Creating Connected TV insertions

Overview

Connected TV (CTV) refers to any TV device that is able to connect to the internet, and therefore access content beyond the standard cable provider offering. 

Connected TV devices include: 

• Smart / Connected TV: TVs with integrated Internet connections (e. g. LG Smart TV)
• Over-The-Top (OTT) media services: (Netflix, Amazon Prime, rakuten.tv)
• Gaming consoles: Internet-connected gaming consoles (PlayStation, Xbox, etc.)
• Set top boxes: Devices delivering traditional cable and video on demand content (e. g. Apple TV, Roku)

Equativ offers integrations with CTV apps (i.e. smart TV apps) enabling you to create advertising campaigns on CTV media services.
Read this article to learn how to create such campaigns, as well as how to create reports containing relevant data.
 

Integration methods

Standalone VAST request integration method

For most devices, Equativ's Connected TV offer uses the integration with the "Standalone VAST 4 - App & CTV" / "Standalone VAST 3 - App & CTV" requests. In these requests, it is critical to fill the following parameters:

• vpw — video player width
• vph — video player height
• pgdomain — page domain
• appname — app name
• buid — app bundle ID
• srl — store URL of a connected TV / mobile application; strongly recommended to avoid rejection of bid requests by DSPs; if missing in the ad request, Equativ will build and pass the store URL through an automated fallback mechanism; however, this mechanism comes into play only in case the store URL is missing in the ad request (no overriding of erroneous store URLs through this mechanism!)
• uid — Unique user ID

Here is an example of a "Standalone VAST 4 - App & CTV" request:

https://videoapi.smartadserver.com/ac?siteid=20697&pgid=726389&fmtid=27153&ab=1&tgt=&oc=1&out=vast4&ps=1&pb=0&visit=S&vcn=s&vph=[playerHeight]&vpw=[playerWidth]&vpmt=[playbackMethod]&skip=&mabd=[maxAdBreakDuration]&ctd=[contentDuration]&srl=[applicationStoreUrl]&appname=[appName]&buid=[appBundleId]&uid=[UserId]&tmstp=[timestamp]&gdpr=[sas_gdpr_applies]&gdpr_consent=[sas_gdpr_consent]

In-stream SDK integration method

A second type of integration involves using the Equativ In-stream SDK for OTT TV apps. It is important to note that the SDK can be integrated as a primary or a secondary SDK, depending on the integration type. For more details, please consult the technical documentation of the In-stream SDK.

Direct links:

• Equativ In-stream SDK for Apple TV
• Equativ In-stream SDK for Android TV
• Equativ In-stream SDK for Fire TV (Amazon)
• Equativ In-stream SDK for Roku

Recommended video formats

Due to the nature of Connected TV (CTV) devices, it is expected that the inventory will support large size and high-definition video creative formats. The recommended specifications are listed below:

• VAST 2.0, VAST 3.0 or VAST 4.x (depending on the video player)
• File format: .mp4 or .mov
• Duration: 15 or 30 seconds
• Non-skippable ads.
• Dimensions: 1920 × 1080

 

Setting up inventory

This section focuses on the main steps of setting up the video inventory. Check out the Setting up inventory article for more details.

To create video inventory, go to Inventory > Sites & pages

 

Create new website/app

 
To create a new website/app where your video player will be located:

• click the New button located next to "Site"
• define a Site name
• fill in the the Site URL (in case of a website; use format http://domain.com) or Application Id (in case of an app); this is required to identify the site/app in RTB in case Equativ cannot read it from the ad request; more details here
• click Save

Create new page group

• click New page group
• define a name (recommended name: Linear+Non-Linear)
• click Save 

 

Edit page group

• edit the page group as shown in the screenshot above
• from the list of formats, check the two formats Video - Linear and Video - Non Linear
• click Save

 

Create new page

Typically, in the context of video, pages represent channels within the video player. 

• click New page ① to create a new video channel
• select the Page group ②
• in the field Page name ③, define the video channel name
• click Save ④

Retrieving video requests

To learn how to retrieve the video requests (URLs), read section "Ad tags" and "Video integration codes" in Setting up inventory. The URLs can be retrieved by selecting the integration type "Standalone VAST 4 - App & CTV" or "Standalone VAST 3 - App & CTV". 
In the request URLs, make sure you fill in the parameters as explained in section "Standalone VAST request integration method" above!

