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Creating in-stream video insertions

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Creating in-stream video insertions
Video-instream-campaigns
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About in-stream video insertions

With in-stream video insertions, you can run video ads embedded in video content. For instance, you can display one or multiple pre-roll ads to be played before the video content.

In-stream video integration methods

The following integration methods are available:

  • display integration methods (documentation here)
    • Video plugin
    • Embedded ad manager (video plugin via VPAID) 
    • Standalone VAST request
  • in-app integration method (documentation here

Video formats

Your service contact at Equativ will enable the in-stream video formats in your network. They are listed under Inventory > Formats > Video:

  • Video - Linear for in-stream video ads played before (pre-roll), in the middle of (mid-roll) or after (post-roll) video content
  • Video - Non Linear for ads displayed during video content playback (overlays)

Video inventory

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

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

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Create new website/app


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

  • click New 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

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

Edit page group

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  • 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

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Typically, in the context of video, pages represent channels within the video player. 
  • click New page  to create a new video channel
  • select the Page group
  • in the field Page name , define the video channel name
  • click Save
Note 1
You may need additional pages (channels) which may not support both formats. In this case:
  • create additional page groups
  • name the page groups according to the included formats  ("Linear" or "Non-Linear")
  • select the according format for the page group (Video - Linear or Video Non-Linear)
  • when you create additional pages, select the appropriate page group
Note 2
You can also set up parent and child pages to create a page tree with multiple levels - see section "Pages" in the Setting up inventory article.

 

Video tags for single pages

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To retrieve the integration code of a single page, go to the Video tags section of the page and select the appropriate integration code; read more about integration methods here.

Video tags bulk export

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To do a bulk export of all video tags, use the link Download all tags for the site...

Creating a campaign

Go to Campaigns > Campaign list

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

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  • select Direct, RTB or Mediation; 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)
  • set the Booking status to Sold (more details about the booking status and other features in Creating campaigns)
 

Creating in-stream video insertions

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

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General settings

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  • Name - name of the insertion
  • Ad type - select the impression type In-stream video
  • 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) 
  • Priority level - assign a priority to give this insertion a higher or lower priority compared to other insertions; more details in Insertions: Priorities
  • Start and end date / Start and end time / Time zone - fill in the appropriate information
  • 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
    • 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
    • Viewable Impressions - ad was viewable
  • CPM - enter the cost (CPM) data for the insertion; the Targeting cost fields cannot be edited in the General settings tab; they are based on the Audience targeting / Semantic targeting criteria selected in the Targeting section
  • 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:
  • [VIDEO] VAST 4.x - LINEAR in case of a Direct campaign; documentation here
  • [RTB+ VIDEO] VAST 4.x 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); documentation of official creative templates: 
  • 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 and select from these options:
    • Upload 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
      • in case of the [VIDEO] VAST x - LINEAR creative template: paste a URL to a remote creative hosted in a third party system
      • in case of the [VIDEO] VAST x - WRAPPER creative template: paste a URL to a VAST wrapper ad
  • define a Name
  • in case of the [VIDEO] VAST x - LINEAR creative template:
    • if the Upload from computer option was selected, click Import a file / drop the video file
    • if the Paste URL option was selected, paste the URL of the remote video ad (hosted in a third party system) into the Creative URL field
    • enable the Encode video option to automatically encode the video file at different quality levels (bitrates); more details in the Video encoding article; in case of the Paste URL option, an error is shown and encoding is discarded if a remote video is greater than 50 MB
    • define the Click URL of the video ad
  • in case of the [VIDEO] VAST x - WRAPPER creative template:
    • paste the URL of the VAST wrapper into the Creative URL field; EMP will read the file located behind the pasted URL to determine if it is a VAST wrapper or a mp4 video file; if it is a valid VAST wrapper, some parameters will be configured automatically; if the access to the file is restricted, either remove the restriction or click on Private CDN
    • define the Duration of the VAST wrapper
  • fill the remaining fields Width, Height and Available formats.
  • if applicable, add the UNIVERSAL ADID information; UniversalAdId is a unique creative identifier, specified in the VAST standard, used for creative tracking; the identifier is maintained across all involved systems:
    • ID Registry - The URL for the registry website where the unique creative identifier is cataloged, e. g.: "ad-id.org" or "clearcast.co.uk"; default value: "unknown"
    • ID Value - The common creative identifier used across all involved systems
  • click Add creative

VAST trackings

For each creative, you can also add custom trackers from one or multiple third party systems to have those systems measure VAST events, in addition to Equativ's own VAST event measurement. Make sure you separate multiple custom trackers for the same VAST event using "||" as a separator (without the quotation marks and without any white spaces).
Custom trackers on creative level take precedence over custom trackers on creative template level. For instance, if you have defined a custom tracker for the event adExpand on creative level and another one on creative template level, then only the one on creative level will be triggered. 


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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 in-stream video 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

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

Cross-channel competitive exclusions

With cross-channel competitive exclusions in in-stream video 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 RTB channel; more details in Cross-channel competitive exclusions.

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