Video Ads on Premium Connected TV Inventory

There are some special considerations for video ads on premium Connected TV (CTV) inventory.

Video Ad Best Practices

We strongly recommend that you use our built-in DSP video ad serving. We automatically transcode videos to the necessary formats and bitrates for placements, so as long as you upload the highest quality asset available, you won't need to worry about the technical details outlined in the Third-Party VAST section below.

Additionally, do not include calls to action or buttons that imply that the ad is interactive. Most CTV environments are unclickable, and some publishers may not allow ads that imply they can be clicked.

General Video and Audio Quality

CTV publishers are especially sensitive to poor quality audio and video. Publishers vary in their expectations, but failing to adhere to these quality standards may lead to your ads being blocked on the most premium publishers.

Upload the highest quality version of the video available with these dimensions:

  • 1920x1080 for 16:9 content

  • 1440x1080 for 4:3 content.

Some publishers only accept 16:9 content.

The audio sample rate should be 48khz.

When examining the video on your computer, it should be:

  • Free of visible compression artifacts, encoding defects, etc.

  • Encoded at the proper frame rate for the content, without visible stuttering or duplicate frames.

  • Encoded as constant frame rate (not variable frame rate), at a standard frame rate (23.976fps, 25fps, or 29.97fps as appropriate).

  • Progressive, not interlaced.

When testing the ad in Basis, a medium-quality transcoded video suitable for the regular size of the player on the preview page is shown. This does not reflect the file that CTV publishers will select at the time of delivery. Examine the original source file on your computer for video and audio quality testing purposes.

Third-Party VAST

Due to the nature of the CTV environment, VPAID is not supported.

VAST can carry multiple media files and the player is expected to select the one it prefers. One possible case is VAST containing a VPAID MediaFile as well as MP4 alternatives. While this is technically suitable for CTV environments, some publishers do not handle this scenario correctly and delivery will fail. Publishers may then block your ads or the advertiser.

Accordingly, we strongly recommend ensuring that there are no VPAID MediaFiles in ads that you deliver on CTV inventory.

Third-party VAST should have the following characteristics:

  • VAST 2.0

  • InLine VAST (not a Wrapper)

  • No VPAID media files

  • At least one of the MediaFiles is an MP4 with:

    • Video resolution of 1920x1080 or 1440x1080; bitrate approximately 25,000kbps; H.264 (AVC) codec

    • Audio is 48khz, stereo (two channel), 192kbps or greater, AAC codec

  • Additionally, you should also include one MP4 with a bitrate between 6,000 kbps and 10,000 kbps, as it may be required in some cases for lower-bandwidth or lower-capability devices

Delivery fails for some CTV publishers if VAST URLs have special characters in them (such as [, ], or |). When this occurs, publishers may block your ads or the advertiser. Make sure to replace all placeholders in VAST URLs. For example, VAST URLs from Campaign Manager 360 may have placeholders in them:

https://ad.doubleclick.net/ddm/pfadx/N123.1231234TEST/B123123123.123123;sz=0x0;ord=[timestamp];dc_lat=;dc_rdid=;tag_for_child_directed_treatment=;tfua=;dcmt=text/xml;dc_sdk_apis=[APIFRAMEWORKS];dc_omid_p=[OMIDPARTNER]

Replace the [timestamp] placeholder with the DSP {ts} macro, and also replace the [APIFRAMEWORKS] and [OMIDPARTNER] placeholders. No value is required to replace them.