most effective results.

How to Set up Your First Campaign

To further explain how easy it is to set up your first campaign, we are going to give you a quick walk-through on how you can do it. Read below to see how quick and easy it is.

1. First, create your account on AdShop and open the AdShop dashboard. Once you are there, click ‘create a campaign’ and enter your details.

2. For the bid amount, you can set your own rates. Infolinks will provide you with the suggestions for the bid, based on your targeting options.

3. Next, add in the details of your ad. This is where a lot of the tweaking and optimizing work will be done. Experiment with different ad formats and verbiage on your ad.

4. Next, you will pay for your ad and wait for it to be approved. The staff will verify your campaign and once it has received approval, it will be up and running.

What Lies Ahead?

AdShop is still in its early stages and the developers behind the platform are still working to implement more tools that the advertisers can use to their advantage:

• They plan to incorporate additional customization options for the ads that will be displayed.
• They will add even more targeting options so that you can focus your campaigns even further.
• They will provide campaign reports that have more data points which you can use to analyze the effectiveness of your ads.
• They plan on offering incentives and deals for reliable advertisers.

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5

What We Like: We loved that they are putting a focus on the advertisers themselves. Most major networks will attempt to cater to everyone at once – publishers, advertisers and middlemen. This creates gaps in the overall experience that both the advertisers and publishers will receive.
By developing their own specific platform for advertisers, they have been able to develop one of the most useful networks that they can use.
What We Don’t like: This platform is still new and a lot of features need to be implemented still. This is the main reason for the half a point reduction in our overall rating.
As long as they continue to develop their platform in the way that they have been doing so far, we see no reason why this rating couldn’t be bumped up to a perfect 5 out of 5.

Advertiser Requirements

Advertiser Terms: http://www.infolinks.com/service-agreement/
Traffic Minimum: N/A
Advertiser Language Requirement: English or Spanish
Prohibited Advertiser Content: Adult content, gambling, sites that promote illegal substances, facilitate the sale of firearms, “scareware” misleading users to believe they have problems with their computer, malware or any other malicious code.

Support & Contact Information

Email: support.adshop@infolinks.com
Address: 505 Hamilton Ave. Suite 220 Palo Alto, CA 94301

Tech Implementation

Tech Implementation Rating: 4 out of 5.

They did a fantastic job designing their dashboard which is clean and easy to navigate through. They still have a lot of technical tools that we feel they could already have available for their advertisers. We expect this to improve as they continue to develop their platform.

Reporting & Admin Control Panel

AdShop Advertiser Reporting & Admin Control Panel Rating: 4 out of 5.

The interface is top notch. This is one of our favorite aspects of the platform.
Their reports could use some improving. Although they already provide all of the basic data that you would need as an advertiser, they don’t offer a whole lot more than that at the moment.
They tell us that they are working to improve the data that they are able to provide to their advertisers in their future. Their reports are okay for now, but they fail to deliver much more than the basics.

Payment

AdShop Payment Rating: 5 out of 5

There is not a lot to say here from the advertiser’s perspective. They allow minimums of $25 per campaign which is one of the cheapest starting rates available. They allow for minimum budgets of as low as $1 per day. Overall, this is in line with what you can expect as an advertiser.

Account Help

AdShop Account Help Rating: 5 out of 5

As is the case with Infolinks, AdShop provides top notch customer service. They are easy to reach and they have a trained staff that is more than competent and willing to help you with all of your questions. They can be reached by phone or by email.

Editor’s AdShop for Advertisers Review

Pros of Using AdShop for Advertisers

It’s an ad platform that focuses on the advertiser. From that standpoint, we can say that any improvements that they implement on to the platform will be for the benefit of the advertiser.

Cons of Using AdShop for Advertisers

It’s not a replacement for AdWords. AdWords <has already nailed all the best aspects of running campaigns as an advertiser. It is a new platform that still needs to be developed. It is one of our favorite platforms to use, but it still needs a good amount of polishing.
It should be supplemental to your AdWords revenue – another channel to test for your business or your clients.

Final Thoughts

This is a solid platform to use for advertisers. It is easy to use (you won’t waste time trying to learn how to use it), and provides you with all of the essentials that you will need to get started.
It has a large network of publishers which provides plenty of opportunities for advertisers to spread their advertisements throughout the web. If you are an advertiser, new or experienced, we recommend giving AdShop a try.