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Create a placement

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A placement is the object in our system that represents (and is used to generate) the tag that is placed on a publisher's page.

When you create a placement, you go through the following steps:

  • Select a size
  • Set a reserve price
  • Select the type of creatives that can serve on the placement
  • Self-classify the placement with categories and sensitive attributes for campaign targeting and reporting

Step 1. Getting started

Depending on which version of Monetize you use, you can access the Inventory Manager screen by doing one of the following:

  • From the Publishers tab, navigate to Publishers > Inventory Manager.
  • From the Inventory tab, navigate to Partners > Placement.

Select a publisher if prompted, click the Create New button and select Placement, and then select the associating placement group for the placement. The Create New Placement dialog displays.

Step 2. Define the placement details

Enter a Name for the placement and do any of the following:

  • If you do not want the placement to be active once it's saved, select Inactive. Otherwise, the State field is set to Active by default.

    Note

    If you try to serve an impression on an inactive placement, the impression will be blank and Microsoft Advertising will not redirect it.

  • If you want to override publisher-level payment rules, select the Use placement-level pricing checkbox and then enter the CPM amount that the publisher should receive.

  • If you'd like to set a reserve price on this placement, select the Set a placement reserve price checkbox and enter a CPM price into the text area. Note that any reserve price you enter here will be applied to all demand for this placement. However, you can change this setting later by editing Reserve Price Setting. For more information, see Update a Placement.

  • If you want to assign your own custom codes to the placement, click + Code (Advanced) and enter your codes.

If you use placement-level pricing, impressions governed by this pricing will appear in reporting under default payment rules even when these rules were not applied to impressions. This is because every managed or resold impression currently must be associated with a payment rule in reports.

Note

The Enable this placement for reselling to other platform members checkbox has been removed from placement-level settings.

If you want to make a placement's inventory available for resale to other members, you must set the RTB Marketplace option to "Participate" on the placement group that contains the placement. Since placement group settings apply to all placements within a placement group, it is important to ensure that placement groups which are to be resold only contain placements that you want enabled for reselling. See Create a Placement Group for a description of this new setting and how it works.

Step 3. Limit the type and size of creatives that can serve

In the Allowed Media section of the Placement Details tab, you can limit the creative media types, media subtypes, and sizes that can serve on the placement.

Media types and subtypes

The Microsoft Advertising platform categorizes creatives by media type and media subtype. Media type defines the general display style of creatives such as Standard Banner and Native, and media subtype defines the specific display style of creatives such as Standard Banner, In-Banner Video, In-Feed Standard, and Content Marketing. By default, creatives of the "Banner" media type are allowed to serve on the placement. If you want to change this setting, select the Other radio button and include the media types or subtypes that you want to allow.

  • Type and Subtype Combinations: You can combine the "Banner" and "Text" media types, and any combination of their media subtypes, on a single placement, but you cannot combine any of the other media types and subtypes. This limitation ensures that only appropriate creatives are served on a placement. For example, a placement that allows creatives of the "Video" media type is intended to be fed to a video player; it would not make sense to allow creatives of any other media type, such as "Interstitial," to serve on the placement.

  • Expandable Placements: You can set a placement to allow the "Expandable" media type or any of its subtypes for direct (not resellable) inventory only.

    Note

    If you check this option, you will get an error message if you attempt to save the placement after including this media type for resellable inventory. If you want to support expandable creatives for placements associated with placement groups that have been made available for reselling to other platform members, the placement ID and URL must be provided to support for verification.

    When exporting and placing an expandable tag on your publisher's page, declare a size in the size= parameter as you would in a standard banner tag. When an expandable creative is served to the tag, it will expand outside of the designated size.

  • Private Media Types: Private media types and subtypes can serve only for custom deals or packages. When checked, the Private checkbox allows the media type or subtype to serve on custom deals and packages you set up.

Sizes

By default, the creative size for the placement is Sizeless, which means that creatives of any size will be allowed to serve. If you want to restrict the placement to creatives of a specific size, select the size from the Creative Sizes field.

If your placement uses a friendly iFrame and you want the placement to resize to fit smaller or larger creatives, you can select the Resize placement if creative size is different... checkbox.

Note

This option should only be used with MegaTag, because the resizing depends on JavaScript with variables and methods that are only defined in megatag.js.

Private sizes

Private sizes are additional placement sizes that can serve for custom deals, packages and managed campaigns. If you want to allow private sizes, select the sizes you want from the Private Sizes list, or add a new size below the list.

To use these sizes in a deal, check the Allow deal to include private sizes checkbox in the Create a Custom Deal.

Tip

You can also set private sizes when you export the placement tag using the private_sizes query string. See Placement Tag Parameters for more information.

Step 4. Choose the appropriate video settings (video placements only)

If you are creating a video placement, the Video tab appears in the Create New Placement dialog when you select the Video media types under Allowed Media.

On the Video tab, enter details about the allowed format, behavior, and other specifications of your video placement.

Note

If you are working with ad pods (linear groupings of more than one ad designed to fill a single placement), the max duration you select is the maximum duration for the total number of ads in the ad pod. Buyers will be able to target placements that allow ads that fit into the max duration specified for the ad pod, and they can specify the order in the ad pod where they would like their ads to appear.

