Video placements

Sequential video ads are a popular feature of AdOcean, but related settings may vary and change frequently, based on the advertisement volumes and video content impressions and AdOcean clients need to contact Technical Support at the moment to have some of the settings modified. This project introduces a new placement type for videos and video overlays. It lets clients themselves manage the maximum number of sequential videos (pre-, mid-, post-roll) and also their maximum duration of time in an advertising break. Video placements and all related functionalities described below are offered as an extra package and these are not available in AO interface by default. Please contact our Sales Department for information about pricing.

New options for ad delivery

The development brings some new options for delivering video advertisement as well. The new options are added to the Impression program type of capping:

• video cycle with separated ads a special type of cycle where video ads are delivered in the requested order, but between 2 video ads (displayed within the same break) another video ad will always be inserted (without video cycle setting) otherwise videos with this kind of impression program will be displayed within separate breaks.
• Position in the break can be used to display chosen creative as the first/last within the given break (it is very important that in case the video is set as last in the block then no other videos will be delivered after it in the same break).

Figure: 1I mpression programs

The order of creatives can be changed in the CREATIVES submenu, by using the coloured arrows in the Action column of the creatives list table (in the same way as for sequential and cyclical modes).

The position in block option doesn't have any influence on the emitter's delivery planning algorithms. This functionality controls only the sequence of ads in breaks.

A new kind of exclusion is also part of the video placements project: exclusion inside a particular slave, instead of the complete master node (i.e. all slaves which belong there). The current form of exclusion lets you prevent the delivery of certain campaigns or creatives during the same page view. When video ads delivered in one break, exclusion within the whole master node could be unnecessary. In some cases it would be enough if a set of campaigns/creatives were not delivered together within the same break, but in different ones. To define such new kind of exclusion (i.e. exclusion within breaks), you need to set the new Exclusion model option under Exclusion details:

Figure: 2 Global exclusion

When both checkboxes are marked then it means that the exclusion will be working in the standard way. Checking only the second in single slave checkbox means that the exclusion will be working within breaks only.

Similar functionality is added in campaign and creative self-exclusion options as well:

Figure: 3 Self-excluded

Important: Checking the first whole impression checkbox means that the second one  in single slave will be marked automatically (it is impossible to mark the first checkbox only). However, doing the opposite is possible, i.e. marking the second checkbox only.

Defining and edition advertising space dedicated for video ads

All the above described new possibilities for delivering ads are dedicated to video formats only. New functionalities are working correctly in case of video placements, but not on standard placements. In order to use the new video delivering algorithms you need:

• Placements dedicated for video ads
• Dedicated video creative template

There is a new placements profile field in node properties:

The new field is visible when the If Master checkbox is marked. Otherwise this field is not displayed and cannot be used. Selecting standard placement profile means that the given master will be treated as a classic master node and none of the new video delivery options will be working on it. Selecting video placements profile means that that node and all of its slaves are dedicated to video ads and the new options will be working correctly on those placements. Please note that the placement profile cannot be changed if there is already a slave defined under the selected master, it has to be done when a new master is being created.

Every slave under a particular master node inherits the master's placement profile setting, making either all or none of them be able to use the new delivery options.

There are 2 new fields in Placement data section (properties):

• max creatives in block is for setting how many video ads could be delivered in one block;
• default block duration time is for setting the default time that blocks may last.

Leaving the default block duration time field empty means that time of breaks are unlimited.

Example:

There are 4 video ads:

• C_1 with duration equal 30 s
• C_2 with duration equal 15 s
• C_3 with duration equal 15 s
• C_4 with duration equal 30 s

All of these are defined on placements with the following parameters:

• max creatives in block = 3
• default block duration time = 60 s.

Let's say that the emitter (according to all standard properties like campaign/creative priority and weight) picks C_1, C_2 and C_3 for delivery first. It means that C_4 cannot be delivered at the same time because conditions for the maximum number of creatives in a block and block duration have been fulfilled.

Important: these limits could be exceeded in case of defining surround orders on video placements, as the surround delivery rule all creatives or none has higher priority.

Both parameters can be set via numerical variables in the placement code as well, letting you define them differently per video content. If the values are defined both in AdOcean interface and in placement codes then the latter have higher priority. However, if max creatives in block parameter's value in interface and in placement code is different, the smaller of these two numbers is being taken into consideration by the emitter.

