How to Use Ad Macros in Video Advertisement

Introduction

Ad Macros allows you to dynamically pass content, player, application, and device information to your advertising partners without manually modifying ad tag URLs for each campaign. During video playback, Muvi automatically replaces the configured macro placeholders with actual values, enabling your ad server to deliver more relevant and targeted advertisements.

For example, if a viewer is watching your content from a mobile device, the ad server can use the device information passed through Ad Macros to return a mobile-optimized advertisement.

Macros eliminate the need to create multiple ad URLs for different targeting scenarios and provide a flexible way to integrate with various advertising platforms.

How Ad Macros Work

Different ad servers require different URL parameters for ad targeting, reporting, and campaign optimization. Instead of manually updating the ad URL every time, you can configure the required parameters directly from the Muvi CMS. During playback, Muvi automatically replaces each macro with the corresponding runtime value before sending the ad request to the ad server.

Example:

Instead of sending:

https://adserver.example.com/vast?title={content_title}&genre={genre}&device={device_type}

Muvi automatically converts it to:

https://adserver.example.com/vast?title=The%20Last%20Journey&genre=Drama&device=Mobile

The advertising platform then uses this information to serve the most relevant advertisement.

Benefits of Ad Macros

Using Ad Macros provides several advantages:

• No coding required to configure new ad parameters.
• Supports multiple advertising platforms and ad servers.
• Improves ad targeting by sending dynamic viewer and content information.
• Enables richer campaign analytics and reporting.
• Reduces dependency on engineering teams.
• Simplifies ad server integrations.
• Supports future expansion with additional macros based on customer requirements.

Adding Ad Tags with Ad Macros

• In the Dashboard, navigate to “Monetization” --> "Advertisements”.
• Click on the “Ad Tags” tab.
• Click on “Add Ad Tag”.
• In the “Ad Type”, select “Video”.
• In the “Ad Format”, select “VAST” (currently, we only support Macros for VAST format).
• Type the “Ad Tag Name” (e.g., XYZ Ad).
• Type or paste the “Ad Tag URL”. (This URL must contain the Ad Macro values).
• In “Ad Macros”, “Enable Tag Parameters”.
• For each “Parameter”, select the “Actual Value” from the drop-down menu.
• For example, for the parameter “w”, you can select the actual value “Player Width” and so on.
• You can also add “Custom” parameters and “Actual Values”.
• Click on “Save”.
• The Ad Tag will be added.
• You can repeat the process to add more ad tags to the Dashboard.

Integrating Ad Tag with Macros to the Video

• Navigate to “Content Management “-->“Content Library" in the Dashboard.
• In the Content Library, click on the "Edit Icon" under the content to which you want to integrate an ad.
• In the edit content page, click on the "Monetization" tab.
• Scroll down to "Advertisements".
• Under "Ad Categories", select "Ad Tags".
• Under "Ad Format", select "VAST".
• You can choose either*“Pre-roll”, *“Mid-roll”, or *"Post-roll", or you can also choose all the 3 options or combinations like pre-roll + Post-Roll, or Mid-Roll +post-roll, and so on.
• Click on "Add Pre-Roll Ad" to select the pre-roll option. The ad will be played from the beginning.
• Select the Tag Value from the drop-down and click on "Done".
• Click on "Mid-Roll Ad". The ad will be played in the middle. You can select the time or % of the video when the ad will appear in the video.
• Select the Tag Value from the drop-down and type the "Break Timing" (e.g., 10 seconds, 30 Seconds, or in % of video, i.e., 10%, 40%, etc.)
• Click on "Done".
• Click on "Post-Roll Ad". The ad will be played at the end of the video.
• Select the Tag Value from the drop-down and click on "Done".
• Click on “Save and Publish”.
• When the end-users play the video, they can view the ads integrated into the video. You can also check by clicking on the "Preview" button on the video content.