The creative's VAST version must be compatible with the VAST player that the creative is being served to; otherwise, an error will be generated in the system, which will cause the publisher to lose revenue. For example, if the publisher's VAST 3.0 player validates a creative with a VAST version of 3.0 but instead we serve a creative with a VAST version of 2.0 to that VAST player, an error will be generated. Therefore, it's imperative that you select the appropriate VAST version from the Player Vast version menu on the Video Settings tab to prevent this from occurring.

To add the VAST player version when creating a new placement:

  1. Click the Create New button from the Inventory Manager screen.
  2. Select Placement.
  3. Search for an existing placement group and select from the list of results.
  4. Scroll down to the Allowed Media section on the Details tab.
  5. Select the Other... radio button for Media Types.
  6. Click the Include link for the Video option to add all video media types, or click the expand button and click the Include link to only add a specific video media type.
  7. Click the Video Settings tab that displays.
  8. Select the appropriate Player Vast version from the menu.
  9. Click the Save button.

To add the VAST player version for an existing placement:

  1. Select the appropriate placement from the Inventory Manager screen.
  2. Click the Video Settings tab.
  3. Select the appropriate Player Vast version from the menu.
  4. Click the Save button.

Skipoffset

Within a video placement, there is a field named skipoffsetseconds. A publisher can specify how many seconds pass until the ad can be skipped. When the VAST file gets rendered for the placement, the skipoffsetseconds value from the placement is inserted into the VAST file. This will apply to that placement every single time that creative is served. However, when you traffic a creative, we are giving users the option of setting a skipoffset_seconds value that would override the default that is on the placement. This occurs in the publisher/adserver use case, where an adserver is running their own creative in a placement. You now have the ability to override the value on an individual ad.

Note

The value provided in the creative will override the value defined in the placement. It should also be noted that this will only apply to placements that are in your member.

Mixed media and mime type options

Note

If a creative's VAST contains both VPAID and inline video files, it will be assigned the VPAID frameworks when it's uploaded in Microsoft Advertising. Therefore, certain placements that permit multiple creative types may be blocked in auction. To ensure accurate creative matching, you should follow the steps outlined below.

To set mime type options (recommended), select the Show Mime Type Options checkbox. This opens the Mime Type Options section. From there, you will need to set two distinct fields: Handles Mixed Media and Video Mime Types.

Handles mixed media

This checkbox is used to denote if your player can successfully parse a creative and identify the correct media files if the creative has media files with varying mime types.

  • If checked, Microsoft Advertising will serve a creative as long as it has one media file you do support.
  • If not checked, Microsoft Advertising won't serve a creative unless it only has the media files you do support.

Video mime types

These checkboxes allow you to identify the format of the file. For instance, video/mp4 is a mime type that tells Microsoft Advertising the file is a video and the type of video file is mp4. All mime types are selected by default.

  • To ensure we are only serving creatives with media files that your player can play, select the mime types that you know your player supports by checking the appropriate boxes.
  • If your player does not support VPAID, do NOT check application/javascript or application/x-shockwave-flash.

Step 5. Apply content categories to the placement (optional)

On the Content Categories tab, you can apply universal and custom categories to the placement.

Universal categories

You can apply up to 20 categories from the Microsoft Advertising universal list of content categories. Your managed advertisers and other buyers who trust your self-categorization can target these categories through their campaigns.

Custom categories

You can apply your own custom categories to sites or placements to create particular slices of inventory. Your managed advertisers can target these categories through their campaigns. You can enable buyers to target only those custom categories you specify in your buyer eligibility settings.

You can also create a new custom category and add this placement to it by choosing the Include selected custom categories... radio button towards the bottom of the dialog, and then entering the name of your new category in the New custom category text box that this action reveals.

Once a custom category has at least one placement associated to it, buyers can select it when targeting a campaign if they have been given access via your buyer eligibility settings.

Step 6. Self-audit the placement for sensitive categories

On the Self-Audit Settings tab, you can self-classify the placement for sensitive attributes and intended audience. Your advertisers and buyers who trust your self-audit can target these settings in their campaigns. Microsoft Advertising may also audit this inventory if it meets volume thresholds.

Warning

You will be notified of undeclared and improperly declared toolbar inventory on a weekly basis. Microsoft Advertising will flag this inventory and declare/properly declare it within 72 hours of notification.

Note

For compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), designating your placement as intended for children will indicate to our system to apply special COPPA rules, including that user information will not be collected. Campaigns requiring user information for frequency capping or other targeting purposes will not serve on this placement.

Step 7. Limit the advertisers, line items, and campaigns that can serve (optional)

On the Campaign Filtering tab, you can include or exclude specific managed advertisers, line items, and campaigns from serving on the placement.

Note

Including or excluding specific advertisers will not prevent RTB Marketplace buyers from serving on this placement. To do this you must use Working with Ad Quality or ensure that the placement's parent placement group is not participating (reselling) in the RTB Marketplace.

Step 8. Add a piggyback pixel (optional)

If you want a piggyback pixel to fire when a creative serves on the placement, enter the pixel's URL or secure URL on the Piggyback Pixel tab and specify whether the pixel is a 1x1 image or JavaScript. A piggyback pixel can be an Impression and Click Tracker, a beacon, or any other JavaScript that the publisher needs loaded alongside an ad.

Note

Piggyback pixels are currently unsupported for /ptv video tags due to how VAST payloads are structured.

Step 9. Save the placement

To finish adding the placement to the Microsoft Advertising platform, click the Save button. The placement is then added to the Placement List in the Inventory Manager.