Blog: New Features 
Announcing the New “Shop by Store” Feature on BargainMatch.com!
For those of you that do not know, BargainMatch.com is Inuvo’s private-label shopping experience that combines product, coupon, and shop by store search, while paying shoppers for making purchases from the site. The latest enhancement is the new “Shop by Store” feature. This feature allows users to browse products and view coupons at any specific store available on BargainMatch.com.
What makes BargainMatch standout from its competitors is its truly one-of-a-kind shopping experience. The portal is a one-stop shop for comparing prices from the largest online retailers such as Amazon.com, Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy and hundreds more. And don’t forget: not only will you find the best prices at your favorite online stores, but you also get cash back on each purchase!
Every Friday we detail five hot items on BargainMatch.com. Make sure to sign up to receive this blog by email so you never miss what’s hot!
Keep your eyes on BargainMatch.com because several other enhancement features are underway!
The Inuvo Platform Simplifies Text Link Creative
The most recent improvement to the Inuvo Platform is the streamlining of the text link creative type. The simplification of this creative type was added to the Platform due to feedback received from some of our clients. Here are the details of how you can get started with this creative type.
For advertisers:
To access the ability to create new text links, you will need to navigate to the My Creatives section of the Platform and click on the “Add New Creative” button. Next, select the offer’s name from the drop down menu. This will take you to the “Add New Creatives” page. Here you’ll be able to complete the entire process of adding a new piece of creative for your publishers to use in promoting your offer.
Once you select the creative type in the second drop down box, Step 2 and Step 3 will automatically populate below. In Step 2 you will enter your text creative. Please note that any text you’d like to make clickable will need curly braces around { }.
Next, you’ll complete the creative’s name, description and place it in up to five categories. Optionally, you are allowed to give the creative a unique destination URL.
For publishers:
Navigate to the “My Creatives” section of the Inuvo Platform and either click on the “Jump to” links or use the filters to find the creative you’d like to use. (Please note you can also click on the offer name from your Dashboard and then click on “View All” in the “Creatives” block on the right column. Next, click on “Get Creative Code,” select Standard Linking or Direct Linking (if available) and enter up to three subIDs. Now your creative code is ready for you to copy and paste!
Inuvo Platform Team Continues Providing Important Updates!
Inuvo’s Development Team has once again been hard at work bringing important updates to the Platform based on your feedback! Here are the most recent updates to the Inuvo Platform.
Updates for Advertisers:
- Text Email Creative can now be up to 10,000 characters in length.
- Offer Description can now be up to 1,000 characters in length.
- Account Summary in the Billing section now shows all charges in red and credits in black.
- Invoice and Statement details have been updated so that charges to the advertiser are shown in positive values and credits given to them are in negative values.
Publisher updates for this release are:
- Offer tiles have been updated in the Browse Offers and Offer Details pages. We are now highlighting the Payout and any Second Tier Payout (if applicable).
- Marketing types and a Landing Page preview link have also been added to the offer tiles.
For Advertisers and Publishers, we have the following update:
- Once you login to the Inuvo Platform the initial landing page now shows Account ID and Owner Name if you have access to multiple accounts.
Keep your suggestions and feedback coming! We are coming up on the Inuvo Platform’s first anniversary and it’s exciting to see how it has already evolved so much with the help of client feedback. We want to keep improving your experience with the Platform, so let us know what is important to you.
Inuvo Platform Update: HTML and Text Email Creative Types
Based on feedback from our publishers, we have now streamlined the process of adding subIDs into both HTML and text email creative types. Adding subIDs into these creative types is now done in the same manner as all other creative types.
HTML Emails
Once you navigate to the My Creatives section of the Inuvo Platform, use the Creative Type drop down box to filter your available creative to only show HTML Emails. Also, you now have the option of using the “Jump to” links that are directly below the drop down boxes.
Click the “Get Code” icon on the top right corner of the HTML email creative you wish to use.
A light box will pop-up once you click on “Get Code.” This is where you will enter in your desired subIDs. You have the option to add in up to three subIDs. Once you have finished adding in the subIDs click on “Download HTML Email Zip File” in order to access the creative.
