Native Creatives

Setting Up

To set up a new native creative, use the following steps.

  1. Select Creatives ‣ Create New.

  2. Type your creative’s Name into the relevant field.

  3. Assign your creative to an Advertiser by selecting the relevant advertiser from the dropdown list.

  4. Select Native as the Creative Type.

  5. Enter the Advertiser Website URL, this is the page where the user is directed after clicking on the ad.

  6. Enter the app Bundle identifier associated with the creative if needed.

  7. Set the creative flight dates. By default, the Use Line Item Dates option is selected, so the creative inherits its flight dates from the line item to which it is assigned. Select the Set Custom Dates option to set the creative lifetime in the calendar. Note: if the creative lifetime exceeds the line item lifetime, the creative inherits the line item flight dates. Note: the creative flight dates feature is activated upon request, please contact your BidCore representative.

  8. Enter the Click URL. In most cases the landing page URL and the click URL are the same, but they may differ when, for example, the user is sent to a 3rd party click tracker before the actual landing.

  9. Add relevant assets for your creative. If the asset already exists, select it from the drop-down, otherwise press Create New Asset page to set up a new one.

    Check the Must be shown in the ad box in case the asset is required for the creative and should be rendered by SSPs. Each Native creative requires at least one asset, as they define bid request targeting for this creative. For example, a native creative with a video asset won’t bid on requests for data/image assets.

    We recommend activating the Must be shown in the ad checkbox only for Title assets in order to increase bid rate.

  10. Set 3rd party impression trackers if necessary, find more information in the 3rd Party Impression Trackers section.

  11. Ensure you set the correct creative categories and attributes, as these are required for targeting.

    • Set the IAB Creative Categories, they categorize the creative and are used as part of targeting. These categories are required for all creatives.

    • The Brand Safety Creative Categories field should only be set for creatives that fall into at least one listed category, e.g. advertise alcoholic beverages or tobacco products. Not declaring brand unsafe creatives may result in being banned by SSPs.

    • The IAB Creative Attributes field is optional but should be specified in case of any specific behavior of the creative, e.g. being expandable, having autoplay or inbanner video. Not declaring such attributes may result in failing creative approval.

    • The Google Certified Vendors field is also optional but should be filled if your creative includes any 3rd party calls.

    • If trading with Google, set the Google Creative Attributes to signal how your creative interacts with the page and the user. Google Creative attributes should declare any specific behavior of the creative.

    You can find full lists of all creative categories and attributes in the Categorization Guides section.

  12. Press Create New Creative to save changes or Cancel to discard them and start anew.

Creating Native Assets

A native creative is represented by a selection of assets that can be used in different combinations in order to adapt to this or that publisher’s inventory.

To create a native asset, use the following steps.

  1. Go to Creative ‣ Assets ‣ Create New

  2. Enter a Name for your asset and assign your asset to an Advertiser.

  3. Select the Asset Type of your asset.

  4. Set the required fields for the selected asset type.

To make sure your assets are set up correctly for the effective performance of your creative, please see instructions and hints for each asset type below.

Title Assets

Title assets are required for all native creatives. Therefore each creative must have one, although making more than one title asset is pointless.

To create a title asset, enter the text associated with the title element into the text field.

Recommended:

  • Make sure the title is not longer than 100 characters, the optimal length being 50-70 characters.

  • Check the Must be shown in the ad box for the title asset.

Image Assets

To set up an image asset, proceed as follows.

  • Choose the asset source:

    • To host your asset in BidCore, select File upload (with hosting) and use the field below to upload the image asset file.

    • If your asset is hosted elsewhere, select Direct URL and provide the URL (Secure) of the image asset.

    BidCore supports png, gif, and jpg image formats.

  • Set the image type by selecting one of the following options:

    • Icon

    • Logo

    • Main

  • Set the image Width and Height

Recommended: create a logotype for every native creative. A logotype represents the advertiser or the advertised brand. It is a square image, preferrably in the .png format, no larger than 128x128 pixels. Make sure you set the Icon image type for it.

The Main image type is meant for images that make the actual content of the creative. Bid requests for native creatives with image assets have no precise requirements for image size, only for aspect ratio and a minimum width and height in pixels. The bidding image aspect ratio must not differ from the required for more than 20%.

