Before you get started
Whether you're new to Ad Manager, or need more information about the basics of ad serving, the following articles may be helpful as you get set up to serve video ads:
- Introduction to advertising with Ad Manager
- Video Solutions advertising overview
- Video ad units
- Support options
If you're new to video ad serving with Ad Manager, it may take a few weeks to set up your network and your site or app to successfully serve video ads.
Your technical and ad operations resources can help ensure a smooth deployment, and your Ad Manager account manager can ensure your network is set up correctly.
Required steps to implement Video Solutions
After Video Solutions has been enabled for your network, here's an overview of the steps required to begin serving video ads, with links to more information for each:
- Create video inventory: Decide which ad units and key-values you'll use to target your video inventory.
- Generate video ad tags: Create video ad tags and place on your site or in your player.
- Create video line items: Set up and target video line items to run creatives on your video inventory.
- Add creative sets to your video line items: Traffic video, overlay, redirects, and optional companion ads.
- Once video ads are running, you can use reporting to get detailed video reports.
An error occurs if you attempt to create video inventory before Video Solutions has been successfully enabled for your network. Contact your account manager to ensure it's been enabled.
Video inventory
The first step in implementing Video Solutions is to decide how you want to target your video inventory. Most publishers choose to keep the same network design and incorporate additional ad unit levels or key-values to further define video inventory.
Video ad units are slightly different to non-video ad units, because you need to include a master video ad size, and can select companion sizes for accompanying display inventory. In cases where you don’t have companion ads, Ad Manager can fill the slots with other display inventory.
If you classify your video content in your own content management system (for example, by genre or audience), you can import and target this video metadata into Ad Manager with content targeting.
Determine how to handle non-guaranteed inventory
You'll need to decide if and how to sell non-guaranteed inventory, and which partners you'll work with. Video Solutions allow you to traffic any third-party ad, as long as they support VAST.
Ad Manager is integrated with AdSense and Ad Exchange, which allows you to serve AdSense and Ad Exchange ads, only if they can meet or beat competing non-guaranteed inventory prices.
Learn how to create an AdSense or Ad Exchange video line item.
Companion ads
The Google Publisher Tag (GPT) renders display ads as companions to your video ads. You can learn more about companion display ads for video, which includes benefits and examples, or how to declare companion sizes when you create a video ad unit.
Further technical information is available about using companion ads with GPT in the developer documentation.
Integration with the IMA SDK or a video partner
A video player environment is different from web environments. To manage ad requests and responses in a video environment, Ad Manager recommends integration with the Interactive Media Ads (IMA) SDK.
Online video and ad serving platforms provide solutions that allow you to manage your video content, and usually provide a player which is already integrated with the IMA SDK. You can start serving video ads quickly with one of these partners.
If you use a custom video player, or have your own development team, follow the instructions to get started with the IMA SDK.
