life of an ad

The Life of an AdBrian Deitte

http://www.deitte.com

http://www.twitter.com/bdeitte

What’s This About?

From an ad request to ad server to ad display to…

Technical description of the life of an ad- nothing in here

on the creative side or business side

Where Do I Start?

Starting from the perspective of an already-configured Brightcove

player

Already-configured means that the player has already been

customized and set up for advertising in the Brightcove studio

Do I Really Want an Ad?

First need to decide if we want an ad

Happens both from the player perspective, as set up in

the ad module…

Do I Really Want an Ad? (Continued)

… or as determined by an ad rules SWF, which can get

an ad servers’ rules.

I Want an Ad!

When ad is needed, the player sends an ad request to an

ad server

This is done in Brightcove through the ad translator SDK

I Want an Ad! (Continued)

The ad request is (usually) a simple GET request with

many URL parameters to help determine the ad that’s

returned

Example:

http://ad.doubleclick.net/pfadx/bc.addemos/;frmt=22;frmt

=0;frmt=1;plID=2412527001;sz=8x8;ttID=1073549595;cu

e=pre;cgm=0;ord=036755150?

Ad Server?

Ad request goes to an ad server. Many ad servers to

choose from for Brightcove:

http://www.brightcove.com/en/partners/technology-partners/advertising

Ad is Returned

The ad server returns an ad to the Brightcove player

Ad is usually in XML using either the Brightcove ad XML

format or the IAB standard called VAST (which we’ll

explain in the next slide)

A Slight Detour into the IAB

Interactive Advertising Bureau at http://iab.net

Set standards for many parts of advertising, from how an

ad is “counted” (via an impression) to the standard

display formats

VAST and VPAID are emerging standards for video ads

Brightcove VAST support:

http://support.brightcove.com/en/docs/using-vast-

standard-brightcove-players

I Have an Ad! Now What?

Ads need to be displayed in very specific ways

Brightcove player needs to decide how the ad is

displayed with built-in logic or ad display SWF

Custom ads can be displayed with Ad Display SWF SDK

I Make $$$

Ad is displayed, so an ad impression is sent

Ad impression is a URL call (as specified within the ad

response) to an ad server which records that the ad was

seen

Other tracking information is often sent to the ad server,

which can help give insight on how well ads are doing

For More Information

Article which expands on the information presented here:

http://developer.brightcove.com/en/articles/brightcove-

advertising-sdk

Have more questions? Ask away in the Brightcove

developer forums: http://forum.brightcove.com/t5/Ad-

APIs/bd-p/Developer_3