Overview  

A creative is the visual or audio element of an ad, such as a banner, video, or audio clip, that users directly see or hear. You can add creatives in Display, Video, or Native formats to your campaign’s line items. Depending on the format, creatives can either be uploaded from your computer or added using a third-party tag.

Access

Select Campaigns from the navigation menu. Then, select a line item for which you want to add or edit a creative.

Add creative

To add a creative, follow these steps:

1. From the navigation menu, select Campaigns. 
2. Select a line item for which you want to add or edit a creative.
3.  In the Creative section at the bottom of the page, select + Add creative. 
4. In the Add a new creative window, select the creative format: Display, Video, or Native. 
5. Select one of the following options:
   • Third-party tag: add a creative using a code snippet provided by an external ad server or technology provider. 
   • Upload from computer: upload a creative file from your device. 
   • Reuse an existing creative: select a previously uploaded creative from the Creatives section.

Paste third-party tag

To add a creative by pasting a third-party tag, follow these steps:

1. Select Third-party tag. 
2. In the Name field, define a name. 
3. Paste one of the following: 

• display third party tag*
• VAST Video ad (VAST 2.0/3.0/4.0). You can add the VAST video ad as a VAST URL or as a VAST TAG, that is a complete VAST XML. If the VAST XML format is invalid, the warning "You can verify and validate your VAST tag using Equativ's VAST Inspector" is displayed. The VAST inspector helps to troubleshoot the VAST and inspect its behavior when requested from Equativ.*

4. If appropriate, add macros to the third-party tag. For more information, see Create line item: macros.
5. In the Width and Height fields, enter the desired dimensions. ⓘ Note: this setting applies only to Display creatives.
6. In the Click URL field, paste the creative's Click URL. It must start with http:// or https://. 
7. If needed, add a third-party measurement code. For more information, see Create line item: third-party measurement codes.

* If a third-party tag is restricted, for example due to geo-based or similar rules, saving the line item might be prevented, as the creative cannot be uploaded. In this case the tag settings must be adjusted in the third party system.

Upload Display and Video creatives from your computer 

To upload a display or video creative file from your computer, follow these steps:

1. Click Upload from computer. 
2. In the Name field, define the name of your creative. 
3. Click Import an image/Import a video and upload the image/video file from your computer. The maximum video file size is 30 MB. 
4. In the Width and Height fields, enter the desired dimensions. ⓘ Note: this setting applies only to Display creatives.
5. In the Click URL field, paste the creative's click URL. It must start with http:// or https://. 
6. If needed, add a third-party measurement code. For more information, see Create line item: third-party measurement codes.

Upload Native creatives from your computer 

To upload a native creative file from your computer, follow these steps: 

1. Click Native. 
2. In the Name field, define the name of your creative. 
3. In the Click URL field, paste the creative's click URL. It must start with http:// or https://.
4. In the Title field, enter a title or headline for your native ad. The character limit is 90.
5.  In the Description field, enter the text related to the advertised product or service. The character limit is 140. 
6. In the Call to action field, enter the call to action text that leads to the landing page, for example "Subscribe now". The character limit is 15. 
7. In the Sponsored field, enter the name of the advertising company. The character limit is 25. 
8. If you select Install app, the Price and Rating fields become mandatory. 
9. Optional: Fill in the following fields: 

• Price: the price of the product 
• Rating: the product's rating, varying between 0 and 5 
• Likes: the number of likes for the product 
• Downloads: the number of the product downloads 
• Phone number: the contact phone number 
• Icon: the icon to be displayed in the ad 
• Display URL: the URL to be displayed in the ad 
• Address: the product’s or business’s address 
• Additional description: additional information about the product 

10. If needed, add a third-party measurement code. For more information, see Create line item: third-party measurement codes.

6. Select Add a creative. To save the current creative and create another one right away, enable the Add another creative checkbox before you save the current creative.

Use previously uploaded creatives

To use a previously uploaded creative, follow these steps:

1. In the Creative section, select the creative you want to use.
2. Select Add to Line Item.

Set creative rotation

When a line item has multiple display or video creatives of the same dimension, you can control how Maestro selects the creative to bid with for each impression. Three rotation modes are available.

Creative rotation filtering

Before creative rotation occurs, the bidder filters the line item’s creatives to identify those that are eligible for the impression.

• Display creatives: display creatives must exactly match the impression size. For example, if the impression slot is 300 x 250 pixels, any creative that is not 300 x 250 pixels is filtered out. In most cases, this leaves only a single eligible creative.
• Video and native creatives: video and native creatives are filtered using compatibility rules such as duration, format, and protocol rather than an exact size match. As a result, multiple creatives typically remain eligible. After filtering, creative rotation selects a single winner from the remaining eligible creatives. By default, creatives are selected with equal probability (random rotation).

Set creative weights

To set a creative weight:

1. In the Creative section, from the Optimization mode menu, select Even, Predicted CTR, or Weighted.
2. If you selected Weighted, enter a weight value in the Weight field for each creative on the line item.

The probability that a creative's selected is proportional to its weight relative to the total weight of all creatives. For example, if creative A has a weight of 3 and creative B has a weight of 1, creative A is selected approximately 75% of the time.

Manage creatives

Creatives can be managed by editing their details or deleting them from a campaign. 

• Edit: to edit a creative, click the three-dot icon next to its name and select Edit. In the Edit creative window, make your changes and click Save changes. 

  Editing a reused creative applies changes to all line items that use it. Before making changes, verify which line items are affected.

   
• Delete: to delete a creative, click the three-dot icon next to its name and select Delete. In the Deleting creative window, select Delete. ⚠️ Warning: Deletion is permanent.

Monitor creative status

You can monitor creative status in the Creative column of the Line items list. The following table outlines possible statuses and suggested solutions.

Status icon	Status description	Solution
	There is no creative in the line item.	Add a creative or retry, if the creative addition failed.
	The creative is being processed. For video creatives, this means encoding is in progress.	Wait for the creative processing/encoding to finish. It might take up to two hours.
	The creative was added successfully.	No action is required.
	The creative contains at least one non-secure URL (https://).	Ensure the creative contains secure URLs only (https://), with the exception of the landing page, which might be non-secure (http://).
	The encoding of the video creative failed.	Retry uploading the video creative.