ADVERTISE VADEMECUM CREATIVES, IMPRESSION AND CLICK TRACKING CONTENTS
PART 1. CREATIVES, IMPRESSION AND CLICK TRACKING 2
1.1 What kind of creative can I provide? 2
1.2 Which kind of content can I show on my ads? 12
1.3 What other data shall I provide with my creatives? 15
1.4 Image ads vs. tags: Why is it better hosting the ads directly on Targetoo’s platform instead of using third-party adserving tags? 16
1.6 Why do I see discrepancies between the number of impressions/clicks shown on my reports and the ones shown on your report? 18
Appendix: Tracking assets template for my campaign. 19 PART 1. CREATIVES, IMPRESSION AND CLICK TRACKING
1.1 WHAT KIND OF CREATIVE CAN I PROVIDE?
You can create the following types of creatives with Targetoo:
• Image Banner: This will allow you to upload an image (either static or animated gif). • Dynamic Ad: Dynamic ads include a text that changes based on the user´s location, and they can only be used with geofenced campaigns. If you select this format you will be asked to upload images as well, but these images have to include an empty area where the dynamic text must be written.
• VAST Video: This format will show an autoplay video within an interstitial in an app. If you select this format you´ll be requested to upload a video file from your computer and Targetoo will automatically encode it to be properly served. • Native Ad: This format includes text and image components that will be laid out in different ways depending on the publisher app. • MRAID: This format allows you to copy and paste MRAID tags from any external ad server. You should use it only when you are going to segment the campaign exclusively to apps, as MRAID tags do not work on web.
Do make sure you properly test the tags with the different exchanges and work with MRAID certified partners.
• HTML + JS: This format allows you to copy and paste Java Script or HTML tags from any external ad server. If you are running a rich media campaign, you will often have to run MRAID tags on App inventory and HTML tags on web inventory. • Standard banners TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
Image creatives-Standard Formats
MINIMUM FORMATS iPhone Android Generic Tablets 3 frames max 30” max loop 320x50 320x50 320x50 728x904 Creatives with 300x50 300x50 300x50 468x60 partially black 320x480 320x480 320x480 15K 768x1024 35K .gif/.jpg or white 300x250 300x250 300x250 300x250 backgrounds 480x320 480x320 480x320 Must add a visible border of acontrasting color
Interstitial: 320x480, 480x320. Max 3 frames
ADDITIONAL FORMATS iPhone Android Generic Tablets
300x50 728x90 320x480 1024x768 168x28 300x50 480x320 216x36 168x28 168x28 120x20 120x20 120x20
LANDINGSPAGE
Mobile 320x480 Tablet 1024x728 DYNAMIC ADS
This kind of ads can be used for campaigns that are segmented by geolocation, which are limited to some geographical areas. Every area has an associated text, which will be used as dynamic text if the user is in that area when the impression takes place. In this example, the white space was filled with the name and postal address of the nearest bar. VIDEO VAST FORMAT These are the technical specs for the videos that can be served with the VAST format. MULTIMEDIA CONTAINER (AND EXTENSION) Mp4 Video stream Codec H.264 Frames per second 12 - 15 fps Bitrate 400 kbps Baseline 3.0
Resolution
Aspect 4:3 480x360 Aspect 16:9 480x270 Audio stream Codec AAC Bitrate 64kbps Sample frequency 44100 Hz File limitations Max file size 2 MB Duration 5 - 30 seconds Nice to have If duration of the video is >15 seconds, have a version of the video no longer than that (part of the publishers do not accept videos longer than 15 seconds)
It should have enough quality to be properly seen on a screen 640x360 Events tracked 1. 50% of the video 2. 100% of the video (end of video) NOTE: A high-resolution format is supported too, with the same specification but the following:
Video stream Frames per second 29 fps Bitrate 600 kbps Resolution 640x360
File limitations Max file size 5 MB NATIVE ADS
TECHNICAL SPECS
Native ads can have slightly different formats depending who the publisher is. That said, the components below should allow to serve in most of the publishers that support this format. You have to send the images and texts to us separately.
IMAGES TEXTS Icon Image Description (text) Title (text) CTA (text) 300X300 1200x627 px, pixels 580x480, 640x480 max. 90 max 25 max 10 characters characters characters Incl. spaces
IMAGES
Format: gif, jpg or png. Maximum weight. 1 MG
Icon: This should be either the icon of your application, if that´s what you are promoting, or the logo of your company/service. It must be an image.
