SSL implementation guide

Learn the basics of preparing for SSL inventory on Authorized Buyers

Creatives running on Authorized Buyers must be SSL-compliant.

All publisher inventory accessible via Authorized Buyers has a secure connection (SSL) and requires SSL-compliant creatives.

This guide will help prepare you for SSL inventory on Authorized Buyers.

First steps for all buyers

Your own certification: If you have not yet heard from the Google third-party ad serving (3PAS) certification team or have specific questions about the parameters of testing or the overall process, please contact [email protected].
Your vendors' certification: Ensure that the vendors you use on Authorized Buyers are certified for SSL. Google certifies both display and VAST vendors. See the updated Authorized Buyers vendors list for details.

Information for RTB buyers

Prepare your bidder

Get your bidder ready to interpret and respond to SSL inventory bid requests properly. Make sure your bidder platform understands the following:

Interpret SSL bid requests
In the field, the value 48 represents the RichMediaAdsVendor: RichMediaCapabilityNonSSL creative attribute. In the bid request, this appears as:
repeated int32 excluded_attribute = 48
- If 48 is present in the excluded_attribute field, SSL-compliant ads are required.
- If 48 is not present in the excluded_attribute field, both SSL-compliant and non-SSL-compliant ads can be returned.
This field appears in bid requests for both display and in-stream video ads.
Respond with an SSL-compliant creative
To bid with an SSL-compliant creative, declare attribute 47, RichMediaCapabilityType: RichMediaCapabilitySSL, in the attribute field of the bid response. In the bid response, this appears as:
repeated int32 attribute = 47
Please note the following:
- If your tag is always SSL compliant (for example, the tag uses JavaScript or a macro to determine whether to make all calls over SSL), always declare the tag as SSL compliant. Do not declare SSL compliance for a creative if the tag changes on the bidder side to toggle SSL compliance.
- You should use a separate buyer_creative_id for SSL and non-SSL versions of creatives.
  While, attribute 47 RichMediaCapabilityType: RichMediaCapabilitySSL can be used as a part of a unique identifier for a creative, using a separate buyer_creative_id for separate versions is highly recommended.
  
  To distinguish between creatives, you should also consider including the SSL status of the creative in your naming convention.
- Serving an SSL ad to a non-SSL request is acceptable and runs in the auction as normal.

How to determine if creatives are fully SSL-compliant

If either the ad or the tracking calls do not use https, the bid will be dropped from the auction and the snippet disapproved. Until you confirm that all vendors you work with are SSL-compliant, refrain from dynamic insertion of third-party tracking URLs.

Using https is not, in itself, sufficient. The landing page certificate must be valid and up-to-date. To view this information, click the lock icon in the Chrome browser. Learn more about checking if a site's connection is secure.

For geo targeting: Make sure sure that no geo restrictions are applied to your assets. If the verification system is unable to load your asset due to a geo restriction, your creative is not considered SSL-compliant.

For video creatives: Make sure that the <clickTracking> URL does not redirect to landing page that is not SSL-compliant. Only URLs in the <ClickThrough> node can redirect to the landing page. If the <clickTracking> URL redirects to a landing page that is not SSL-compliant, the verification system will not consider the creative SSL-compliant.

Enable SSL inventory with RTB pretargeting

For each PretargetingConfig where you’d like to receive SSL inventory, ensure that you do not target RichMediaCapabilityNonSSL. By not targeting RichMediaCapabilityNonSSL, you receive all non-SSL and SSL inventory that matches your other pretargeting selections. Targeting RichMediaCapabilitySSL also gets you both types of inventory, but is unnecessary.

Important note

Before declaring SSL compliance for all of your RTB creatives, we highly recommend testing in small batches initially.

Frequently asked questions

For more information on SSL implementation, please see the SSL implementation FAQ.

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