Third-party ad serving

You can use the YouTube VAST QA tool to verify whether your VAST ad tags meet our third-party ad-serving specifications. You can also use this tool to easily preview your third-party served video ad on the YouTube player.

Approved Third-Party Vendors

Third-party in-stream ads and their companion banner ads must use a linear VAST tag from a YouTube VAST-approved vendor . Note that third-party served ads that violate our ad policies may be limited or suspended. Check below for the detailed XML summary.

In-Stream ads XML summary for VAST ad server response

Element	Attributes	Values	Required	Supported	Notes
VAST		Root node	Yes	Yes
	version	String (3.0)	Yes	Yes	^{Must support any VAST 2.* or 3.0 version}
Ad	ID	String	Yes	Yes	^{Top-level element wraps each ad in the response}
InLine	None	None	Yes	Yes	^{Second-level element surrounding complete ad data for a single ad}
AdSystem	None	String	Yes	Yes	^{Indicates source ad server}
	version	String	Preferred	Yes	^{Internal version used by ad system}
AdTitle	None	String	No	Yes	^{Common name of ad}
Description	None	String	No	Yes	^{Longer description of ad}
Survey	None	URI	No	No	^{URI of request to survey vendor (YouTube will only support research tracking pixels from certified research vendors in this node. Surveys or survey invitations can’t be served via the VAST XML currently.)}
Error	None	URI	No	Yes	^{URI to request if ad doesn’t play due to error. YouTube will only execute a request to the URI upon error but can’t pass extra error info.}
Impression	None	URI	Yes	Yes	^{URI to track impression}
Creatives	None	None	Yes	Yes	^{Container for one or more Creative elements}
Creative			Yes	Yes	^{Wraps each creative element}
	ID	String	No	Yes	^{Optional identifier}
	sequence	Integer	No	Yes	^{The preferred order in which multiple Creatives should be displayed}
	AdID	String	No	Yes	^{Ad-ID for the creative (formerly ISCI)}
Linear			Yes	Yes
	skipoffset	00:00:05	No	Yes	^{VAST 3.0 only}
Duration	None	Time	Yes	Yes
TrackingEvents			No	Yes
Tracking		URI	No	Yes	^{URI to track various events during playback}
	event	^{creativeView, start, firstQuartile, midpoint, thirdQuartile, complete, mute, unmute, pause, rewind, resume, fullscreen, expand, collapse, acceptInvitation, close acceptInvitationLinear closeLinear progress skip}	No	Yes ^{(only for start, firstQuartile, midpoint, thirdQuartile, complete). Only VAST 3.0 supports Skip}	^{The name of the event to track for the Linear element. The creativeView should always be requested when present.}
AdParameters		String	No	No	^{Data to be passed into the video ad.}
VideoClicks			Yes	Yes
ClickThrough	None	URI	Yes	Yes	^{URI to open as destination page when viewer clicks the video}
ClickTracking		URI	No	Yes	^{URI to request for tracking purposes when viewer clicks the video}
CustomClick		URI	No	Yes	^{URIs to request on custom events such as hotspotted video}
	ID	String	No	No	^{Optional identifier}
MediaFiles			Yes	Yes
MediaFile		URI	Yes ^{(There needs to be a minimum of 2 separate MediaFile nodes - one for each MP4, and WebM video formats)}	Yes	^{Location of linear file}
	delivery	progressive	Yes	Yes	^{Method of delivery of ad (YouTube doesn’t prefer streaming)}
	type	String	Yes (MP4, and WebM)	Yes	^{MIME type (Popular MIME types include, but are not limited to “video/x-ms-wmv” for Windows Media)}
	bitrate	Integer	Yes	Yes	^{Bitrate of encoded video in Kbps}
	width	Integer (480)	Yes	Yes	^{Pixel dimensions of video}
	height	Integer (360)	Yes	Yes	^{Pixel dimensions of video}
	scalable	Boolean	No	No	^{Whether it is acceptable to scale the image (YouTube does this by default).}
	maintainAspectRatio	Boolean	No	Yes
	apiFramework	String	No	No	^{If the MediaFile is interactive, the apiFramework defines the method to use for communication.}
CompanionAds			No	Yes
Companion			No	Yes	^{Any number of companions in any desired pixel dimensions.}
	ID	String	No	Yes	^{Optional identifier}
	width	Integer (300)	Yes (if serving companion)	Yes	^{Pixel dimensions of companion}
	height	Integer (60)	Yes (if serving companion)	Yes	^{Pixel dimensions of companion}
	expandedWidth	Integer	No	No	^{Pixel dimensions of expanding companion ad when in expanded state (expandables not allowed with In-Stream ads on YouTube)}
	expandedHeight	Integer	No	No	^{_{Pixel dimensions of expanding companion ad when in expanded state (expandables not allowed with In-Stream ads on YouTube)}}
	apiFramework	String	No	No	^{The apiFramework defines the method to use for communication with the companion}
StaticResource		URI	No	Yes	^{URI to a static file, such as an image.}
	creativeType	String	Yes (if serving companion using StaticResource)	Yes	^{Mime type of static resource, only Image types are supported}
IFrameResource	None	URI	No	Yes	^{URI source for an IFrame to display the companion element}
HTMLResource	None	CDATA	No	No	^{HTML to display the companion element}
JavaScriptResource	None	CDATA	No	No	^{JavaScript to display the companion element}
TrackingEvents			No	No
Tracking		URI	No	No	^{URI to display the companion element}
	event	creativeView	Yes (if serving companion)	No	^{The creativeView should always be requested when present. For Companions creativeView is the only supported event.}
CompanionClickThrough	None	URI	Yes (if serving static image without hard-coded click-through)	Yes	^{URI to open as destination page when viewer clicks the companion.}
AltText	None	String	No	Yes	^{Alt test to be displayed when companion is rendered in HTML environment}
AdParameters		String	No	No	^{Data to be passed into the companion ads}
NonLinearAds			No	No	^{Not currently supported (only Linear In-Stream)}
Extensions			No	No
Extension	type	Any	No	No	^{Any valid XML may be included in the Extensions node but will be ignored.}
Wrapper	None	None	No	No	^{Second-level element surrounding wrapper ad pointing to Secondary ad server}

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Third-party ad serving

Approved Third-Party Vendors

In-Stream ads XML summary for VAST ad server response

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