Overview 

In programmatic advertising, buyers need to rely on user identification for many purposes. If Equativ is integrated client side, Equativ has direct access to the website through the Equativ ad tags implemented there. In this case, user identification works seamlessly. 

If Equativ is integrated server side, user identification is not available directly: due to security restrictions in cookies, publishers/platforms cannot transmit their user IDs directly to Equativ. To solve this issue, Equativ provides a dedicated client side cookie sync tag. This tag informs the publisher/platform about the Equativ User ID. This ID can then be pushed server side into the Equativ calls and becomes usable for buyers. 

Note that the client side cookie sync tag only returns the Equativ User ID but does not sync cookies with buyers. To sync cookies with buyers as a standalone process, read the Sync users in Ad API integrations article.

Activation

Using the client side cookie sync tag for server side integrations requires activation in your network. Get back to your Technical Account Manager to have the feature enabled.

Workflow and setup

Chart

The following chart illustrates the entire workflow - steps (1) till (9). Read the following chapters for a description of each step. 

Step (1) - Equativ Sync Tag with destination URL

On your website, you must integrate the following Equativ Sync Tag (1x1 transparent pixel):

<img src="https://sync.smartadserver.com/getuid?url=https%3A%2F%2Fads.cname.com%2Fsetuid%3Fuid%3D[sas_uid]&gdpr_consent=[consent_string]&nwid=[networkId]" />

• replace the value of the url= parameter https%3A%2F%2Fads.cname.com, by the URL of your storage platform (matching table) (see Step (4) below).
• leave the [sas_uid] macro unchanged - it will be replaced by the actual Equativ User ID when processed by Equativ.
• replace [consent_string] by the GDPR consent string (more details in Comply with Global Privacy Platform (GPP); if the consent is negative or if the consent string is missing, Equativ will not return any user id (pid) and will not store cookies
• replace [networkId] by the publisher's network Id at Equativ

Step (2) - Request for the Equativ Cookie Tag

When the website is loaded, the Equativ Sync Tag calls Equativ.  

Step (3) - 302 redirect, enriched with Equativ User ID

When Equativ receives the Equativ Sync Tag call, it will respond by a 302 redirect to the URL specified in the url= parameter and replace the [sas_uid] by the actual Equativ User ID (e. g. ABCXYZ). Example:

https://ads.cname.com/setuid?uid=ABCXYZ

Step (4) - Storage of The Equativ User ID

You must create and run a storage platform to store the Equativ User IDs sent by Equativ in its 302 redirects. Typically, storage is done in a server side matching database (matching table) but could be implemented also client side on your own domain cookies.  

Step (5) - Ad Unit request from the page

The ad unit on the website (page) calls the Publisher Platform (ad management platform), when the website is loaded.  

Step (6) - Retrieve Equativ User ID

Once the ad unit request from the page is received by the Publisher Platform, you must retrieve the Equativ User ID from the matching table (Equativ User ID ABCXYZ in the example above).  

Step (7) - Server side ad call to Equativ SSP, with uid=Equativ User ID, IP and UA headers

In case of Ad API integrations, refer to the POST Ad API integration: usage for more about the parameters. In particular, the following parameters are mandatory:

• the Equativ User ID, as retrieved in Step (6), in the uid= parameter; e. g. uid=ABCXYZ)
• the IP address; to be forwarded by your server to the Equativ http(s) request from the browser (client side); you must set the X-Forwarded-For header with the real IP address of the browser; more details in chapter “X-Forwarded-For header” in the POST Ad API integration: usage article
• the original User Agent of the browser (client side); to be forwarded by your server to the Equativ http(s) request; more details in chapter “User agent” in the POST Ad API integration: usage article.
• the page URL (where the ad will be served) to make it transparent to buyers; pass the URL in encoded format using the pgdomain= parameter

In case of openRTB integrations, refer to chapter "User-sync endpoint" in the Open RTB API integration: get started article.   

Step (8) - Winning Campaign Ad Creative

When the server side call has been received, Equativ selects the appropriate campaign (insertion) and returns the creative to the Publisher Platform.  

Step (9) - Final ad delivery

The Publisher Platform sends the creative to the website, which renders the ad.