TechCrunch Mobile Proxies: Startup Campaign QA Across US Metros

TechCrunch's readers are founders, investors and operators, and its advertising follows them: display, event promotions and sponsored posts targeted by metro to where startup activity is. A company promoting a launch or an event on TechCrunch, or an agency placing there, needs to see what a mobile reader in each targeted metro gets. We do not run a Bay Area metro, but the other startup hubs are covered, and Mobile Proxies USA gives a team a dedicated carrier line in each: New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Miami and North Carolina among them.

What a TechCrunch reader's location changes

Display units beside coverage, sponsored posts, event promotions for TechCrunch's own and partners' events, and regional offers all vary with where the reader appears to be. Event promotion is especially metro-specific. A hosting address is skipped by exchanges, so a verification from a datacenter shows a page nobody receives.

Lines in the startup metros

Order a line in each metro in the buy. For Boston, choose Verizon if the sample must read as Boston on lookups, since AT&T in Boston reads as New York. T-Mobile is most consistent for the metro itself in general; Verizon may show a regional hub; all three are reliable for the state. Each line is one SIM in one device assigned to you alone, with its own rotation link.

Team setup

One profile per line with locale following the proxy. If the team promotes events, keep the team's own TechCrunch account signed in so event pages render as for a registered reader. Label rows by metro and campaign. Lines run independently, so a second impression on the New York line does not disturb the Boston session, and a line can move to another metro for free when the event calendar changes.

If the agency promotes events for more than one client, keep each client's samples on that client's lines and in that client's folder in the profile browser. Two clients on one line is the shared-address situation a dedicated line exists to avoid. Each line is the list price, so the decision is about separation rather than volume. Reset a line's credentials from its dashboard row when a staff member moves off the account; the other lines are untouched.

Sampling

Open the front page, the sections carrying the campaign and the event pages, scroll fully, capture with timestamp and exit address, rotate, repeat. Two or three samples per metro per day over the campaign. File by metro and date; the record shows presence, creative and adjacency per metro.

Event promotion often peaks in the two weeks before the date, so a team may add weekly lines in the host metro for that stretch and let them expire afterwards. A weekly 4G line is $27 and a weekly 5G line $31; both have unmetered data and the same rotation link as a monthly line.

Disrupt season and the Bay Area note

TechCrunch's flagship event draws the heaviest sponsor activity of its year, and ticket promotions shift as early-bird deadlines pass. A team promoting a booth or a side event should sample the event pages either side of each deadline and log which offer was displayed in each metro.

Since no line of ours sits in San Francisco, state that limit in the client's report and use Los Angeles for a California reading. A short, honest note about coverage saves a difficult conversation later.

Proper use

View public pages, verify your own placements, do not harvest coverage or simulate readers. The lines exist so the team sees the page from the right metro; the rest is ordinary reading.

Setting up a TechCrunch proxy on Mobile Proxies USA

1. Order a line per metro in the buy; use Verizon in Boston if Boston itself must show.
2. Create one profile per line with locale following the proxy and the team's account signed in.
3. Sample front page, campaign sections and event pages; capture with timestamp and exit address.
4. Rotate each line and sample again.
5. File by metro and date and move lines as the event calendar moves.

TechCrunch proxy questions