Image: This is the main image you want to associate to your ad.
TEXTS
Title: This is a short text that will show as a title. It should normally be the name of your app or your service.
Description: This is a longer description of your app and service. It should be clear and concise, and explain users why they should be interested in using your service.
Call To Action: This is the text that contains the call to action for the user. For example: “Install” or “View Site” MRAID
MRAID, or “Mobile Rich Media Ad Interface Definitions” is the IAB Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence’s project to define a common API (Application Programming Interface) for mobile rich media ads that will run in mobile apps. This is a standardized set of commands, designed to work with HTML5 and JavaScript, that developers creating rich media ads use to communicate what those ads do (expand, resize, get access to device functionalities such as the accelerometer, etc.) with the apps into which they are being served.
Without MRAID different apps (incorporating different rich media vendors’ SDKs) have disparate requirements in terms of the APIs that creative developers must use to communicate with the app. Therefore, the same creative must be rewritten in order to run across different apps. MRAID offers a single API that diverse SDK vendors will support, which means that MRAID-compliant rich media ads will run within applications using any MRAID-compliant SDK. MRAID therefore enables creative agencies and rich media shops to more quickly and easily build rich creative that will run in different publishers’ mobile apps.
CREATING CELTRA RICH MEDIA ADS
When using a Celtra rich media creative in a campaign, you need to pay special attention to generating the correct ad tags. The following step-by-step guide will illustrate how to set up the tags, as well as some tips.
Step-by-step guide 1. At Celtra’s website, create your rich media ad, using when possible components and technology compatible with mobile MRAID placements 2. At Celtra’s website, generate an ad tag for a third party placement. For Apps, use a generic MRAID target. 3. On the click macro section, use %%CLICK_URL_UNESC%%%escaped-click% for Google placements and use %notify-click% for all other exchanges. 4. On Targetoo’s ad console, paste the generated markup on the markup section. Please introduce a valid preview image. Ensure the click url matches the click destination on your rich media. If your ad contains audio, expands, or contains video it is mandatory to declare it in the Creative Attributes section.
TRACKING AD EXCHANGES SEPARATELY
TIP: you may want to create a different placement in Celtra for each of the ad exchanges, so that you can track results in Celtra per ad exchange and compare (this is very useful, for example, if you are measuring video completed views). It will also allow you to detect issues with any particular ad exchange that may not be working as expected. If you create a different placement per exchange you will need to add one creative per exchange and per size, each of them limited to a specific exchange keyword. MRAID ONLY FOR APPS
Make sure your MRAID tags are only shown in app traffic, and your mobile web tags are shown only in mobile web. You can either force that using creative distribution by keyword, or creating separate A/B tests or separate campaigns for App placement versus Mobile Web placement.
RICH MEDIA APPROVAL TIPS FOR GOOGLE
In order for your ad to be approved on the Google network, special care must be applied: • Google is known for caching obsolete versions of the ad for days. When making changes to the ad markup for approval, it is better to archive a non-working creative and create a new version, rather than waiting for approval of an invalid creative. • No animation can have a loop longer than 30 seconds. Image looping needs to stop before reaching that number • Ensure your video play back is limited to 30 seconds maximum • The landing page declared needs to be the actual landing page of the creative
See below examples of an MRAID ad tag, in this case for Google.
Celtra Ad Tag Example for MRAID
HTML AND JAVASCRIT TAGS
This format allows you to copy and paste Java Script or HTML tags from any external ad server. If you are running a rich media campaign, you will often have to run MRAID tags on App inventory and HTML tags on web inventory.
This is the list of the macros you can use into your MRAID and HTML+JS (Celtra and AdGibbon only) creatives markup.
