Setting Ad Policies for Players

Using the Advertising module, you can edit the ad request policies for your players. You can also use the Advertising module to edit the ad request policies for your videos. When a player has been enabled for ad requests, if there are any conflicts between video and player level policies, the video level policies will override the ad policies set at the player level.

• Enabling ad requests for players
• Editing ad policies for players
• Setting key/values pairs for players

Note: You can also set an ad policy for a player using the Video Cloud Player API. This approach enables you to override a player's ad policy set in the Advertising module. For more information about these advanced features, see Dynamically Setting Ad Policies and Developing an Ad Rules SWF.

Enabling ad requests for players

Before enabling player to make ad calls, make sure you have thought through your ad strategy. Also, make sure you are aligned with an ad network or have an account with an ad server, and have campaigns set up with available inventory. If you want to try testing ads and you don't have an ad delivery system in place yet, you may want to read about configuring ads with no ad server.

To enable ad requests for one or more players:

1. Select All Players in the Navigation Pane on the left side of the Advertising Module.
2. Select the players for which you want to enable ads from the data grid in the center of the Advertising Module. To select multiple players, hold down the Ctrl or Shift keys while selecting players.
3. In the toolbar, select Ads On.

If you are enabling ads for the first time, selecting Ads On will enable the default ad frequency policy. To use an ad policy other than the default, select Edit to set your specific ad policy.

The status of the player selected appears in the Ad Requests On field of the Details Pane on the right side of the Advertising Module. If ads are enabled for the player, the value is true. If ads are not enabled, the value is false.

If ads are not enabled for a player, then no ad requests will be made from that player, regardless of any video level policies or any previously set player policies. If you are not using ads with a player, leaving ads disabled will cause the player to load somewhat faster.

Editing ad policies for players

To edit ad policies for one or more players:

1. Select All Players in the Navigation Pane on the left side of the Advertising Module.
2. Select the players for which you want to edit ad policies from the data grid in the center of the Advertising Module. To select multiple players, hold down the Ctrl or Shift keys while selecting players.
3. In the toolbar, click Edit. The Batch Edit Players dialog opens. The title bar displays the number of players selected.

In the Batch Edit Players dialog, you can:

4. Specify whether ads requests will be made for videos played on the selected player(s).
5. Set advertising key/value pairs for the player(s). The key/value pairs the player sends in its ad requests can give the ad server information about the context of the ad that help the ad server optimize ad targeting. Ad key/value pairs are cumulative. For example, if you have key/value pairs set at the video level, key/value pairs set at the player level, and pre-roll key/value pairs, all three sets of key/value pairs will be sent in the ad request to the ad server. It is up to the ad server to figure out what to do with all the key/value pairs it receives in the ad request.
6. Set the Ad Source to specify where the player should send its ad requests. You can choose among a number of different solutions, including DART for Publishers, which is the default ad policy manager, 24/7 Real Media OAS, Ad Delivery Solutions, ADTECH Helios IQ, DART Enterprise, DFP Video & Rich Media, a custom ad translator, or a custom ad rules SWF.
7. Override the Default Base Ad Tag URL (Ad Server URL) for the selected player(s).
8. Specify the Ad Request Frequency. You can set the frequency of ad requests based on elapsed running time or based on the number of videos viewed.
   Note: This frequency policy is not related to frequency capping policies within your ad server.
9. Set the Ad Insertion Points to control when ad requests are made in relation to the video playback: on player load, pre-roll, mid-roll, or post-roll. You can specify separate key/value pairs for each ad insertion point. Setting ad insertion points helps maximize inventory and match advertisers to content.
10. Click Save Changes.

Requesting ads from this player

In the Batch Edit Players dialog, click Yes in the Request ads from this player field to enable ad requests for this player, or click No if you do not want to allow ads to be requested from this player. Selecting Yes has the same effect on the player as clicking the Ads On button to enable ads for selected players. (Remember that selecting Ads On for the very first time enables a default ad policy.) If you have already enabled or disabled ad requests using the Ads On and Ads Off buttons in the toolbar, you do not need to set this field.

If you select No, then no ad requests will be made from the player, regardless of the ad policy settings of any videos being played by that player.

Choosing an Ad Source

The ad source setting determines where your player sends its ad requests. You can set this either at the account level or at the player level. If an ad source is set at the account level, the default ad source will display below the ad source selection menu. By default, Video Cloud players are integrated with DoubleClick's DFP ad server. If you are not using DFP, you can contact Video Cloud support to set up a different account-level default ad source. You can override the account-level ad source for particular players by selecting the appropriate ad source from the drop-down list in the Advertising module.

When you set the ad source for your players, you can choose among a number of different solutions, including:

• DART for Publishers, which is the default ad policy manager
• 24/7 Real Media OAS
• Ad Delivery Solutions
• ADTECH Helios IQ
• DART Enterprise
• DFP Video
• DFP IMA (IMA 2 — Rich Media)
• DFP IMA 3 (IMA 3 — Rich Media)
• a custom ad translator, or
• a custom ad rules SWF

For information about custom ad translators, see Developing Ad Translators. For information about custom ad rules SWFs, see Developing an Ad Rules SWF.

Overriding the Ad Server URL

By default, Video Cloud players send ad requests to the ad server set at the account level (if any). You can contact support to set up your account-level Ad Server URL setting, if you have not done so already. Even if you have an account-level Ad Server URL, you can override the default (Ad Server URL) for the selected player(s) using this field. For more information about how to construct a Base Ad Tag URL (Ad Server URL), click here.

Setting ad frequency policies

You can set the policy for how often ad requests are made and determine whether the policy is time-based (look for an insertion point after every x minutes of video playback) or video-based (look for an insertion point after every x videos are played). In the Ad Policy for Videos in this Player field, select either Time Based or Video Based.