When it comes to video placements the placement type itself is very important. There are 4 possible placement types:

• Pre-roll
• Mid-roll
• Post-roll
• Overlay

The rest of placement types (available for standard placements) is not available for placements with special placement profile.

Important: the name of video placements does not have any influence on ad delivery, but placement type and the sequence of adding new placements do. A placement which was added as the first (under the selected master and with a particular placement type for example mid-roll) would be treated as the first ad of that type in case other placements have also the same type set.

Extra parameters and placement types can be customized for every placement profile. It is also possible to set up many different placement profiles for a given AO account (apart from standard and video).

The aforementioned block duration parameter stands for the sum of each creative's duration delivered in one block. To be able to compare to this value, the emitter has to know the duration of every creative defined on video placements. There are 2 ways of defining video ad duration:

1. To define a creative as video creative (with the special template dedicated for advanced video statistics). This is an advanced functionality, if it is not available in your account then please contact Sales Department.

2. To define a creative as standard creative, but by using a creative template dedicated for video placements. To do so, you need to navigate to TEMPLATES menu under the GENERAL tab; add a new template and select template profile. Template profiles are compatible with placement profiles as follows:

• Standard template profile is assigned to standard placement profile,
• Video template profile is assigned to video placement profile.

Moreover, after choosing template profile you can see the list of obligatory parameters that have to be used in the creative code. Without these the video ad may be delivered in an incorrect way.

Creatives will not be delivered on video placements if the duration parameter is not set. Creatives with duration = 0 (zero) setting are always delivered (according to the rest of the delivering settings).

AdOcean API update

On 27th June we are going to introduce video placements in AdOcean. A detailed description of the new functionality will be released soon. The new feature also brings changes to some AdOcean API operations, as described below:

API operation name changes

• GetCreativeTemplateInfo to GetCreativeInfo
• AddCreativeTemplate to AddCreative
• UpdateCreativeTemplate to UpdateCreative
• DeleteCreativeTemplate to DeleteCreative

API operation parameter changes

AddCampaign and UpdateCampaign operations:

• additional value B for isselfexcluded parameter

AddCapping, UpdateCapping, GetCappingInfo and GetCappingsList operations:

• additional values videoCycle, firstInBlock, lastInBlock for PROG capping types

AddCreative and UpdateCreative operations:

• additional value B for isselfexcluded parameter

AddFolder operation:

• new placementprofileid and url parameters

AddPlacement and UpdatePlacement operations:

• new placementprofileid parameter
  Placement type has to correspond with the placement profile set for master. It is possible to download placement profiles list by GetPlacementProfilesList operation. In order to check which placement type is valid for selected placement profile ID, we recommend to execute GetPlacementTypesList?placementProfileID= command.

DeletePlacementType operation:

• the possibility of deleting special video placement types will be blocked

GetCampaignInfo operation:

• additional value B for isselfexcluded parameter

GetCreativeInfo operation:

• two additional columns: creativeTemplateProfileID, paramsDescription
• additional value B for isselfexcluded parameter

GetPlacementInfo operation:

• additional parameter detailslevel with values default|extended. If the operation will be executed with extended value then profileID, profileName, hasSubFolders columns will be returned additionally
• column order will change
• url parameter will be returned for nodes as well

GetPlacementsList operation:

• defaultShare, defaultPriority, profileID, profileName columns will be returned additionally if the operation is executed with showdetails=Y option

GetPlacementTypesList operation:

• additional parameter placementprofileid. If the operation will be executed with placementprofileid=1 parameter then only standard (i.e. not video) placement types will be returned.

UpdateFolder operation:

• new placementprofileid and url parameters
• the possibility of changing folder type between master node and normal node (which contains only regular placements) will be blocked

New API operations

• GetCreativeTemplateProfilesList
• GetPlacementProfilesList
• GetPlacementsList
• GetProfilePlacementParamsList

The description of the new API operations will be added to the official API documentation pages of our web site right after the release.

Please check your internal tools which use these AO API operations and make necessary modifications to them accordingly. If you have any questions, please contact your local Technical Support.

adocean api video