LIST OF AVAILABLE MACROS:
• %ts%: Replaced by a unique value based on the timestamp of the impression (note: not a real timestamp). Can be used to avoid caching of pages (cache busting). • %click%: Replaced by the click URL of the creative. • %escaped-click%: Replaced by the click URL of the creative (escaped). • %notify-click%: Replaced by a URL to notify Targetoo about the click. • %udid%: Replaced by the device identifier of the request. • %loc%: Replaced by the latitude+longitude where the impression takes place (separated by a comma). This macro replacement is not always available. • %pub_raw%: Replaced by publisher keyword. • %tag%: Replaced by tag ID of the impression. HOW TO USE THESE MACROS
Depending on your MRAID provider or your HTML+JS markup, you’ll need a way to notify Targetoo about clicks when you detect them. For instance, with Celtra:
CELTRA SAMPLE MARKUP 1 2
MACROS FOR CLICK COMMANDS/DESTINATION URLS
This is the list of common available macros and how to use them. • %ts%: Replaced by a unique value based on the timestamp of the request (note: not a real timestamp). Can be used to avoid caching of pages (cache busting). • %udid%: Replaced by the device identifier of the request. • %exchange%: Replaced by the AdExchange platform, if specified, otherwise, will be replaced by “unknown” • %pub%: Replaced by publisher unique identifier, encoded internally. • %pub_raw%: Replaced by a publisher name identifier (as in publisher keyword), not encoded. • %click%: Replaced by the click url of the creative. • %eventid%: Replaced by the Event ID of the campaign • %loc%: Replaced by the geolocation of the request. • %creative%: Replaced by the the creative identifier (which has the form cr-id12345x..) • %creative_size%: Replaced by the ad size (with dimensions of 320x50) • %creative_name%: Replaced by the name of the creative THE SERVER WILL REPLACE ANY OF THE MACROS WITH IT’S APPROPRIATE VALUE. FOR EXAMPLE, IF THE URL IS:
Example URL http://ads..es/m/open?a=%udid%&b=%creative%....
The server will take %udid% and replace it with device identifier of the request and will replace %creative % with the creative identifier. This will apply to every URL that contains one of the macro from the list shown above 1.2 WHICH KIND OF CONTENT CAN I SHOW ON MY ADS?
We want ads to be useful, varied, relevant and safe for users when serving them across our Network. As a result, we don’t allow any of the following type of ads.
PROHIBETED CREATIVES AND CONTENTS
• Pop (e.g. Over, Under, or Upon Exit) • Windows Dialog or Alert Style (e.g., any creative that a user might mistake for an OS- or application-level notification rather than an advertisement) • Auto-redirect ads–ads that automatically redirect the user without the user’s engagement or action (e.g.,click, touch) • Deceptive ads that resemble user interface elements (e.g., text boxes), and/or ads that do not ask the user for permission before initiating any services/fees. This includes Click-to-Call and Click-to-Subscribe ads that do not include an intermediary landing page or other prompt that clearly explains the terms and/or fees associated with the call or subscription. • Rotating Tags - Creatives linked to a certain campaign should always correspond to the same advertiser declared within the campaign. Tags which link to creatives from multiple advertisers are not permitted and will be subject to fines by the ad exchanges.
• Abuse of the Ad Network : • malicious ads, sites, or apps • ads promoting sites that offer little unique value to users and are focused primarily on traffic generation • businesses that attempt to gain an unfair advantage in the ad auction • businesses that attempt to bypass our review proces
All of our policies are crafted to protect a high quality user experience, and we’ve built enforcement systems and processes to prevent ads that fall below these standards from serving. Irresponsible Data Collection & Use - We want users to trust that information about them will be respected and handled with appropriate care. As such, our advertising partners should not misuse this information, nor collect it for unclear purposes or without appropriate security measures.
Examples of user information that should be handled with care: full name; email address; mailing address; phone number; national identity, pension, social security, tax ID, health care, or driver’s license number; birth date or mother’s maiden name in addition to any of the above information; financial status; political affiliation; sexual orientation; race or ethnicity; religion
• Misrepresentation of Self, Product, or Service - We don’t want users to feel misled by ads that we deliver, and that means being upfront, honest, and providing them with the information that they need to make informed decisions. For this reason, we don’t allow the following: • promotions that prompt users to initiate a purchase, download, or other commitment without first providing all relevant information and obtaining the user’s explicit consent
• promotions that represent you, your products, or your services in a way that is not accurate, realistic, and truthful
• Important: MRAID and HTML+JS: You can use it ONLY with certified tags. Examples of Certified tags are: Celtra and AdGibbon.