If you open the HTML file and view the source code, you will see that the Inuvo Platform has automatically inserted your tracking links and any designated subIDs. Here’s an example of the tracking code as viewed in Dreamweaver:
Text Emails
Once you navigate to the My Creatives section of the Inuvo Platform, use the Creative Type drop down box to filter your available creative to only show text emails. Also, you now have the option of using the “Jump to” links that are directly below the drop down boxes.
Click the “Get Code” icon on the top right corner of the text email creative you wish to use.
A light box will pop-up once you click on “Get Code.” This is where you will enter in your desired subIDs. You have the option to add in up to three subIDs. You will notice the subIDs will populate in the text box in real time. Once you have completed adding in subIDs, click anywhere in the text box to highlight all of the text email and then copy and paste it into your desired location.
We hope this update helps you save some time and makes your marketing efforts a bit easier.
How else can we improve to simplify and reduce your time spent setting up your marketing campaigns?
New Feature in the Inuvo Platform - Coupon Feeds
The newest feature in the Platform is the addition of Coupon Feeds as a creative type. This is an exciting new creative type that any advertiser in the Inuvo Platform can benefit from using. Whether you have one coupon or a thousand, this is a quick and easy way to deliver a feed to your publishers.
View a Video Tour of the new Coupon Feed creative type as viewed by an Inuvo Advertiser:
If you are an Inuvo Publisher in need a variety (or even one!) coupon for your traffic, such as a coupon site, this is the way to go. Additionally, grabbing all feeds available or handpicking only the specific feeds that interest you is as simple and checking or unchecking a box.
View a Video Tour of the new Coupon Feed creative type as viewed by an Inuvo Publisher:
Since we want to make the Inuvo Platform your #1 resource for all of your Internet Marketing needs as are continuously working to add new features and make improvements.
What new features would you like to see us add to the Inuvo Platform?
How can Inuvo continue to help simplify your advertising efforts?
The Inuvo Platform Now Supports Pay Per Click Offers
We are pleased to announce that the Inuvo Platform has recently been updated to support Pay Per Click (PPC) offers. What is PPC? PPC is exactly what it sounds like; an advertiser pays a publisher for every click they generate on the provided creative. In this blog I’ll give you the important details from both an advertiser and publisher perspective on this exciting new feature.
Here are the differences for advertisers to keep in mind when creating a Pay Per Click offer:
- All transactions are set to be auto-approved.
- PPC offers are denoted with a blue square “Click” icon.
- Each PPC offer has a built-in limit of one transaction per hour per IP address.
- The ability to limit transactions to only specific domains is not available.
- The ability to set a specific cookie life is not available.
- Host and Post creative type is not available.
The key updates for publishers are:
- Browse Offers now has a Filter By option for viewing Pay Per Click offers only.
- PPC offers are denoted with a blue square “Click” icon.
- Each PPC offer has a built-in limit of one transaction per hour per IP address.
We are working hard to bring you the best features and updates in the industry on an ongoing basis. If you have any features you’d like to see in the Inuvo Platform, make sure to visit our feedback forum and speak your mind.
Announcing the Inuvo Platform's Revamped Creative Section
Inuvo has recently revamped the Add New Creative section of the Inuvo Platform. This was a joint effort between the sales, marketing, user experience and development teams. We have received valuable feedback from you and have put that feedback to good use in this update. We feel that you’ll now notice a much more streamlined Creative section and you will be able to upload your creative files faster than ever before!
Join me on a video tour of the updated Creative section:
Here are the details on how to access the Add New Creative page and the options that are available to you on that page. Once you have set up an offer through the Offer Wizard, you will be taken to the Offer Details page. You can access this page at any time by clicking on the offer name. You will notice on the right-hand side of this page, there is now a listing of Steps to complete your offer including “Step 5: Creatives” which lists all your creative, if any, for this offer. To add creative to this offer, select “Add New Creative” from the top right-hand side of the Creative tile. This will take you to the Add New Creative page.
You can also add creative from the My Creatives page in the top navigation. Once on the My Creatives page, simply hit the Add New Creative button on the right-hand side, select the offer you would like to add it to, and then it will take you to this Add New Creative page.
Once on the Add New Creative page, you will first be asked to select the offer your creative will be added to and the creative type you are uploading—Image Banner, Search Link, Text Email, Text Ad, HTML Email, Data Feed or Host and Post. Depending on the type of media you select, you will be asked various questions. Please see the specific area below.
