Video ad types
Video Solutions supports several types of video ads, including:
Linear adsVideos that appear before (pre-roll), after (post-roll), or during a break in video content (mid-roll). |
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Non-linear adsDisplay ads or videos that appear during video content playback, without disrupting playback. |
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Companion adsCan display on the page around the video player. |
Serving video ads
The basic component of serving video content and ads on your site is the video player. These can be custom-built by you, or provided by a video technology partner.
(advanced) The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) maintains a set of standard specifications for serving video ads. There are four types of specifications:
| Specification | Description |
|---|---|
| VAST (Video Ad Serving Template) | The standard for serving and tracking video ads. To use Video Solutions, your player must be VAST-compliant. In other words, it must be able to handle VAST ad responses from Ad Manager and any standard, industry-compliant video ad server. |
| VPAID (Video Player Ad Interface Definition) | The legacy standard that allows a video ad and a video player to communicate with each other. Ad Manager currently supports VPAID creatives.
VPAID is currently being deprecated by the IAB, to be replaced by SIMID. |
| SIMID (Secure Interactive Media Interface Definition) | The emerging IAB standard that allows a video ad and a video player to communicate with each other. This standard will eventually replace VPAID for interactivity. |
| VMAP (Digital Video Multiple Ad Playlist) | The standard for multi-ad playlists. VMAP is used to schedule a playlist of video ads and manage their exact placement. It does not define the video ads themselves, but creates inventory. The ads are defined by the VAST response. |
Integrate your player with the Google IMA SDK
The Google Interactive Media (IMA) SDK enables your player to display linear, non-linear, and companion ads in interactive media content such as videos, games, and audio streams. We strongly recommend integrating your video player with the IMA SDK because it supports VAST, SIMID, and VMAP.
Video versus display impression and click tracking
The IAB categorizes video and display ads differently based on page/ad loads, impression counting, and tracking.
Display ads
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Video ads
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Here are the details:
- Page loads: Both pages load similarly. However, the video tag is located within the player, while the display tag is directly on the page.
- Ad loads: Both ads load similarly from the corresponding ad tag. However, video ads require the player to begin playing the ad before the impression can be counted.
- Impression counted: Display ad impressions are counted immediately on ad load, while video ad tags are counted after the player begins playing the ad.
- Additional tracking counted: Display ads can record an additional click metric, while video ads can record many additional interaction metrics, including the number of times the video reached its first quartile, midpoint, third quartile, or completion.
Connected TV
Our video ad serving solutions and methodologies are fully supported on Connected TV (CTV) devices. For the list of MRC accredited metrics for CTV, please visit the Description of methodology.