• (IAB25) Non-Standard Content, which includes • (IAB25-1) Unmoderated UGC • (IAB25-2) Extreme Graphic/Explicit Violence • (IAB25-3) Pornography • (IAB25-4) Profane Content • (IAB25-5) Hate Content • (IAB25-6) Under Construction • (IAB25-7) Incentivized
• (IAB26) Illegal Content, which includes • (IAB26-1) Illegal Content • (IAB26-2) Warez • (IAB26-3) Spyware/Malware • (IAB26-4) Copyright Infringement
• Hate, sensitive content, and violence • Adult or sexual products and services • Drugs and drug paraphernalia • Weapons and weapon accessories • Tobacco and tobacco accessories • Counterfeit goods • Unauthorized ticket sales • Endangered species products • Political campaigning • Alcohol content • Health and pharmaceutical products and services • countries permitted by Targetoo. Please contact your account manager for further details. • Gambling content • Financial services CREATIVE ATTRIBUTE BLOCKING
Some publishers may request to block ads with certain creative attributes as outlined in OpenRTB. If a bid request contains any of these block requests, demand partners should not serve ads that contain the blocked attributes. However, if a publisher does not have a block request in place for these attributes, they are otherwise permitted. The following are commonly blocked creative attributes to be aware of:
• (1) Audio Ad (Auto Play) • (2) Audio Ad (User Initiated) • (3) Expandable (Automatic) • (4) Expandable (User Initiated – Click) • (5) Expandable (User Initiated – Rollover) • (6) In-Banner Video Ad • (7) In-Banner Video Ad (User Initiated) • (8) Pop (e.g. Over, Under, or upon Exit) • (9) Provocative or Suggestive Imagery • (10) Shaky, Flashing, Flickering, Extreme Animation, Smileys • (11) Surveys • (12) Text Only • (13) User Interactive (e.g., Embedded Games) • (14) Windows Dialog or Alert Style • (15) Has audio on/off button • (16) Ad can be skipped (e.g., skip button on preroll video)
Creative attributes (8) Pop (e.g. Over, Under, or upon Exit), and (14) Windows Dialog or Alert Style are always passed in publishers’ bid requests, and are always prohibited from the platform.
Note: Although Click-to-Call and Click-to-Subscribe ads are permitted, they must have an intermediary landing page or other prompt that clearly explains the terms and/or fees associated with the call or subscription. Failure to include these in the creative will be considered deceptive ad and is prohibited. (See Prohibited Creative Behaviors above).
IAB CATEGORY BLOCKING
Some publishers may request to block ads in certain IAB categories. Demand partners must correctly classify all their ads into IAB categories. If a bid request contains any of these block requests, demand partners should not serve ads that fall into the blocked categories. However, if a publisher does not have a block request in place for these attributes, they are otherwise permitted. Publishers’ commonly blocked content categories, and their IAB classifications, include: Ad Content IAB Category Classification
Real-money gambling — e.g., online and brick IAB9-7 Card Games and mortar casinos and slots
Lottery and scratch-offs IAB3-7 Government Computer and Video Games or
Free casino-type games IAB9-30 Video & Computer Games
Dating or lingerie IAB14-1 Dating
Antivirus Software IAB19-3 Antivirus Software
Wine IAB8-18 Wine
Cocktails, beer, or hard alcohol IAB8-5 Cocktails/Beer
Ringtones IAB1-6 Music
Tobacco Products IAB9-9 Cigars
Social Networking IAB14 Society
Note that IAB categories IAB25 Non-Standard Content, and IAB26 Illegal Content are always blocked in publishers’ bid requests, and are entirely prohibited from the platform, as mentioned before.
1.3 WHAT OTHER DATA SHALL I PROVIDE WITH MY CREATIVES?
To enable publishers to review the advertisers and images of the creatives shown on their apps, and to block specific advertisers, demand partners must provide the following for all creatives sent to Marketplace:
• Image URL: The image URL inputted by the demand partner must match the user displayed image. • Landing page: If the landing page is to an app store, it should have the correct app store link (e.g., if the device is a Kindle, landing page should go to Kindle app store). • Adomain: Adomain should reflect the advertiser featured in the creative, and: • Must match the top level domain for the advertiser landing page. • In the case of app store destinations, must represent the app’s top level domain (typically their owned, registered domain) and not an app store URL (such as “play. google.com/…”). • In the case of apps that do not have a registered domain, please use [app name]. com. e.g., mediasmartapp.com • Must be passed as the top level domain with only .com or .countrycode appended. e.g., targetoo.com or targetoo.de 1.4 IMAGE ADS VS. TAGS: WHY IS IT BETTER HOSTING THE ADS DIRECTLY ON TARGETOO’S PLATFORM INSTEAD OF USING THIRD-PARTY ADSERVING TAGS?