Image Banner:
1. Image File: Here you will upload your banner ad file. You will need to ensure that the file is formatted as a .jpg, .gif or .png.
2. Creative Name: Give your creative a name (less than 50 characters) that will be helpful to publishers.
3. Creative Description: Give your creative a description (less than 250 characters) that will be helpful to publishers.
4. Creative Categories: Select at least one and up to five category for your creative. Any categories already assigned to your offer will automatically be included here. You can modify these categories for the creative, however, any changes made will not override the categories assigned to the offer.
5. Creative Destination URL (Optional): If you would like to have your creative link to a different landing page other than the offer default landing page, please input the URL including http://. If the URL is not unique to this creative, simply leave blank. Please Note: Setting a Destination URL will override the existing URL.
6. Once image is uploaded, simply click Add Creative and your banner ad is ready.
Search Link:
1. Creative Name: Give your creative a name (less than 50 characters) that will be helpful to publishers.
2. Creative Description: Give your creative a description (less than 250 characters) that will be helpful to publishers.
3. Creative Categories: Select at least one and up to five category for your creative. Any categories already assigned to your offer will automatically be included here. You can modify these categories for the creative, however, any changes made will not override the categories assigned to the offer.
4. Creative Destination URL (Optional): If you would like to have your creative link to a different landing page other than the offer default landing page, please input the URL including http://. If the URL is not unique to this creative, simply leave blank. Please Note: Setting a Destination URL will override the existing URL.
5. Once these steps are complete, click Add Creative and your search link is ready.
Text Ad:
1. Text Ad Headline: This is the headline for your text ad. There is a 100 character maximum for your ad headline. You can preview your content to the right of your screen.
2. Text Ad Content: This is the content for your text ad. There is a 250 character maximum for your ad content. You can preview your content to the right of your screen.
3. Display URL: Here you will need to include the display URL, which is the URL that will be displayed within the ad. This may be different than the actual URL they are taken too, as it is usually something short and easy to remember.
4. Creative Name: Give your creative a name (less than 50 characters) that will be helpful to publishers.
5. Creative Description: Give your creative a description (less than 250 characters) that will be helpful to publishers.
6. Creative Categories: Select at least one and up to five category for your creative. Any categories already assigned to your offer will automatically be included here. You can modify these categories for the creative, however, any changes made will not override the categories assigned to the offer.
7. Creative Destination URL (Optional): If you would like to have your creative link to a different landing page other than the offer default landing page, please input the URL including http://. If the URL is not unique to this creative, simply leave blank. Please Note: Setting a Destination URL will override the existing URL.
8. Once these steps are complete, simply click Add Creative and your text ad is ready.
Text Email
1. Text Email Subject: This will be the subject line for your email (maximum 250 characters).
2. Text Email Content: This is the body of your email (maximum of 2000 characters). You can preview your content to the right of the screen. You will need to insert a tracking link URL at least once within the email by using the following tag: {link_url}.
3. Creative Name: Give your creative a name (less than 50 characters) that will be helpful to publishers.
4. Creative Description: Give your creative a description (less than 250 characters) that will be helpful to publishers.
5. Creative Categories: Select at least one and up to five category for your creative. Any categories already assigned to your offer will automatically be included here. You can modify these categories for the creative, however, any changes made will not override the categories assigned to the offer.
6. Creative Destination URL (Optional): If you would like to have your creative link to a different landing page other than the offer default landing page, please input the URL including http://. If the URL is not unique to this creative, simply leave blank. Please Note: Setting a Destination URL will override the existing URL.
7. Once everything is set, simply click Add Creative and your text email is ready.
HTML Email:
1. HTML Email Subject Line: This will be the subject line for your email.
2. HTML Zip File: Here you will upload your HTML file. You will need to ensure that the file is formatted as a .zip, file. You will need to insert a tracking link URL at least once within the email by using the following tag: {link_url}.
3. Creative Name: Give your creative a name (less than 50 characters) that will be helpful to publishers.
4. Creative Description: Give your creative a description (less than 250 characters) that will be helpful to publishers.
5. Creative Categories: Select at least one and up to five category for your creative. Any categories already assigned to your offer will automatically be included here. You can modify these categories for the creative, however, any changes made will not override the categories assigned to the offer.
