The problem
To show clients their ads on publisher sites, account managers were editing screenshots or refreshing pages until the right ad appeared. They needed a faster way that worked across sites and used campaign creative already in their platform.
What we built
We built a private Chrome extension that loaded campaign data, let the account manager choose an ad unit, placed the creative, and captured the preview.
- Connected the extension to existing campaign and creative APIs.
- Kept a person in control of selecting the right placement.
- Processed placement and screenshots locally in the account manager’s browser.
What changed
Less repetitive work. A simpler way to produce the preview.
Account managers could create previews more efficiently, with fewer clicks and no shared processing queue. The automation reused the systems they already had rather than creating another standalone workflow.
The technical decisions
Use the browser they already work in.
The extension could access the same pages as the account manager and detect available ad units. This avoided building a proxy to load third-party sites inside a separate web application.
Reuse the existing platform.
Existing API endpoints and JavaScript logic supplied campaign and creative data. Local screenshot processing also avoided contention between account managers.