Video Ads: Google Ad Manager

Video Ads: Google Ad Manager Utilize Google Ad Manager to serve video ads.

Monetize your video content by connecting video ads to MAZ via Google Ad Manager. It’s as simple as copying and pasting your Google ad tags in the MAZ dashboard under App Creator > Ads > OTT Ads.

Ad Tag Overview

Ad tags are URLs that tell a video player where to request video ads and how to display those ads in the player (in this case, MAZ). Ad tags typically have a few constant components and some metadata (known as macros) that provides additional context to the request being made. Below is a sample ad tag that you might add to the dashboard:

https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ads?sz=640x480&iu=/124319096/external/ad_rule_samples&ciu_szs=300x250&ad_rule=1&impl=s&gdfp_req=1&env=vp&output=vmap&unviewed_position_start=1&cust_params=deployment%3Ddevsite%26sample_ar%3Dpremidpost&cmsid=496&vid=short_onecue&correlator=

Required Ad Tag Values

The bolded portion of the URL and macros below must be included in every ad tag. 

https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ads?env=vp&gdfp_req=1&unviewed_position_start=1&output=vast&iu=/1234/video-demo&sz=400x300

• env=vp
• gdfp_req=1
• Unviewed_position_start=1

Required Variable Macros

The next three macros must be included in all ad tags, but the values are variable. 

https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ads?env=vp&gdfp_req=1&unviewed_position_start=1&output=vast&iu=/1234/video-demo&sz=400x300

• output - Defines the type of ad request MAZ should expect. Accepted values include: Output=vast, Output=vmap, Output=xml_vast3, or Output=xml_vmap1
• iu - This is the ad unit created in Google Ad Manager. It uses the following format: /network_id/.../ad_unit
• sz - Defines the size of the master video ad slot. If there are multiple sizes, they should be separated by the '|' character, and should not include 'v' after the size (ensure you have sizes that suit aspect ratios per device and platform). 

Automated Macros

Each of the following macros should NOT be included in your ad tag because MAZ will generate and insert them into ad requests.

• URL - Because these ad requests are coming from an app environment, this value will be the app bundle id of the respective platform.
• description_url - When Google ads run on a website, this URL will have a description of the specified video.
• Correlator - this random numeric value is shared by multiple requests in the same session and is used to implement competitive exclusions.
• An - This stands for app name. MAZ will automatically insert your app name here.
• Msid - Similar to URL, this value will be used to identify the environment where the ad is being displayed. The app bundlie id will be inserted for all platforms except Roku, which will always be passed as “ROKU_ADS_APP_ID”
• Vid (for content targeting) - This parameter specifies the content id of the video where the ad is being requested. You MUST define where in your MRSS feed MAZ is extracting this content id. More info on this below.
• rdid -  A resettable device identifier, parameter for programmatic ads. For example, a Google AdID, an Apple IDFA, an Amazon AFAI, a Roku RIDA, or an Xbox MSAI.
• idtype - The type of device. Parameter for programmatic ads. 
• is_lat - "Limit Ad Tracking" (LAT) enables users to opt-out and therefore restrict advertisers from targeting based on user behavior. It is a requirement of Google and Google Marketing Platform policies to ensure that user choices are accurately adhered to when data is passed on ad requests. 

Optional Macros for Ad Targeting

The following macros are used for advanced content targeting options.

• cmsid - Your cmsid is a unique identifier for each content source in your Google Ad Manager account. It is typically a 4-digit number.
• vid - This video specific identifier must not be included in the ad tag. Instead, MAZ will extract this value from your MRSS feeds and send it to Google when making an ad request. Please follow the instructions for identifying the matching key in your MRSS feed. This should be done before adding MRSS feeds, if possible. If you have already added your MRSS feeds, notify the Customer Success team at success@mazsystems.com to reprocess your existing content.
• ad_rule - this macro identifies if there ad rules associated with the video and helps Google quickly respond with an ad. This macro will be automatically generated when creating an ad tag.

