Video Creatives¶

When configuring Video creatives, ensure you use URL Safe Macro in your VAST markup and URLs. See the Markup Substitution Macros section for more details.

You can set up a video creative in the BidCore UI by linking your VAST markup or your video file. You can also upload and host your video in BidCore.

Setting Up A Video Creative¶

To set up a video creative in BidCore, use the following steps.

Select Creatives ‣ Create New
Type your creative’s Name into the relevant field
Assign your creative to an Advertiser by selecting the relevant advertiser from the dropdown list
Select Video as the Creative Type.
Enter the Advertiser Website URL, a brand safety feature for SSPs allowing them to filter blacklisted URLs on their side.
Enter the app Bundle identifier associated with the creative if needed.
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.

Inline Video (3rd Party Hosting)¶

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

Select the Inline Video asset source.
Set VAST Version, Video Duration in seconds, and API Frameworks for your video.
Set the Link to video file upload type.
Enter the Video URL where your video is hosted.
Select the Mime Type for your video from the dropdown list.
Set your video Width, Height, and Bitrate.
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.
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.
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.

Select the Inline Video asset source.
Set VAST Version, Video Duration in seconds, and API Frameworks for your video.
Set the File upload (with hosting) upload type.
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.
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.
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.
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.

When setting up an inline video creative, you can add a Companion Ad to your video asset. Companion Ad is a banner ad shown alongside a video. To add a companion ad to your creative, proceed as follows:

Select the Video with Companion Ad asset type.
Upload the companion ad display file using the Companion Ad with Hosting field. The HTML Code (secure), Width and Height fields will be filled automatically upon the file upload. The following file formats are supported:
- png
- gif
- jpg
Make sure the companion ad orientation and size match those of the video creative.

The companion ad will be shown alongside the video on the creative preview available on the list of creatives.

VAST Link¶

To set up a video creative by linking VAST Markup, use the following steps.

Select VAST Link asset type.
Enter the VAST URL (Secure) where the VAST markup is hosted.
Select the VAST Version of your video from the dropdown list.
Enter the Video Duration in seconds.
Select Mime Types of your video from the dropdown list. You can select multiple MIME types.
Select API Frameworks from the dropdown list if necessary. You can select multiple API frameworks.

Warning

Unlike Banner creative HTML code, Video creative VAST markup does not require the ${CLICK_URL} macro. Using the macro in the markup will result in a non-working creative.

Example VAST Markup¶

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<VAST version="2.0">
<Ad id="12345">
      <InLine>
      <AdSystem version="1.0">SpotXchange</AdSystem>
      <AdTitle><![CDATA[Sample VAST]]></AdTitle>
      <Impression>http://sample.com</Impression>
      <Description><![CDATA[A sample VAST feed]]></Description>
      <Creatives>
            <Creative sequence="1" id="1">
            <Linear>
                  <Duration>00:00:30</Duration>
                  <TrackingEvents />
                  <VideoClicks>
                  <ClickThrough><![CDATA[http://sample.com/openrt btest]]></ClickThrough>
                  </VideoClicks>
                  <MediaFiles>
                  <MediaFile delivery="progressive" bitrate="256" width="640" height="480" type="video/mp4"><![CDATA[http://sample.com/video.mp4]]></MediaFile>
                  </MediaFiles>
            </Linear>
            </Creative>
      </Creatives>
      </InLine>
</Ad>
</VAST>

When you have set up your creative, enter the Click Through URL to define where the user will be redirected after clicking on it.

3rd Party Impression Trackers¶

You can assign 3rd party impression trackers to your creatives if necessary, find more information in the 3rd Party Impression Trackers section.

3rd Party Click Trackers¶

You can assign 3rd party click trackers to your creatives if necessary, find more information in the Click Tracking section.

3rd Party VAST Wrapper URLs¶

3rd party VAST wrapper URL is a functionality that allows BidCore clients to use video wrapper URLs provided by 3rd parties for their own video measuring / creative feedback gathering purposes. Using a 3rd party brand safety service can be used as an example. The advertiser is provided with a VAST wrapper URL by the service provider; this URL contains the original VAST URL as a parameter and is used in bid responses instead of the original VAST URL.

The 3rd party VAST wrapper URL is an optional functionality.

To apply a VAST wrapper URL to a video creative, use the following steps.

Go to the 3rd Party VAST Wrapper URLs block.
Paste the VAST wrapper URL with macro into the VAST Wrapper URL field. See below an example of such URL.

example.wrapper.com?next_encoded_url=${WRAPPED_VAST_URL} where the macro returns the original VAST URL, for example vast.url.com/vast

3rd Party VAST Trackers¶

3rd party VAST tracker is a functionality that allows BidCore clients to enable gathering data on VAST events by 3rd party vendors. BidCore can track events of the following types:

Accept Invitation: the user clicked or otherwise activated a control used to pause streaming content, which either expands the ad within the player’s viewable area or “takes-over” the streaming content area by launching an additional portion of the ad
Accept Invitation Linear: the user activated a control that launched an additional portion of the linear creative
Close: the user clicked or otherwise activated a control for removing the ad, which fully dispatches the ad from the player environment in a manner that does not allow the user to re-display the ad
Close Linear: the user clicked or otherwise activated a control that fully removed the linear video from the player
Collapse: the user activated a control to reduce the creative to its original dimensions
Complete: the creative was played to the end at normal speed
Creative View: not to be confused with an impression, this event indicates that
an individual creative portion of the ad was viewed. An impression indicates that at least a portion of the ad was displayed; however an ad may be composed of multiple creative, or creative that only play on some platforms and not others. This event enables ad servers to track which ad creative are viewed, and therefore, which platforms are more common
Exit Fullscreen: the user activated a control that returned the video to its original mode from fullscreen

The event is specific for VAST 3.0
Expand: the user activated a control to extend the player to a larger size
First Quartile: the creative played continuously for at least 25% of the total duration at normal speed
Fullscreen: the user activated a control to enable the fullscreen mode for the video

The event is specific for VAST 3.0
Midpoint: the creative played continuously for at least 50% of the total duration at normal speed
Mute: the user activated the mute control and muted the creative
Pause: the user clicked the pause control and stopped the creative
Progress: this event provides metrics comparable to the quartile tracking events (i.e. firstquartile, midpoint, thirdquartile, complete) when progress offsets are set at 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%. However, progress events are tracked separately so quartile events must still be supported when provided.

The event is specific for VAST 3.0*
Resume: the user activated the resume control after the creative had been stopped or paused
Rewind: the user activated the rewind control to access a previous point in the creative timeline
Skip: the user activated a skip control to skip the creative, which is a different control than the one used to close the creative
Start: this event is used to indicate that an individual creative within the ad was loaded and playback began. As with creativeView, this event is another way of tracking creative playback
Third Quartile: the creative played continuously for at least 75% of the duration at normal speed

One creative can have 1 to 5 trackers applied.

The 3rd party VAST tracker functionality is optional.

3rd party VAST trackers can only be applied to video creatives.

To apply a 3rd party VAST tracker to a video creative, use the following steps.

Go to the 3rd Party VAST Trackers block.
Paste the secure tracker image URL into the VAST Tracker Code field.
Select the VAST Event Type from the dropdown list.

Creative Categorization¶

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