Pre-roll Video Ads are ads that will play prior to a Video asset, and post-roll video ads will play in a video asset. The video ad will show in the select video blocks, and on the video asset page itself.
NOTE: Pre-Roll Video Ads will only work with Video assets in BLOX CMS, NOT YouTube video assets. This is due to restrictions YouTube places on the usage of it's development API. For more information, see YouTube's Terms of Use.
How Pre Roll Video Ads Will Work
If you have one ad assigned to the video-ad position, the ad will play after the user clicks play on the video they want to view. It will show the video preview image in the player and then play the advertisement when play is selected. After the ad has finished playing, the video asset will automatically begin playing. If the user clicks on another video thumbnail before the video ad runs in its entirety, then the ad will play before any newly selected video(s) until the ad has finished playing.
If multiple video ads are assigned to the video-ad position, then one ad will play at random prior to showing the first video.
If you desire to have a different video ad play before each video watched in the video player, then you will need to create multiple video ad positions (video-ad1, video-ad2, video-ad3, etc.) and assign one ad to each position. It will then cycle through the ads in the sequence of positions assigned. Ads will stop playing after the site has cycled through all ads or until it has reached the set ad impression limitations. Refreshing the page will allow the ad cycle to restart.
Pre-roll videos will work on Section, Articles, and Video asset pages.
Video ads do not currently work in preview mode and will only appear on a live site. You may have to wait 5 minutes for caching before you see the ad.
Pre-Roll FAQs
Q: Can you adjust the weights on pre-roll video ads?
A: Yes - video ad weights can be managed and locked like any other ad.
Q: Can an end-user skip the video ad by selecting another video asset?
A: No. If the user selects another video asset, the same video ad will run again prior to their video asset. The video player controls for pause, fast forward, etc. will not be visible while a video ad is playing.
Q: How do I get multiple video ads to display in a specific order?
A: By assigning video ads to multiple positions.
For example, if you have video ads A, B, C and D and you want them each to display before four different video assets you will assign the ads to different positions like this:
- Video Ad A assigned to position video-ad1
- Video Ad B assigned to position video-ad2
- Video Ad C assigned to position video-ad3
- Video Ad D assigned to position video-ad4
The result of this example would be a video player that will play Video Ad A before the first video asset, Video Ad B before the second played video asset, Video Ad C before the third played video asset and so on.
Q: Will pre-roll and post-roll video ads work on my mobile website?
A: If you are using Touch 5, and your video ads are in the h.264 format, they will work on your mobile website.
Video ads will only work in certain video blocks.
Setting Up a Pre-Roll Video Ad
Creating The Ad Position
NOTE: The "_preroll" Ad Position is part of the default Ad Positions already on BLOX CMS. You only need to create an Ad Position if you intend to use a custom Ad Position for additional video ads (ie: video-ad or video-ad1).
From the dropdown in the the upper left choose Marketplace / Banner Ads (Not sure how to access BLOX Applications? Click here).
Click the gear icon in the upper right corner to open Application Settings.
Click Add in Manage Ad Regions.
In the Create New Ad Region window:
- Region Name is video-ad (REQUIRED - this is the name of the ad region)
- Positions is 1 (REQUIRED - this will be 1)
- Max Width is 1280 (this is the largest ad that will fit into that ad position)
- Refreshable leave unchecked as it does not apply to video ads.
NOTE: If you want multiple pre-roll video ads, you will need to create multiple ad positions named video-ad1, video-ad2, etc.
Click Save.
Create a Video Ad
While still in Marketplace / Banner Ads, click New Ad and select Video.
The Video Ad editing window will open.
1 Upload: Click on Upload and a dialogue window opens so you can browse your network server or computer to upload your Video Ad.
2 Name: This is Required. Give the Video Ad a descriptive name.
3 Link URL: If you want the Video Ad to link elsewhere, enter a fully qualified URL path.
4 Notes: Any notes you want to put in are for your own purposes only. They will not appear on the front end.
5 External ID: This automatically generated by the system upon saving the Video Ad.
6 Start Date/End Date: Enter the dates the Video is to run. If left blank, it will indefinitely.
7 Tags: Positions is the most important thing to do here. Once your Ad Regions are set up, you need to associate the ad with a position. Geo Targeting is to help target the audience the Video Ad will hit (see step #3 below).
8 Related: You can associate a business with the Video Ad. It's a recommended "Best Practice."
9 Other: Here you'll set the Restrictions for the Video Ad like other Ads. You can also set up Dayparting for the Video Ad to run at specific times, enter Sales information, and check Revisions here too.
10 View Stats: Here is basically a short cut to the Analytics for the Video Ad. This is helpful when your client wants to know how the Video Ad is performing. It also allows you to email an Analytic report for this specific Video Ad.
11 Save/Close/Cancel: When done, click on Save, Save and Close, or Cancel to get out.
Tags
3 - banner ads.png
To assign the ad to a section/region, in Positions click Add.
4 - banner ads.png
Type in the name of the section this ad belongs on. This has auto-complete, and a list of sections will come up as you type. Click on the name of the section you want to assign this ad to. ROS stands for Run of Site, and should be used if this ad should appear on every page that has a particular position. If the section you want does not come up, it may not exist, or is a URL instead of a section. Ads must be assigned to sections. For more information see Sections vs URLs.
Type in the name of the region you want to assign this ad to. This has auto-complete, and a list of regions will come up as you type. Click on the name of the region you want to assign this ad to. If the region you want does not come up, it may not exist. For information on creating a region:
Select the Section (ie: ROS), then the Region (ie: video-ad), select the checkbox for the section/region you want to assign the ad to, and click Assign. If you are done creating the Ad, Save the Ad.
Manage Position Settings
To Manage Position Settings for the Video. Click on Positions on the toolbar.
Then select Section (ie: ROS) and the Region (ie: video-ad).
Click on the checkbox. Then click on Settings on the Positions toolbar.
This opens the Position Settings window.
- Embed Video Player - The Video Player is embedded on the sites page.
- Stand Alone Player - This loads a separate Video Player (used when multiple videos are being run).
Set the Initial Volume. Volume range is 1-100 (default setting is 50).
The Autoplay option, if selected means the Ad will roll upon the video being loaded on the site.
Visibility is where you select the Frequency (amount of times the video plays).
Click Save. The ad is now ready to go online.
How To Set Up a Vast Feed
Vast (Video Ad Serving Template) is a video feed set up in your Page Customizations on your VAST, Video or Multimedia URL. They are Video Ads that play as a Pre-roll to the actual Video Asset. In Flex, Vast will run anywhere you have a video player set up. To use VAST, you'll need a Vast-Compliant third party Ad Server (for instructions on how to add VAST, Click Here.
NOTE: If you don't have a VAST, Video or Multimedia URL set up, see the URL's documentation.
From the dropdown in the the upper left choose Design / Blocks. This will open the Design / Blocks application.
Go to your URL's Library in the upper left corner of the Blocks application and find your multimedia or video URL.
Select the URL and open it up (double-click or highlight and click Edit). It opens up in the Layout area.
Go to Page Customizations on the right and find Video. Expand the Video section. Enter the VAST URL in the field.
Click on the Save Changes button at the top of Page Customizations.