1. NO DISCREPANCIES BETWEEN STATS By hosting your ads, Targetoo makes sure to correctly track impressions and clicks, reducing the risk of stats discrepancies. You need to provide us with banners so that we serve them, and then we will use impression pixels and/or click commands to communicate results to third-parties. We do not charge you any fee for ad serving, and that just makes sure things work properly.
2. OUR PLATFORM IS DESIGNED FOR HOSTING (APART FROM RICH MEDIA) For everything except for Rich Media (MRAID and Celtra and AdGibbon certified tags), our platform is intended to host and serve creatives and not for the use of third party tags.
3. FINE RISKS WITH ROTATING TAGS Third party tags are extremely difficult for us to control and, if rotating tags are uploaded, we´ll be liable for a fine and even suspension by our exchange partners
4. EXCHANGE PARTNERS ALLOWING ONLY CERTIFIED TAGS Many or our partners only allow the use of “certified” tags and, if we send something else we are, again, subject to a fine
5. INTEGRATION COMPLEXITY Given the complexity of the ecosystem and the fact that tags need to be interpreted by multiple versions of different SDKs to serve ads, when you upload a non-certified tag there is absolutely no guarantee that the user is going to actually see the ad you are trying to serve. 1.5 HOW DO I TRACK IMPRESSIONS AND CLICKS?
1. Impression tracking using standard banner creatives Targetoo offers the possibility to track impressions rendered by firing impression tracking pixels (also called “beacons”) when the banner is shown to the user. Typically, agencies and advertisers may use impression trackers to get direct feedback on the numbers of impressions shown. Targetoo can include 1 or more impression trackers, if necessary.
2. Click tracking using standard banner creatives Targetoo offers the possibility to use click trackers provided by agencies or advertisers that do two things: 1. First, count the click on advertiser side (in its tracking servers) 2. Then, redirects to the final landing page Remember that Targetoo counts the click before the click tracking URL is fired.
3. Impression and click tracking using Javascript or Rich Media creatives
Some campaigns use Rich Media creatives (expandables, animations, etc) instead of static banners. In this case, the advertiser itself can include impression trackers and click trackers directly in the HTML or Javascript code of the Rich Media creative (Rich Media tag). Therefore the trackers will be fired at the right time and from Targetoo side we don’t need to add any special field.
We recommend to highlight where the trackers are included (yellow for impression tracker URL, and green for click tracking), for monitoring purposes. See the example below:
1.6 WHY DO I SEE DISCREPANCIES BETWEEN THE NUMBER OF IMPRESSIONS/ CLICKS SHOWN ON MY REPORTS AND THE ONES SHOWN ON YOUR REPORT?
When we win an impression, our server sends the creative to the phone and counts an impression. However, you can count the impression with the impression tracker pixel placed after the creative is fully loaded. When the user stops the app or changes the web page, then the creative is not fully rendered, and therefore the pixel is not fired and, whilst we still count that impression, you would not.
When the user clicks on the banner, we count the click, and redirect the user to the click URL. There is a few redirections that happen then before getting to the final landing page, and during those fractions of a second, the user could click the back button on the phone, not allowing it to fully get to the landing page, and counting the click on your side. APPENDIX: TRACKING ASSETS TEMPLATE FOR MY CAMPAIGN.
In order to have a clear understanding of the tracking elements for the campaign, please fill in the corresponding fields with the appropriate tracking URL (for impression tracker and for click tracking), and send it back to your Account Manager in Targetoo Ops Team.
IMPRESSION TRACKER PIXEL URL (ALSO CALLED BEACON) This is the URL used to count impressions rendered. The pixel URL annotates impressions on the advertiser adServer (e.g. DFA)
CLICK TRACKING URL When the advertiser wants to track clicks and then redirect to the final landing page, this is the click tracking that the advertiser will use
OTHER COMMENTS