Share via

Export video placement tags

  • Article

Note

Microsoft Advertising now supports a domain, adnxs-simple.com, which does not send or read browser cookies on requests. Clients can leverage this cookie-free domain when there is no consent to use personal data. Relevant calls initiated by Microsoft Advertising will automatically use this domain when there is no consent or when cookies are not required for the function. For more information, see Reinforcing Privacy Controls Through a Cookie-Free Domain (Part of Service Policies).

This page focuses only on video placement tags. For more information and complete workflows, see Onboarding Video Supply.

Step 1. Select the placements to export

Navigate to Publisher > Inventory Manager, check the boxes next to placements that you want to export, click the More Actions button, and then select Export Tags. This displays the Export Placement Tags dialog.

Step 2. Modify the tag options

  • Type - This field is set to Standard by default. However, the recommended setting is Secure.

  • Use cachebuster - If the publisher uses a macro to dynamically ensure that the user's browser does not cache the placement URL, select this option and enter the cachebuster macro.

  • Age - If your publisher uses a macro to dynamically add the age of the user to the ad call, select this option and enter the age macro.

  • Gender - If your publisher uses a macro to dynamically add the gender of the user to the ad call, select this option and enter the gender macro. Note that we only evaluate the first letter of the value (m or f).

  • Allowed size and Allow additional sizes - For video creatives, these settings should be left blank.

Step 3. Generate the tags

  • Click the Get Tags button. The dialog refreshes to show the tags as well as your delivery options. Also, a preview displays below each tag that has default creatives.
  • When you export the placement tag for a placement that allows VAST video creatives, the placement tag generated is a URL that automatically includes the ptv or vmap handler (depending on the placement), which ensures that ad calls will return the XML your publisher's video player uses to serve the desired creative. For ptv tags, the end result looks something like this: https://ib.``adnxs``.com/ptv?id=5523324. See Create and Customize a Video Placement Tag for more detailed information. For vmap tags, the end result should look something like this: https://ib.``adnxs``.com/vmap?id=11029144. For an explanation of tag parameters you can use to further define your placement, see Target Video Attributes via Query String Parameters.
  • Once you have the tag, the URL can simply be copied into the video player or trafficked via a publisher ad-server as part of a video demand waterfall. However, since the ad call will return an XML response and the ptv handler is not configured for server side calls, make sure the tag is fired from the video player, rather than placed directly on a web page or called server side.

Testing your placement tags

If your publisher isn't able to provide you with a test page, and you are using a client-side tag, you can use an online VAST validator to determine if the placement tag is functioning properly. There are several available online, including the following:

VAST validators won't work for a server-side tag. To test a server-side tag, you can use the following strategies:

  • Change to the client-side version of the handler in order to see a response in the VAST validator.
  • Paste the whole tag URL into a browser. If an XML response is returned, we're able to return an ad.

Recording impressions

VAST impressions are always recorded after serving, per the IAB guidelines. If you test VAST by loading in a browser, you should not see any impressions recorded. It is only when the VAST response is parsed by a video player and the impression tag is called that the impression is recorded.