Overview
Advertiser exclusivity in video ad breaks ensures that only one ad of advertisers belonging to the same category is shown in an in-stream video ad break. Ad breaks are sequences of ads shown before (pre-roll), in the middle of (mid-roll) or after (post-roll) video content.
A typical use case is to ensure that ads of competitors are never shown in the same ad break. For instance, the competitors Mercedes and BMW belong to the same advertiser category - Automotive - and their ads should not be shown in the same ad break.
Advertiser exclusivity in ad breaks is often used in a TV context where the publisher wants to guarantee exclusivity in the ad break to specific, often premium, advertisers.
Prerequisites
Advertiser exclusivity can only work in ad breaks that contain more than one ad. Therefore, the ad request which requests the ad pod (e. g. the ad pod for the pre-roll ad break) must contain one of the following parameters:
- ps: the pod size, i. e. the number of ads in an ad break
- mabd: the maximum total duration of an ad break (in seconds)
Specific vs. global advertiser exclusivity
You can use the advertiser exclusivity feature in two different modes:
- Exclusivity of ads belonging to specific advertiser categories in an ad break (e. g. only one Sports ad). This mode requires a manual setup to specify which categories should be unique in an ad break.
- Global advertiser exclusivity. This mode is for programmatic ads only and requires activation in your network - reach out to your contact at Equativ to have it enabled. The global mode applies to any advertiser category and does not require any further manual setup.
Specific advertiser exclusivity
With the specific advertiser exclusivity, you can ensure that ads from advertisers that belong to a specific category are not shown in the same ad break.
Configuration
To configure the advertiser exclusivity, you must declare the categories that should be unique in the same ad break by creating advertiser exclusions.
To access the configuration:
- go to Administration > Exclusion/link/capping categories
- select Advertiser exclusions
- click on the + icon to open the Advertiser Exclusions form
In the Advertiser Exclusion form, fill in the following fields:
- Name – define a name for this advertiser exclusion.
- Advertisers – select one or multiple direct advertisers to be excluded; Warning: do not add advertisers that have RTB insertions; for the RTB (programmatic) part, use the Categories field explained below; if you select an advertiser that is already selected in another exclusion, the advertiser will be removed from the other exclusion and reassigned to this exclusion.
- Categories – select one or multiple programmatic advertiser categories.
- Save the exclusion. It may take a few minutes until a newly created or modified exclusion becomes effective.
Example #1 - direct and programmatic
The example shown in the screenshot below ensures that Automotive ads of the direct advertisers BMW, Mercedes and programmatic Automotive ads (e. g. Audi, Toyota etc.) are not shown in the same ad break.
Example #2 - direct only
The example shown in the screenshot below ensures that ads of the direct advertisers DHL and UPS are not shown in the same ad break. Note that it is still possible that a programmatic ad of a competitor (e. g. FedEx) is displayed along with one of the direct advertisers in the same ad break.
Example #3 - programmatic only
The example shown in the screenshot below ensures that programmatic Sports ads (Nike, adidas etc.) are not shown in the same ad break. Note that it is still possible that a direct Sports ad of a competitor is displayed with one of the programmatic Sports advertisers.
Global advertiser exclusivity
With the global advertiser exclusivity you ensure that programmatic ads belonging to the same advertiser category are not shown together in the same ad break. The global mode applies to any category (Automotive, Food & Drink, Health & Fitness etc.) and applies to programmatic ads only.
To use this mode, reach out to your contact at Equativ to have the feature enabled in your network.
Impact on monetization
Once the feature is enabled, you can expect decreased levels of bids: with the feature activation, ads belonging to the same advertiser category will no longer be allowed to be shown in the same ad break – some ads are now being blocked. However, Equativ's internal analyses have shown that revenues usually do not decrease as a result of the activation.
Reporting
To report on ad opportunities that were blocked to enforce the advertiser exclusivity feature, you can use the Bid Status “BlockedExcludedAdvertiserCategory” (ID 50) in
Instant Insights/
Instant Report Builder.
This bid status represents the number of times an ad was blocked to enforce the advertiser exclusivity.
Notes
- The Bid Status dimension can only be used in combination with some bid related metrics (e. g. with the Bids or Bid Requests metric).
- The Bid Status BlockedExcludedAdvertiserCategory (ID 50) includes blocked ad opportunities from both advertiser exclusivity modes: specific and global.