Unsupported Macros

The following macros are not currently supported. 

• ciu_szs - Defines companion sizing
• cust_params - If you would like to include these ad specifications, hardcode them in the tag instead.
• hl - Refers to language ad selection
• nofb - Indicates video fallback ads
• pp - Differentiates video creative profiles
• ppid - Defines audience-based ad delivery controls
• tfcd - Requests child-directed treatment

Ad Targeting

Features like ad targeting and midrolls are only available to certain tiers in Google Ad Manager. To learn more about the features available for your account, see the features overview provided by Google. To enable advanced features, reach out to your Google Account Manager. Additionally, here are Google’s instructions for adding a new video content source, which is required for ad targeting.

KVPs

To begin using KVPs with MAZ, you will need to set up your targeting tags in the MAZ dashboard and in Google Ad Manager. MAZ will pick up the values within designated tags from your MRSS feed and pass them to Google Ad Manager for targeted ads.

Please note: Adding KVPs should be done before adding MRSS feeds, if possible. In case you have already added your MRSS feeds, please notify our customer success team at success@mazsystems.com to reprocess your existing content.

Connect your Google Ad Manager

After setting up your video ads in Google Ad Manager, connect it to the MAZ dashboard to start rolling ads in your video content.

Let's get started!

1. Navigate to App Creator, Ads, and then OTT Ads. Select Google Ad Manager.
2. Enter the ad tag URLs for the respective platform devices.
3. Next, set the ad frequency and when the first request for ads should be sent.

Schedule ad breaks without VMAP

Now you can play mid-roll ads in the videos at the pre-defined intervals by selecting any one of these options considering that the ad tag URL provided by you should be a simple VAST tag without any pre-rolls, mid-rolls or post-rolls.

• Make an ad call every X minutes - With this option, the mid-roll ads will play within the videos every X minutes (value should be greater than ZERO)

Example - If you set it to 5 minutes, then the mid-roll ad will play after every 5 minutes.

• Make ad calls at cue points in your source feeds - With this option, the ads will play at the defined cue points in your video and will be picked from the MRSS feed
  (example - cuepoints, jwplayer:cuepoints, etc.)

Example-
<cuepoints>01:00:00.00, 01:03:00.00, 01:06:00.00, 01:08:00.00, 01:10:00.00</cuepoints>

If you are using JW Player for your content then the cue points should look like below for your JW Player MRSS:

<jwplayer:cuepoints>00:05:22.00, 00:10:20.00, 00:14:50.00<jwplayer:cuepoints/>

Sample MRSS for CuePoints:

<rss xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>Home video feed</title> 
<description>Some description text for the feed</description>
<link>http://example.org/</link> 
<lastBuildDate>Mon, 23 Nov 2015 11:52:32 ­0800</lastBuildDate> 
<item>
<title>A BIG Title for your Video</title> 
<description> Description of the video </description> 
<pubDate>Mon, 23 Nov 2015 09:29:47 ­0800</pubDate> 
<guid isPermaLink="false">9677095935</guid>
<cuepoints>01:00:00.00, 01:03:00.00, 01:06:00.00, 01:08:00.00, 01:10:00.00</cuepoints>
<media:group>
<media:content duration="36777" medium="video" type="application/x-mpegURL" url="http://maz.com/samplevideourl/4mmaddgkad.m3u8"/>
<media:title>Media Title</media:title>
<media:thumbnail url="http://mazsystems.com/thumbnailsample/2ej2kdj"/> 
<maz:modified>1611829083</maz:modified>
<media:keywords>fish,class,saltwater</media:keywords>
<media:subTitle href="https://YourExampleSRTHere.com.srt"/>
</media:group>
</item> 
</channel>
</rss>