See below some of the most popular main image sizes for native creatives. They cover most bid requests.

  • 1200x627 pixels

  • 1000x600 pixels

  • 800x600 pixels

  • 600x600

The file size of an image asset shouldn’t exceed 1 Mb. Preferred formats are .jpeg and .png.

Data Assets

To set up a data asset, proceed as follows.

  • Select the Data Type.

  • Enter the data value. Usually a formatted string of data to be displayed. Can contain a formatted value such as 5 stars or $10 or 3.4 stars out of 5.

There is a number of data asset types, some of them required or strongly recommended for any native creative. The following table provides descriptions and recommendations as per OpenRTB Native Ads Specification.

Data Asset Types

ID

Name

Description

Format

Recommendations

1

sponsored

The brand name of the sponsor

text

Required. Up to 25 characters

2

desc

Descriptive text associated with the product or service being advertised. Longer length of text in response may be truncated or ellipsed by the exchange

text

Recommended. Up to 140 characters

3

rating

Rating of the product being offered to the user. For example an app’s rating in an app store from 0-5

number formatted as string

Optional. 0-5 integer formatted as string

4

likes

Number of social ratings or “likes” of the product being offered to the user

number formatted as string

5

downloads

Number of downloads/installs of this product

number formatted as string

6

price

Price for product / app / in-app purchase. Value should include currency symbol in localised format

number formatted as string

7

saleprice

Sale price that can be used together with price to indicate a discounted price compared to a regular price. Value should include currency symbol in localised format

number formatted as string

8

phone

Phone number

formatted string

9

address

Address

text

10

desc2

Additional descriptive text associated with the product or service being advertised

text

11

displayurl

Display URL for the text ad. To be used when sponsoring entity doesn’t own the content. IE sponsored by BRAND on SITE (where SITE is transmitted in this field)

text

12

ctatext

Descriptive text describing a ‘call to action’ button for the destination URL

Optional. Up to 15 characters

Recommended:

Make sure your creative has the following data assets:

  • ctatext

  • desc

  • sponsored

Video Assets

Inline Video (3rd Party Hosting)

To set up an inline video creative by the direct link to the asset, use the following steps.

  1. Select the Inline Video asset source.

  2. Set VAST Version, Video Duration in seconds, and API Frameworks for your video.

  3. Set the Link to video file upload type.

  4. Enter the Video URL where your video is hosted.

  5. Select the Mime Type for your video from the dropdown list.

  6. Set your video Width, Height, and Bitrate.

  7. Activate the Progressive radio button to store your video on the user’s device and play it when fully downloaded, or the Streaming radio button to stream the video without storing it locally.

  8. Activate the Maintain aspect ratio checkbox if necessary. It indicates indicates whether aspect ratio for media file dimensions should be maintained when scaled to new dimensions. The checkbox is inactive by default.

  9. Activate the Video is scalable checkbox if necessary. It identifies whether the video is meant to scale to larger dimensions The checkbox is inactive by default.

Video Upload (BidCore Hosting)

To host your video in BidCore, use the following steps.

  1. Select the Inline Video asset source.

  2. Set VAST Version, Video Duration in seconds, and API Frameworks for your video.

  3. Set the File upload (with hosting) upload type.

  4. Select the video file for uploading by clicking on the Select file field. Mime Type, Width, Height, and Bitrate fields will be filled automatically.

    You can transcode your video assets into multiple versions of them, see the Transcoding Video Assets section for details.

  5. Activate the Progressive radio button to store your video on the user’s device and play it when fully downloaded, or the Streaming radio button to stream the video without storing it locally.

  6. Activate the Maintain aspect ratio checkbox if necessary. It indicates indicates whether aspect ratio for media file dimensions should be maintained when scaled to new dimensions. The checkbox is active by default.

  7. Activate the Video is scalable checkbox if necessary. It identifies whether the video is meant to scale to larger dimensions The checkbox is active by default.

To upload multiple files, use the Add another file option.

Note

BidCore supports the following video formats:

  • Theora (Ogg)

  • H.264 (MP4)

  • HEVC (MP4)

  • VP8 (WebM)

  • VP9 (WebM)

  • AV1 (WebM)

Warning

The max size of a video file uploaded to BidCore cannot exceed 100 Mb.