6. Creative Destination URL (Optional): If you would like to have your creative link to a different landing page other than the offer default landing page, please input the URL including http://. If the URL is not unique to this creative, simply leave blank. Please Note: Setting a Destination URL will override the existing URL.
7. Once these steps are complete, simply click Add Creative and your HTML email is ready.
Data Feed:
1. Data Feed File: Here you will upload the CSV file for your data feed. View sample Data Feed. Headers and Product Landing URL fields are required, as per sample file. All other fields are optional.
2. Creative Name: Give your creative a name (less than 50 characters) that will be helpful to publishers.
3. Creative Description: Give your creative a description (less than 250 characters) that will be helpful to publishers.
4. Creative Categories: Select at least one and up to five category for your creative. Any categories already assigned to your offer will automatically be included here. You can modify these categories for the creative, however, any changes made will not override the categories assigned to the offer.
5. Creative Destination URL (Optional): If you would like to have your creative link to a different landing page other than the offer default landing page, please input the URL including http://. If the URL is not unique to this creative, simply leave blank. Please Note: Setting a Destination URL will override the existing URL.
6. Once these steps are complete, simply click Add Creative and your HTML email is ready.
Host and Post:
1. Form Definition: Please contact support [at] inuvo [dot] com (support [at] inuvo [dot] com) to help in getting your form created.
2. Creative Name: Give your creative a name (less than 50 characters) that will be helpful to publishers.
3. Creative Description: Give your creative a description (less than 250 characters) that will be helpful to publishers.
4. Creative Categories: Select at least one and up to five category for your creative. Any categories already assigned to your offer will automatically be included here. You can modify these categories for the creative, however, any changes made will not override the categories assigned to the offer.
5. Creative Destination URL (Optional): If you would like to have your creative link to a different landing page other than the offer default landing page, please input the URL including http://. If the URL is not unique to this creative, simply leave blank. Please Note: Setting a Destination URL will override the existing URL.
6. Once these steps are complete, simply click Add Creative and your Host and Post form is ready.
Keep submitting your opinions and ideas for improvements and new features! We take every piece of feedbackvery seriously and will be in contact with you shortly after receiving your message. Also, if you have an idea for a topic you’d like to see covered in this blog, please email me at blog [at] inuvo [dot] com (blog [at] inuvo [dot] com).
April 2010 Inuvo Platform New Features and Updates: Part Three
Publisher Features:
- Updated Payments Report – To access your Payments Report, click on Reports from any page. Next, click on Payments.
- Generate this report to see a list of payments you have been issues from Inuvo.
- A Payment Pending table is provided to show you your pending amounts and the reason they are considered pending.
- Updated Transaction Details Report - To access your Transaction Details Report, click on Reports from any page. Next, click on Transaction Details. You will see a list of parameters you can select in order to generate your custom report.
- We’ve now added in Date Approved under the Date Filter.
- Select this option if you’d like to use this report to reconcile your Payment Report.
- We’ve now added in Date Approved under the Date Filter.
April 2010 Inuvo Platform New Features and Updates: Part Two
- New Notifications - To locate this new section, click on Account from any page inside your Inuvo Platform Advertiser account. Click on Manage Notifications. You will now see the two new notifications Burn Rate Notification and Daily Balance Notification. Make sure to mouse over the tooltips (the blue circle with a question mark inside) in order to receive more guidance on setting up your notifications, if needed, and then click on Update Settings.
- Updated Available Funds Notification – This notification is displayed on your Dashboard, My Offers, Publishers and Transactions pages. Available Funds refers to the amount left in your account after paid, pending and approved transactions have been deducted from your balance. If you have a credit account, you will see the credit amount displayed below your Available Funds total. Please note that your Available Funds total does include your credit amount.
- Updated Billing Report – To access your Billing Report, click on Reports from any page. The Billing Report is comprise of three parts:
- Account Summary – Run this report to view a summary of your daily transaction reports.
- Invoices – Generate this report to see a list of your invoices and click on any invoice number to view its details.
- Payment History – Here you can view a report of payments you have submitted to Inuvo.