Sample JW Player MRSS for CuePoints:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" xmlns:jwplayer="http://rss.jwpcdn.com/">
<channel>
<title>Cue Points for JW player</title>
<description>Items with and without cue points</description>
<jwplayer:kind>MANUAL</jwplayer:kind>
<jwplayer:feedid>MucDrdnh</jwplayer:feedid>
<jwplayer:feed_instance_id>ad4e757b-7599-4330-9219-530ad65f8b0a</jwplayer:feed_instance_id>
<jwplayer:link rel="first" href="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/playlists/MucDrdnh?format=mrss&amp;internal=false&amp;page_offset=1&amp;page_limit=500"/>
<jwplayer:link rel="last" href="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/playlists/MucDrdnh?format=mrss&amp;internal=false&amp;page_offset=1&amp;page_limit=500"/>
<item>
<title>This is the Video Title/title>
<link>https://cdn.jwplayer.com/previews/seNHw4m2</link>
<description>This is a big Video</description>
<pubDate>Thu, 30 Apr 2020 16:47:04 -0000</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false">seNHw4m2</guid>
<enclosure url="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/videos/seNHw4m2-NtlSGv2A.mp4" type="video/mp4" length="267"/>
<jwplayer:feedid>MucDrdnh</jwplayer:feedid>
<media:group>
<media:content url="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/seNHw4m2.m3u8" medium="video" type="application/vnd.apple.mpegurl" duration="266"/>
<media:content url="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/videos/seNHw4m2-Q7byC19B.mp4" medium="video" type="video/mp4" duration="267" width="320" height="160" fileSize="13570895"/>
<media:content url="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/videos/seNHw4m2-450kyKGV.mp4" medium="video" type="video/mp4" duration="267" width="480" height="240" fileSize="20267446"/>
<media:content url="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/videos/seNHw4m2-U3XBsYL0.mp4" medium="video" type="video/mp4" duration="267" width="1280" height="640" fileSize="56991682"/>
<media:content url="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/videos/seNHw4m2-cikvMk1M.m4a" medium="video" type="audio/mp4" duration="267" fileSize="3778566"/>
<media:content url="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/videos/seNHw4m2-NtlSGv2A.mp4" medium="video" type="video/mp4" duration="267" width="1920" height="960" fileSize="99767487"/>
<media:content url="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/videos/seNHw4m2-rjLc00yf.mp4" medium="video" type="video/mp4" duration="267" width="640" height="320" fileSize="22236099"/>
<media:content url="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/videos/seNHw4m2-UPK05zNt.mp4" medium="video" type="video/mp4" duration="267" width="960" height="480" fileSize="38104824"/>
<media:thumbnail url="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/seNHw4m2/poster.jpg?width=720" width="720" />
<media:keywords>song</media:keywords>
</media:group>
<jwplayer:track file="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/strips/seNHw4m2-120.vtt" kind="thumbnails"/>
<jwplayer:cuepoints>00:02:00.00, 00:04:00.00, 00:06:00.00, 00:08:00.00, 00:10:00.00</jwplayer:cuepoints>
</item>

Please note: Both "Set request frequency" and "Schedule ad breaks without VMAP" settings will work in conjunction.

For example, if you choose to play an ad every 2nd video and you also choose to play the ad at every 3 minutes, the final ad will be played in every 2nd video at 3 minutes intervals. This applies to the cue points ad break as well. 

Target Ads

4. If you're targeting your video ads using Google Ad Manager, enter the Vid parameter key. It may be called content_id or guid.

Target ads with key value Pairs(KVPs)

5. If there are key values in your MRSS feed you want to target with video ads, enter the Key Value Pair Tag. Don't forget to hit Save!

Important Note:

With the release of iOS 14 and tvOS 14, Apple has introduced the AppTrackingTransparency framework. As per Apple's new guidelines, apps will need to request permission to track the user and access the device’s advertising identifier to display personalized ads.

Due to this, if your MAZ app is already on the Apple App Store and you decide to turn on or turn off ads on the MAZ dashboard, an app update will be required for iOS/tvOS apps to comply with the new guidelines.

After enabling or disabling ads on the MAZ Dashboard, please write to us at submissions@mazsystems.com to request an app update for your iOS/tvOS app.