Overview

This tutorial walks you through the steps to take to deliver your first CTV impression. You will learn how to set up your first campaigns in minutes. For a comprehensive guide about Connected TV campaigns, see Create connected TV insertion.

Set up inventory

Equativ's Monetization Platform uses the following entities:

• Sites: in the CTV context, the site usually represents a CTV app or channel.
• Pages: pages are children of sites. In the CTV context, the page usually represents a specific part of the inventory—for example a specific distributor—or a section within a CTV app.

Create sites and pages

To create sites and pages, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to Monetization.
2. Go to Inventory > Sites & pages.
3. Next to Site, click on New. 
4. On the Edit sites page, fill in the Site name and Site URL. (format: http://domain.com). 
5. Click Save.
6. Next to Page, click New page group.
7. Enter the Page group name, for example Linear.
8. Click Save.
9. Edit the created page group by clicking on the green/blue icon next to the page group name.
10. In the search field, search for Video - Linear, select it and click Save.
11. Next to Page: click on New page
12. Fill in the Page name field and click Save.
13. Repeat the page creation process if more pages are needed.

Get ad request URLs 

To get the ad request URLs, follow these steps:

1. Click Download all tags for the site, as shown in the screenshot above.
2. Clear Export tags.  
3. Select Export video tags.
4. Select Standalone VAST 4 - App & CTV from the list. 
5. Click Generate. 
6. Open the downloaded TXT file.
7. Copy the Pre-roll, Mid-roll and Post-roll ad request URLs and integrate them in your CTV app or SSAI.

Create campaign

To create a new campaign, follow these steps:

1. Go to Campaigns > Campaigns.
2. Click + New campaign.
3. In the New campaign dialog, select Direct.
4. Fill in the Name and Start and end date fields.
5. Select Create advertiser.
6. Fill in the Name field.
7. Select the User group Admin
8. Click Create. 

Create insertion

On the insertion list page of the created campaign, click the New insertion button.

General settings

In the General settings section of the insertion, follow these steps:

1. Fill in the Name field.
2. Under Ad type, select the Impression type In-stream video.
3. Under Ad type, select the environment Web - App.

Delivery

In the Delivery section, follow these steps:

1. Fill in the Start and end date, Start and end time, and Time zone.
2. Select a Priority, usually the Normal 3 priority. For more information about priorities in advanced cases, see Create direct insertion: priorities.
3. Enter the impression goal in the Volume field.
4. Alternatively, click Add event volume, enter an event goal in the Event volume field and select one of the following VAST events: Viewable impressions, Start, First quartile, Midpoint, Third quartile, Complete.
5. Select a Delivery mode:
   1. Paced: the insertion is paced depending on the delivery criteria and available traffic to ensure balanced delivery.
   2. As soon as possible: the insertion is delivered continuously until either the end date or the maximum volume is reached.

Placement

In the Placement section, follow these steps: 

1. Select the format Video - Linear.
2. Disable All types and positions to target specific ad break types, such as Pre-roll or Mid-roll, or to target specific positions within the ad break. For more information, see Set video ad pod position targeting.
3. Select a site to select all of its pages.
4. Alternatively, select specific pages on the site.

Creative template

In the Creative template section, use the preselected creative template [VIDEO] VAST x - LINEAR. Optionally, click on Parameters to make changes to the creative template behavior. For more information, see VAST video.  

Creatives

In the Creatives section, follow these steps:

1. Click Add creative.
2. Select from the options:
   1. From computer: use this option to upload a creative file.
   2. Paste URL: use this option to paste a URL which points to a creative hosted in a third party system.
3. Define a Name.
4. Enable the Encode video option to automatically encode the video file at different quality levels. Players can select the most suitable quality for the given bandwidth and device. 
5. Paste the clickthrough URL into the Click URL field.

Targeting

For a comprehensive list of all available targeting criteria, see Set general targeting criteria. The following are key targeting criteria for CTV campaigns:

• Video content metadata: target specific content such as episode number, content duration, content language, or content genre. For more information, see Set video content metadata targeting.
• Platform targeting: target platforms such as TV, Set Top Box, Game console, or Other connected devices. For more information, see Set general targeting criteria.

Save and put online

Once you are done with the setup of the insertion, click Save and put online at the top of the page.