Note: The Ad Policy settings are used by Flash-based players only.

Setting the simplest ad frequency policy

If you want to set the most basic ad policy, select the video-based ad policy and select 1 for each frequency setting. If you set this policy, ad requests will be made for every video and only one ad request will be made at a time. Many of our current publishers find that setting a video-based policy that requests 1 ad every 3 videos is a good setting, however you should experiment to find the ad frequency that works for you and your brand.

Default ad frequency policy for new players

The default ad policy associated with a new player depends on the player's template.

All Video Cloud player templates (except the Video Player and the Video Display templates) use a time-based ad policy (pre-roll insertion, every two minutes) by default. If you create a custom template that can display a playlist, the default ad policy will also be time-based (pre-roll insertion, every two minutes). If you create a custom template that cannot display a playlist, the default ad policy is video-based (pre-roll insertion, every video).

Setting time-based ad policies

If you select a time-based ad policy, then the frequency of ad requests is based on how long video playback has progressed in this player and the insertion points that have been set.

In the time-based ad policy section, you can set:

• How frequently, in minutes, to play ads (the ad request frequency)
• How many ads to play for each time period (the ad request quantity)
  

How frequently ads are played depends on the interaction of the ad request interval, the ad request quantity, the ad insertion points, and the length of the videos.

The ad request frequency determines how much time has to pass before an ad insertion point will be considered active. After the ad request frequency time has passed, then the next ad insertion point will cause an ad request. If the ad request quantity is set higher than 1, then future ad insertion points may also cause ad requests. After the correct number of ad requests have been made, then the time counter goes back to 0 and the time starts incrementing again.

The elapsed time between ad requests is based on the time the viewer spends watching videos; skipping ahead in a video does not make ad requests come faster, but rewinding and viewing again does count against the elapsed time. Time spent watching part of one video counts toward the time interval on the next video.

If an ad insertion point is passed and the ad frequency time has not elapsed, then the ad insertion point will be skipped. If ad frequency time has elapsed and the viewer rewinds the video, the earlier insertion points will be considered active.

Setting video-based ad policies

If you select a video-based ad policy, then the frequency of ad requests is based on how many videos have played back in this player and the insertion points that have been set.

In the video-based ad policy section, you can set:

• When to play the first ad
• How many videos to play between ad requests
• How many ads to play at a time

The first ad will be played after the selected number of videos play. The number is calculated by the number of videos that are started to play and not the number of videos that are completed. The same calculation is used for videos that are played between ad requests. If your player has more than one playlist, then video plays are summed across videos played in different playlists as the viewer skips around.

The number of ads to play at a time is the number of ads to play at the current insertion point. If for example, a pre-roll or post-roll insertion point is set up in the player and the number of ads to play is set to 2, then two ads will be played at the pre-roll and the post-roll insertion points.

Setting ad insertion points

You can set the insertion points for when the videos in the player should make an ad request.

The insertion points supported are:

• player load. An ad request is made when the player loads.
• pre-roll. Ad requests are made before a video plays.
• mid-roll. Ad requests are made while a video plays based on the cue points that are specified for the video.
• post-roll. Ad requests are made after a video completes.

Setting key-value pairs for players

Ad requests can include key/value pairs that aid the ad server in selecting the appropriate ad to serve. You can set player-level key/value pairs, which are used for all ad requests from that player. Click here for a list of key/value pairs that are automatically passed by Video Cloud to the ad server in an ad call. In addition, you can add additional key/value pairs.

You can also set ad insertion points key/value pairs to use for ad requests in specific situations:

• player load. These key/value pairs are used for ad requests made when the player loads.
• pre-roll. These key/value pairs are used for ad requests made before a video plays.
• mid-roll. These key/value pairs are used for ad requests made while a video plays.
• post-roll. These key/value pairs are used for ad requests made after a video plays.

Ad key/value pairs are cumulative. For example, if you have key/value pairs set at the video level, key/value pairs set at the player level, and pre-roll key/value pairs, all three sets of key/value pairs will be sent in the ad request to the ad server. It is up to the ad server to figure out what to do with all the key/value pairs it receives in the ad request.

Note that to use mid-roll ad requests, you need to set cue points in your videos.

To set ad key/value pairs for one or more players in the Advertising Module:

1. In the Batch Edit Players dialog, select the type of key/value pairs you want to edit by selecting Yes below the appropriate field:
   • Player-level key/value pairs (on upper left side of the dialog)
   • Player load key/value pairs (on right side of the dialog)
   • Pre-roll key/value pairs (on right side of the dialog)
   • Mid-roll key/value pairs (on right side of the dialog)
   • Post-roll key/value pairs (on right side of the dialog)
   When you select Yes, a text box displays where you can enter key/value pairs.


2. Enter one or more key/value pairs in the text box. The format for key/value pairs is key=value. If you use more than one key/value pair, separate them with semicolons (;), or with whatever character your ad server uses as a delimiter for key/value pairs. For example you may enter the following in the text box:
   category=news;news=headlines;promo=sponsorship
   You can add up to 1800 characters of key/value pairs in the Edit text box, however keep in mind that your ad server or network may also have their own (lower) limit on ad request URLs. Note: If you are editing more than one player, and the existing key/value pairs for all the selected videos are not identical, the edit dialog displays <Multiple values> as a reminder.
3. If you are editing a player that already has key/value pairs, select:
   • Append key/value Pairs if you want to add these key/value pairs to the ones that already exist.
   • Overwrite Key/Value Pairs if you want to replace your existing key/value pairs with these new ones.
4. Click Save Changes.

What's Next...

Read more about:

• Setting ad policies for videos
• Adding cue points to videos