Overview

Creating placements in Equativ's Monetization Platform involves mapping a publisher's inventory for monetization. Inventory is any digital content where ads are inserted, in any environment and on any device type. This includes, for example, desktop or mobile websites, mobile or CTV apps, digital out-of-home environments (DOOH), OTT devices, or gaming consoles.

You can set up placements directly in the Monetization platform—as described in this document—or use the API, as documented in Automate trafficking (API).

Legacy workflow documentation

For information about the legacy workflow, see Create placements.

About the new workflow

The new workflow aligns inventory management with industry standards. The legacy Page and Format entities are replaced by the Placement entity. A Placement defines a specific location on a specific page where ads are served. This structure is consistent with the OpenRTB specification and is used by most players in the industry.

The main purpose of the new workflow is to allow for a more granular placement structure: publishers can maximize the monetization of their inventory through fine-grained configurations and targeting strategies, facilitated by the new inventory architecture.

New and legacy entities compared

The legacy workflow relies on the Site, Page, and Format entities. The new workflow introduces the Inventory, Placement group, and Placement entities.

The following chart illustrates how the legacy entities are represented in the new inventory architecture:

The following table provides further details about the legacy and new entities:

Example conversion to Placements

Consider the following example:

• In the legacy workflow, the Site MySite has two Pages: MyPage1 and MyPage2.
• Both Pages are assigned to the Page group MyPageGroup, which contains two Formats: MyFormatA and MyFormatB.
• In the new workflow, this configuration results in:
  • One inventory named MySite.
  • Four Placements on the MySite inventory representing every combination of Page and Format:
    • MyPage1_MyFormatA
    • MyPage1_MyFormatB
    • MyPage2_MyFormatA
    • MyPage2_MyFormatB

Create inventory

An Inventory in the new workflow is the equivalent of a Site in the legacy workflow. There are two Inventory types: Web or App & CTV.

To create an Inventory:

1. Sign in to the Equativ Monetization Platform.
2. Go to Inventory > Inventories or open this URL: https://manage.smartadserver.com/n/inventory/inventories.
3. Click New inventory.
4. Select Web or App & CTV.
5. Name: Enter a name.
6. User group: Select the group associated with the inventory (Admin is the default). Users in this group can access the inventory.
7. Domain: For Web Inventories, enter the domain. It must include http:// or https:// and a dot. Example: http://www.mysite.com. Equativ uses this as a fallback if the Site URL cannot be determined from the ad request.
   Buyers usually reject ad opportunities if the site URL isn't known.
   If the inventory you are creating represents multiple actual sites, it is recommended instead to send the site URL dynamically in ad requests, using the pgDomain parameter. For more information about this parameter, see GET Ad request API.
8. Bundle ID: For App & CTV inventories, enter the bundle ID that uniquely identifies the application, for example, 123456789 (iOS bundle IDs), or com.myapp.androidapp (Android bundle IDs). Equativ uses this as a fallback if the bundle ID cannot be determined from the ad request. Buyers usually reject ad opportunities if the bundle ID isn't known.
   You can determine the bundle ID from the app store URL. 
   You can create a single Inventory for multiple operating systems. For example, you can create a single Inventory used for both the iOS and Android version of your app. In this case, don't enter a Bundle ID in the field, but make sure you send the appropriate bundle ID dynamically in the ad request, using the buid (in case of GET Ad request API) or bundleId (in case of POST Ad request API) parameters.
9. IAB categories: Assign categories that fit the inventory. These are sent in bid requests to demand partners.
10. Reselling business model: If applicable, specify how revenues are shared between the media owner (publisher) and a reseller (previously called ad network) that sells the inventory on behalf of the media owner. This allows you to report on the net revenues of each party, using the according report metrics.
    Keep in mind that any updates to the Reselling business model are retroactive. For example, if you increase the Revenue share from 20% to 30%, the new 30% rate will be applied to all past and future data in your reports.
    1. Revenue share (%): Enter the percentage the reseller retains. For example, 70% means the reseller keeps 70% and pays 30% to the media owner. A revenue share can also be used in prebid.js integrations.
    2. CPM: Enter the value the media owner earns for every 1,000 impressions. The default value is 0, meaning that the media owner earns nothing.
11. External ID: Enter an ID from a third-party system for cross-referencing.
12. External description: Enter a description from a third-party system.
13. Click Create.

Create Placement group

Placement groups function as folders to organize Placements. You can nest Placement groups, similar to legacy parent and child Pages.

Placement groups are a UI-only feature and Placement group IDs aren't sent in ad requests. However, you can use Placement group IDs in API endpoints to create, update, or manage all Placements within a Placement group.

During the transition phase from the legacy to the new workflow, any legacy parent Page that has one or multiple child Pages is converted into a Placement (representing the parent Page) and a Placement group containing the child Pages.

To create a Placement group:

1. Go to Inventory > Inventories.
2. Click the Inventory where you want to add a Placement group.
3. Click New Placement group.
4. Name: Enter a name for the Placement group.
5. Parent Placement group: Select None for the top level, or select an existing Placement group to nest the new Placement group.
6. Click Create.

Create Placement

A Placement defines the actual ad slot where ads appear. Each Placement is unique. In the legacy workflow, the equivalent of a Placement is the combination of a specific Page, such as the Home page, and a specific Format, such as the Superbanner Format. 

To create a Placement, proceed as follows:

1. Locate the Placement group where you want to create the Placement.
2. Hold the pointer over the Placement group.
3. Click New Placement.
4. Placement type: 
   1. Select Display for the impression types Banner, Native, or Out-stream video. Standard ad markup type within ad responses in client-side integrations: JavaScript.
   2. Select Video or audio for the impression types In-stream video or Audio, eligible for Ad Podding logic within video/audio content streams. Standard ad markup type within ad responses in client-side integrations: VAST XML.
5. Name: Enter a descriptive name, such as Home page superbanner or Article pages side bar.
6. Placement group: Confirm or change the assigned Placement group.
7. External ID: Enter an ID from a third-party system, for cross-referencing.
8. External description: Enter a description from a third-party system.
9. Click Save.

View Placement IDs

Each Placement has the following two IDs:

• ID: An integer used only within the Monetization user interface, for example, 2912934.
• Tag ID: A UUID used in ad requests from publisher websites or apps, for example, e73a78aa-8d04-4f6c-ac7b-d8736bde63a9. The UUID format is used here to prevent parameter tampering. 

 Enable Use legacy IDs to see legacy Page ID and Format ID values for the Placement.

Create Pack

You can use Packs to group Inventories and Placements into reusable packages for targeting. For example, you can create packs for verticals, such as a pack containing all placements related to the “sports” vertical. You can then conveniently sell the pack to sports advertisers.

To create a Pack:

1. Go to Inventory > Inventories.
2. Switch to the Packs tab.
3. Click New Pack.
4. Name: Enter a name for the Pack.
5. Search for Inventories, Placement groups, Placements, Placement Tag ID, or Page ID & format ID.
6. Select Inventories or Placements from the tree.
7. Click Create.

Updating a Pack puts all associated online insertions back online to apply the changes.

Search by name or ID

You can search for items from both the new and legacy workflows.