Overview
With the Live preview, you can preview creatives directly on the publisher website, without the need to put the insertion(s) online. It works regardless of the insertion status (draft, online, offline etc.) or targeting criteria.
The Live preview is useful to inspect and troubleshoot creative behavior since it uses the exact same library (smart.js) that is used for regular ad delivery (more about the library here). You can also share the Live preview URL with advertisers, agencies or other team members.
There are two ways to generate the Live preview:
- in Equativ's user interface EMP as part of the campaign management process
- in standalone mode, i.e. independently from Equativ's user interface
Limitations
The Live preview does not work in case of:
- insertion(s) with the Impression type In-stream video or Audio or with the Environment App; these settings are made under General settings > Ad type in insertions
- programmatic (RTB) insertions (direct insertions are supported only)
When clicking on the creative in the Live preview, the click redirection does not work if the insertion is in status "Archived".
Live preview in EMP user interface
The Live preview in the EMP user interface is available:
- from the edit view of an insertion – used to preview creatives on one or multiple formats of a single insertion
- from the insertion list – used to preview creatives on one or multiple formats of multiple insertions
Live preview for single insertion
Before you preview the creatives on one or multiple formats of a single insertion, prepare your insertion as usual (keeping the limitations mentioned above in mind):
- specify the placements
- upload the creatives (if needed, assign each creative to the desired format)
- save the insertion
Click on Live preview on the right side to start the configuration.

In the Live preview window:
- Your website – add the URL of the publisher website where you want to preview the ad; this page must contain at least one Equativ ad tag with the format(s) you selected in the Placement section; ⚠️ URLs with a comma are not accepted in this field but there are two workarounds:
- Workaround 1: remove the comma from the URL, paste the URL into the field, click on "Run preview" and (in the new browser tab or browser window opened by the Live preview) add the comma again at the location where you removed it previously
- Workaround 2: encode the comma by replacing it with %2C
- Tag ID (optional) – if applicable, add the container ID(s) of the format(s); more details in section “Live preview and custom tag IDs” below)
- enable the Block all other placements on the page option, to ensure the placements on your page that are not involved in the Live preview are kept empty (no ad delivered there)
- click Run preview

The website will be opened with the preview of the creative(s) on the specified format(s). In case of multiple formats on the page, each creative will be previewed only on the format(s) where it is enabled.
In case of multiple creatives on the same format, refresh the page until you see the desired creative; the Live preview applies the creative rotation specified in the insertion.
- click on the creative to determine if the click redirection works properly; ⚠️ Known limitation: The click redirection does not work if the insertion is in status "Archived".
- share the Live preview URL with agencies or advertisers, if needed
Live preview for multiple insertions
Before you preview the creatives on one or multiple formats of multiple insertions, prepare your insertions as usual (keeping the limitations mentioned above in mind):
- specify the placements
- upload the creatives (if needed, assign each creative to the desired format)
- save the insertions
Once the insertions are set up:
- navigate to the insertion list of the campaign where you you prepared the insertions
- enable the checkbox for all insertions you intend to preview
- select Manage > Live Preview to start configuring the Live preview

The Live preview option is disabled (greyed out) if:
- at least one of the limitations mentioned in chapter “Limitations” above applies
- two or more insertions target the same format
- one or more insertion(s) has/have no format selected
In the Live preview window, configure the parameters as explained in chapter “Live preview for single insertion” above.

Live preview and custom Tag IDs
Adding one or multiple Tag ID(s) in the Tag ID field is only required if the Tag ID(s) used on the publisher website does/do not follow the default naming pattern:
sas_<formatId> (for instance, if the formatId is
1234, the default Tag ID name is
sas_1234). If your page uses default Tag IDs only, you can ignore the Tag ID field; more details about the Tag ID in the
Tagging guide.
Workaround in case of customized ad tags
If you are using customized ad tags that differ from the original ones provided by Equativ, the Live preview may not be able to recognize their location.
To indicate where the placement is located, either integrate the commented code snippet below in your ad tag or use the standalone Live preview (see next section below).
<script>
...
//sas_manager.render(formatId);
...
</script>
Standalone Live preview
With the standalone Live preview mode, you compose the Live preview URL manually and run the Live preview without the need to sign in to
Equativ’s Monetization Platform (EMP). In both modes – standalone and EMP-based – the Live preview URL syntax is identical.
The Live preview URL has the following syntax:
http://mywebsite.com?live_preview_config={jsonConfig}
{jsonConfig} is a json object containing all Live preview parameters, structured as shown in the following sample:
{
"uid": 12345,
"blockAds": true,
"data": [{
"insertionId": 111,
"formats": [{
"id": 111,
"tag": "sas_111"
}, {
"id": 222,
"tag": "sas_222"
}
]
}, {
"insertionId": 222,
"formats": [{
"id": 333,
"tag": "sas_333"
}
]
}
]
}
You must serialize the json configuration and send it in the
live_preview_config= query parameter in the Live preview URL.
The complete Live preview URL for the sample above is:
https://mywebsite.com?live_preview_config={"uid":12345,"blockAds":true,"data":[{"insertionId":111,"formats":[{"id":111,"tag":"sas_111"},{"id":222,"tag":"sas_222"}]},{"insertionId":222,"formats":[{"id":333,"tag":"sas_333"}]}]}
The table below explains each field:
Field | Parent object | Type | Necessity | Description |
---|
uid | n/a | INTEGER | REQUIRED | the user ID of the user who created the insertion(s) you want to preview; to determine the user ID, go to Equativ's user interface > Administration > Users and edit the user; the user ID will be included in the URL in the address bar of your browser (e. g.: https://manage.smartadserver.com/n/admin/users/66304 |
blockAds | n/a | BOOLEAN | OPTIONAL |
- true: placements on your page that are not involved in the Live preview are kept empty (no ad delivered there)
- false (default): placements on your page that are not involved in the Live preview receive ads from other insertions
|
data | n/a | ARRAY | REQUIRED | an array of insertionId and formats fields, indicating the insertions and formats to be used in the Live preview |
insertionId | data | INTEGER | REQUIRED | the insertion Id to be shown in the Live preview; make sure you preview supported insertions only (see “Limitations” above); if there are multiple creatives in an insertion, the creative rotation modes specified in the insertion, will apply |
formats | data | ARRAY | REQUIRED | an array of formats to be used in the Live preview |
id | formats | INTEGER | REQUIRED | the format Id on the publisher website to be used in the Live preview |
tag | formats | STRING | REQUIRED or OPTIONAL (see description) | the tag Id (container Id) of the format on the publisher website to be used in the Live preview; the tag Id is optional but required if it does not follow the default naming pattern: sas_<formatId> (for instance, if the format Id is 1234, the default tag Id is sas_1234); more details about the tag Id in the Tagging guide; If both format Id and tag Id are defined, the tag Id will take precedence over the format Id. |