Creating a campaign

To create a new campaign, go to Campaigns > Campaign list




Now, click the New campaign button located in the top-right corner. You will see the following window:

• select Direct, RTB or Meditation; depending on your selection, the insertions you will create in this campaign will be either Direct, RTB or Mediation insertions
• define a Name
• define the Start and end date (the time frame should cover all the time frames of the insertions in this campaign)
• select an existing advertiser or create a new one (you can also create a new advertiser under Administration > Advertisers); in case of a new advertiser, define the Name, User group (more details in User management) and - optionally - the Agency/Agencies the advertiser is associated with (agencies can be created under Administration > Agencies)

Creating Connected TV (CTV) insertions

In the insertion list view of your new campaign, click the New insertion button located in the top-right corner.

General settings

• Name - name of the insertion
• Ad type - select In-stream video and and Web - App  
• Additional information
  • Type for reports - assign a type to the insertion that is available as a reporting dimension; custom insertion types can be defined under Administration > Types of Insertions
  • External ID - assign a numeric ID to the insertion (e. g. the ID this insertion has in a third party system)
  • External description - assign an alphanumeric description to the insertion (e. g. the description this insertion has in a third party system) 

Delivery

• Start and end date / Start and end time / Time zone - fill in the appropriate information
• Priority - assign a priority to give this insertion a higher or lower priority compared to other insertions; more details in Insertions: Priorities
• Volume - define the impression volume; alternatively, enter a VAST event volume to make the insertion reach a VAST event target (e. g. 1 million "Complete" videos) instead of an impression target; available VAST events:
  • Start - video started playback
  • Ad expand - user expanded video
  • First quartile - user has seen first quartile of video
  • Midpoint - user has seen first half of video
  • Third quartile - user has seen three quarters of video
  • Complete - user has seen complete video
  • Player expand - player expanded
• Delivery mode
  • Paced – the insertion will be paced depending on the delivery criteria and available traffic to ensure balanced delivery.
  • As soon as possible – the insertion will be delivered continuously until either the end date or the maximum volume is reached.

Placement

• select from the formats:
  • Video - Non Linear (overlays displayed on the video content) or 
  • Video - Linear (pre-rolls, mid-rolls- post-rolls)
• in case of Video - Linear, you can disable the All types and positions toggle switch to target specific ad break types and positions in ad breaks (see Video ad pod position targeting for more details)
• select one or multiple Site(s), Page(s) and/or Pack(s)
• use the Selected placements toggle switch to show only the currently selected sites and pages

Creative template

In the Creative template section, the following script templates are preselected:

• VAST video in case of a Direct campaign; documentation here
• VAST video (RTB) in case of a RTB campaigns; documentation here

Available options:

• Pencil icon - access to the creative template editor
• Library - library to select an alternative creative template (more details here)
• Parameters - access to the parameters of the selected creative template; to get more details about the parameters of each creative template, search for its name in the search box of this Help Center
• Custom script - option to serve additional code (e. g. additional tracking scripts, impression counting pixels, CSS etc.)

Creatives

• click Add creative
• select from these options:
  • From computer - to upload the creative file; the max. file size for videos is 50 MB; this allows for HD video ads with a duration of up to 30 seconds 
  • Paste URL - URL to a remote creative hosted in a third party system
• define a Name
• enable the Encode video option to automatically encode the video file at different quality levels (bitrates); more details in the Video encoding article
• Click Import one file or drop the video file 
• paste the clickthrough URL into the Click URL field

Targeting

You can choose from a variety of targeting criteria (see Insertions: Targeting for the full list).
The following criteria are of particular relevance for Connected TV campaigns:

• video content metadata targeting to target insertions to specific content (e. g. episode/season numbers, content duration etc.); more details in Video content metadata
• platform targeting (targeting insertions to TVs, Set-top boxes, Game consoles etc.)

Save and put online

Once you are done with the setup of the insertion, click Save and put online at the top of the page.

Advertiser exclusivity in video ad breaks

With advertiser exclusivity in video ad breaks in Connected TV (CTV) campaigns, you can make sure that ads from competing advertisers are not shown in the same ad break (pre-roll, mid-roll etc.) across all channels, i. e. direct campaign channel and programmatic channel; more details in Advertiser exclusivity in video ad breaks.