Leveraging on Outbrain Advertising for your Ad Campaigns

Outbrain Advertising offers marketers a different approach to running campaigns in an increasingly competitive and expensive social media and search landscape. By placing your content where people are already consuming stories, articles, and videos, this discovery-based environment reaches audiences who are more receptive to learning about your products or services. 

Pairing Outbrain campaigns with a flexible spend management tool like Bycard takes efficiency even further, letting marketers focus on strategy and performance instead of payment and budgeting logistics.

Why Outbrain Advertising Works for Campaign Visibility

Outbrain puts your content in front of users on premium publishers in recommendation feeds rather than interrupting them with pop-ups or intrusive banners.

• Users spend 2–3× longer on content discovered via recommendation widgets.
  
• Native placements drive higher engagement because they feel relevant and seamless.
  
• Outbrain supports multiple objectives: awareness, traffic, leads, or conversions.
  

Step-by-Step: Setting Up an Outbrain Advertising Campaign

Here’s a practical guide to launching campaigns efficiently:

1. Create Your Campaign
   
   • Choose an objective: Awareness, Traffic, or Conversions
     
   • Name the campaign by content type or funnel stage
     
   • Select country, language, and device targeting
     
2. Upload Creatives
   
   • Use multiple headline–image pairs to maximize testing
     
   • Outbrain automatically optimizes combinations
     
3. Set Budget & Bid Strategy
   
   • CPC for traffic-focused campaigns
     
   • Target CPA or Max Conversions for pixel-enabled campaigns
     
4. Launch & Monitor
   
   • Allow early impressions to gather data
     
   • Adjust publishers, creatives, and budgets based on performance
     

Using Bycard for Outbrain Advertising Spend

One of the biggest challenges in running multiple campaigns is tracking and managing spend. Bycard solves this:

• Instant Virtual Cards (VCCs): Create dedicated cards per campaign, including an “Outbrain Ads VCC”, to isolate spend and simplify reporting.
  
• Multi-Currency Support: Pay Outbrain campaigns in different currencies without conversion headaches.
  
• Budget Management & Reconciliation: Track spending in real-time, generate reports, and reconcile expenses effortlessly.
  
• Crypto Top-Up Options: Fund campaigns with crypto (e.g., USDT) where applicable.
  
• Security & Compliance: Bycard is regulated under US MSB rules, reducing risk for cross-border campaigns.
  

How to Get Your Bycard Virtual Card for Outbrain Advertising 

Follow these steps to create a Bycard virtual card and start funding your campaigns:

1. Sign Up or Log In to Bycard
   
   • Go to Bycard’s website and create an account or log into your existing dashboard.
     
2. Verify Your Account
   
   • Complete KYC verification by submitting your ID and any required documents to activate full functionality.
     
3. Create a Virtual Card (VCC)
   
   • In your dashboard, select “Create Virtual Card”
     
   • Choose a card type (Visa or Mastercard) and assign it a name like “Outbrain Ads VCC” for tracking campaigns.
     
4. Fund Your Card
   
   • Top up via bank transfer, card, or crypto (e.g., USDT) depending on your preference.
     
5. Set Budget & Controls
   
   • Specify a spending limit, currency, and optional freeze/unfreeze controls for better budget management.
     
6. Use Your Card for Outbrain Campaigns
   
   • Enter the VCC details in your Outbrain Ads dashboard to pay for campaigns
     
   • Track spending in real-time directly from Bycard
     

Using Bycard ensures your Outbrain Advertising campaigns are financially organized, scalable, and secure.

Why Use Outbrain Advertising with Bycard

• Lower CPCs and higher engagement
  
• Better budget and currency management
  
• Scalable campaigns with clear spend visibility
  
• Safe, compliant, and optimized performance
  

For marketers running multiple campaigns or agencies managing clients, the combination of Outbrain Advertising and Bycard virtual cards makes campaign execution simpler, faster, and more accountable.

Outbrain Pixel & Tracking: Measure Conversions Effectively

Installing the Outbrain Pixel is key to performance campaigns:

• Placement: Add it to your site header or via Google Tag Manager
  
• Events to Track: Page view, lead, purchase, scroll depth, video engagement
  
• Benefits: Optimizes spend, improves CPA, and identifies top-performing publishers
  

When combined with Bycard’s spend tracking, you get a full view of both financial and campaign performance.

Creative Specs That Work on Outbrain Advertising

Headline Best Practices

• Keep between 40–70 characters
  
• Use curiosity, problem-solving, or unexpected insights
  
• Avoid clickbait
  

Headline Examples for Outbrain Advertising:

1. “Is This the Most Cost-Effective Way to Grow Your Ad Campaigns?”
   
2. “Struggling With High CPCs? This Approach Cuts Costs.”
   
3. “Most Marketers Overlook This Native Channel, Here’s Why.”
   

Image Recommendations

• Size: 1200 × 800 px
  
• High-contrast visuals, subtle emotions, human faces
  
• Avoid overly generic stock photos
  

Video in Outbrain Advertising

Outbrain supports native video, which can autoplay in recommendation feeds and use end cards to boost post-view engagement. Video works well for awareness campaigns, storytelling, product explainers, or testimonials.

Brand Safety & Policy Compliance

Outbrain ensures content aligns with publisher standards:

• Avoid misleading claims or clickbait
  
• Don’t use overly sensational images
  
• Respect editorial guidelines
  

Bycard helps keep financial management transparent, so marketers avoid overspending or reissuing payments if content is rejected.

Audience Targeting Tools in Outbrain Advertising

Outbrain Advertising provides several powerful ways to reach the right audience for your campaigns, allowing you to optimize performance and reduce wasted spend.

• Interest & Contextual Segments

Target users based on the types of content they are reading online. For example, if your product relates to fintech, you can serve your native ads alongside articles about finance, investment, or banking. This method increases engagement because your content appears in relevant contexts where users are already interested.

• Custom Audiences

Upload your existing CRM lists or use Outbrain Pixel data to target specific users who are already familiar with your brand. This is ideal for remarketing campaigns, nurturing leads, or re-engaging past customers. When paired with Bycard, you can manage and track spend on campaigns targeting these premium audiences, making it easier to measure ROI per segment.

• Lookalikes

Outbrain can build audiences similar to your top converters. This expands your reach while maintaining quality traffic because the platform identifies users with behaviors and interests like your most valuable customers. Using dedicated Bycard virtual cards for each lookalike campaign ensures you can scale efficiently while keeping budgets organized.

Performance Benchmarks

• CTR: 0.20%–0.45%
  
• CPC: Often lower than social campaigns
  
• Time on Page: 2–3× higher than standard ads
  
• Bounce Rates: Lower when headline matches landing page
  

Bycard enables precise budgeting, so marketers can track ROI against these benchmarks.