- Updated Transaction Details Report – To access your Transaction Details Report, click on Reports from any page. Next, click on Transaction Details. You will see a list of parameters you can select in order to generate your custom report.
- We’ve now added in Date Approved under the Date Filter.
- Select this option if you’d like to use this report to reconcile your Billing Report.
- We’ve now added in Date Approved under the Date Filter.
April 2010 Inuvo Platform New Features and Updates: Part One
Today we have the first part of a pretty large update to the Inuvo Platform to share with you as a result of this month’s release. This month our development team focused on improving existing items and adding in a few new features. This blog will highlight these items and the videos included below will walk you through each.
Advertiser Features:
- Updated Offer Details Page – To locate this page, log into your Inuvo Advertiser account and click on any of your offers on your Dashboard. Also, this is the same page you will arrive at once you have completed the Offer Wizard. You’ll now see the entire integration, testing and publisher management process laid out in detailed steps in the right side column.
- Step 1 – Tracking Pixel
- Complete this step in order to track transactions sent to you from Inuvo Publishers
- Step 2 – Direct Linking (Optional)
- Complete this optional step only if you’d like to allow publisher to directly link to your landing pages.
- Step 3 – Test Your Offer
- Work with the Inuvo Platformteam to ensure the tracking pixel is firing and you are ready to launch.
- Step 4 – Invite Publishers (Optional)
- Once your offer is live,the entire Inuvo Platform team is notified and begins working to recruit current Inuvo Publishers to your offer. Your offer’s landing page will be displayed on our Facebook and Twitter accounts as well as included in the next issue of our Publisher Digest. In addition, our team of Affiliate Managers will handpick publishers they feel would be the best match for your offer and will contact them personally in order to get them interested in running your offer.
We also encourage you to recruit any current publishers you have a relationship with or recruit brand new publishers to run your offers. Complete this step to generate a recruitment link and/or recruitment email.
- Once your offer is live,the entire Inuvo Platform team is notified and begins working to recruit current Inuvo Publishers to your offer. Your offer’s landing page will be displayed on our Facebook and Twitter accounts as well as included in the next issue of our Publisher Digest. In addition, our team of Affiliate Managers will handpick publishers they feel would be the best match for your offer and will contact them personally in order to get them interested in running your offer.
- Step 5 – Creatives
- This is where you’llupload the creative you would like your publishers to use when promoting your offer. The Inuvo Platform is home to many types of publishers; generally the more creative supplied, the more attractive an offer becomes to potential publishers.
- Step 6 – Add/Edit Commission Structures
- Complete this step if you’d like to offer various pay rates to publishers or publisher groups, setup tiers or edit your existing offer payout.
- Step 7 – Piggyback Pixels (Optional)
- Complete this step on an as needed basis, if you’d like to allow publishers running your offers to track their stats in their own solution in addition to the Inuvo Platform.
- Step 1 – Tracking Pixel
- Updated Commission Structures Page – To locate this page, log into your Inuvo Advertiser account and click on any of your offers on your Dashboard. Scroll down until you come to Step 6 – Add/Edit Commission Structures on the right side column. Click on the link and you will be taken to the Commission Structures page.
- If you’d like to edit an existing commission structure, click on Edit Details, update the commission structure to the new information you desire and click Update.
- To create a new commission structure, click on New Commission Structure on the top right, input the details of your new commission structure and click on Save.
- Please Note: Once you have saved your new commission structure, you will need to click on Publisher Commission Structures on the Commission Structures page in order to begin adding publishers into the new commission structure.
- Updated Offer Wizard – The Offer Wizard is a quick and easy way to add your new offers into the Inuvo Platform. You will find the Offer Wizard on the top right side of both the Dashboard and My Offers pages. To begin the Offer Wizard, click on Start Now! The Offer Wizard is completed in these four simple steps:
- Get Started – From here you will select if your offer is a Lead or Sales offer.
- General Setup – This page will help you flesh out the details of your offer.
- Commission Structure – Here you will specify the details of how much you will pay publishers.
- Publishers – This is a list of options which will such things automatic or manual publisher approvals and if your offer is private or open to the entire publisher list.
Stay tuned tomorrow for Part Two of our April 2010 New Features!
