Basic preview

The basic preview lets you preview a creative uploaded to EMP.

Before using the basic preview, make sure the creative is enabled on at least one format, as shown in the following screenshot. For the basic preview to work, enabling the creative on at least one format is required, no matter if you have selected one or multiple formats in the Inventory section of the insertion.

To run the creative preview, proceed as follows:

1. Click on the creative in the creative list of the insertion.
2. On the sidebar, hold your mouse over the creative and click on the "eye"-icon to open a full screen modal showing the creative preview.
3. Click on the creative to test if the redirection to the landing page functions correctly. 

Reload creative to inspect with developer tools

In the full-screen window showing the creative preview, you can reload the creative by clicking on the Reload preview button.

Reloading the preview is useful if you want to inspect the creative, using browser based developer tools, such as Chrome DevTools or Firefox DevTools.

Inspecting the creative is particularly relevant in case of third party creative scripts—also known as agency scripts or redirects. For example, you can inspect the creative script to determine the file size of the creative loaded by the creative script or to assess which third party measurement pixels are triggered by the creative script.

To inspect the creative, proceed as follows:

1. Set up your creative as usual.
2. Start the creative preview, as explained earlier.
3. Preview the creative in the full-screen window.
4. Activate your browser’s developer tools. For example, use the shortcut Option+Command+I in Chrome on MacOS.
5. Go to the Network tab and clear the history.
6. Click on the Reload preview button.
7. Observe the requests in the Network tab of the developer tools or perform other developer tasks.

Refreshing the page using the browser’s “refresh page” feature, for example with the shortcut Command+R in case of Chrome on MacOS, is not helpful to inspect the creative. With this method, the entire EMP page will be loaded, making it difficult to distinguish the requests related to the creative from other requests.

Live preview

With the Live preview, you can preview web creatives directly on the publisher website, without the need to put the insertion online. The Live preview is useful to inspect and troubleshoot creative behavior. You can also share the Live preview URL with advertisers, agencies, or team members.

Limitations

The following limitations apply:

• The Live preview is not available in insertions with the impression type In-stream video or Audio or with the Environment App .
• The Live preview is available only in Direct campaigns and insertions.
• The click redirection is not available if the insertion is in status Archived.

Live preview single insertion

To preview a creative in a single insertion, follow these steps:

1. Create your insertion as usual, keeping the limitations mentioned in section “Limitations” in mind.
2. Select the placements.
3. Upload the creatives; if needed, assign each creative to the desired format.
4. Save the insertion.
5. In the right column, click on Live preview.
6. Configure the Live preview as follows:
   1. Your website: add the URL of the publisher website where you want to preview the ad. This page must contain at least one Equativ ad tag with the formats you selected in the Placement section. URLs containing a comma are not accepted in this field but you can use these workarounds:
      1. Workaround 1: remove the comma from the URL, paste the URL into the field and click on Run preview. In the new browser tab or browser window opened by the Live preview, add the comma again at the location where you removed it previously.
      2. Workaround 2: encode the comma by replacing it with %2C.
   2. Tag ID: if applicable, add the container IDs of the formats (optional). For more information, see section “Custom tag IDs” below)
7. Block all other placements on the page: select to ensure the placements on your page that are not involved in the Live preview remain without any ad.
8. Click Run preview

The website opens with the preview of the creatives on the specified formats. In case of multiple formats on the page, each creative is displayed only on the formats where it is enabled.

To preview multiple creatives on the same format, refresh the page until you see the desired creative.

Click on the creative to determine if the click redirection works properly. The click redirection is not available if the insertion is in status Archived.

Share the Live preview URL with agencies or advertisers, as needed.

Live preview multiple insertions

To preview creatives in multiple insertions, follow these steps:

1. Create your insertions as usual, keeping the limitations mentioned in section “Limitations” in mind.
2. Select the placements.
3. Upload the creatives; if needed, assign each creative to the desired format.
4. Save the insertions.
5. Go to the insertion list of the campaign where you you prepared the insertions.
6. Select the checkbox to the left of each insertion that you want to preview.
7. Click Live Preview. The Live preview button is unavailable in the following cases:
   1. At least one of the limitations mentioned in chapter “Limitations” above applies.
   2. Two or more insertions target the same format.
   3. At least one insertion has no format selected.
8. Configure the Live preview as explained in section “Preview single insertion” above. 

Custom tag IDs

Adding a tag ID is only required if the tag ID used on the website does not follow the default naming pattern sas_<formatId>. For example, if the format ID is 1234, the default tag ID name is sas_1234. If your page uses default tag IDs, you can ignore the Tag ID field.

Customized ad tags

If you are using customized ad tags that differ from the original ones provided by Equativ, the Live preview may not be able to recognize their location. To indicate where the placement is located, integrate the following commented code snippet in your ad tag:

<script>
...
//sas_manager.render(formatId);
...
</script>

 Alternatively, use the standalone Live preview.

Live preview creative with standalone preview

With the standalone Live preview, you compose the Live preview URL manually and run the Live preview outside of Monetization.

URL pattern

The Live preview URL follows this pattern:

http://mywebsite.com?live_preview_config={jsonConfig}

Configuration object

 {jsonConfig} represents a configuration object in json format containing all Live preview parameters, structured as shown in the following example:

{
  "uid": 12345,
  "blockAds": true,
  "data": [
    {
      "insertionId": 111,
      "formats": [
        {
          "id": 111,
          "tag": "sas_111"
        },
        {
          "id": 222,
          "tag": "sas_222"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "insertionId": 222,
      "formats": [
        {
          "id": 333,
          "tag": "sas_333"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Serialize the json object and send it in the live_preview_config= query parameter, for example:

https://mywebsite.com?live_preview_config={"uid":12345,"blockAds":true,"data":[{"insertionId":111,"formats":[{"id":111,"tag":"sas_111"},{"id":222,"tag":"sas_222"}]},{"insertionId":222,"formats":[{"id":333,"tag":"sas_333"}]}]}

Fields

The following table describes the fields in the configuration object: