Jump to: Companion creative types
| configurations
| GPT methods
Companion ads allow you to serve ads to display ad slots at the same time as those served to a video or audio player. They always rely on the master ad to serve.
- VAST creatives can include up to 6 corresponding display ads
- Labels can prevent ads from competing advertisers from serving at the same time
- Ability to backfill from the publisher's network if the VAST response contains fewer companion ads than there are defined display slots on the page
When a master ad automatically plays, companion ads load immediately when it starts, so the two load simultaneously. When a master ad requires user initiation, such as click-to-play, a non-companion ad could load in the companion ad slot before the master ad is clicked. When it's clicked to play, the companion ad then replaces the non-companion ad.
The fluid size companion uses the same percentage of space regardless of screen size. This allows the companion ad to fill the entire screen.
- Responsive ads are not supported for video companion ads
- Google DAI has support for companion ads only on HTML5 and with the Ads API
- The IMA SDK does not support click-to-call functionality for video companion ads
Available companion creative types
If your VAST creatives include companion creatives, you can use any of the following:
- Image : Standard images or URLs of creatives hosted on third-party ad servers.
- Campaign Manager 360 : Redirect URLs generated with Campaign Manager 360.
- Third-party : Code from third-party ad servers.
- Custom : Your own code to create rich ad experiences.
- Native format (Beta) : Standard or custom native formats. 1 , 2
- Standard or custom creative templates : Templates which prompt to input information or upload files.
1 Native formats are supported on reservations and Programmatic Guaranteed campaigns with publisher provided creative source when using native styles as the delivery method.
2 Formats with native video enabled cannot be used as companions.
Companion ad configurations
To serve companion creatives, your line item, site, and player must be configured correctly.
- When you add a line item, you should set the expected creatives to the size of the master video or audio ad, and include the sizes for your companion ads. Then, when you traffic a video or audio creative , you can include the companions in the sizes you've allowed.
- Display ad slots should be defined using GPT tags that specify how companion ads should behave.
- A player using the IMA SDK
should set companion sizes into the
ciu_szsparameter on the request. - If your player is an iframe, you need to include a GPT proxy script in your HTML.
You can find implementation details about how to use companion ads with Google Publisher Tags . If you are not using the GPT library, your developers may be able to implement support for companions using the ad API , but the content shown below focuses on GPT features.
GPT methods that support companion ads
| GPT javascript | Example code in the <head> of a web page |
|---|---|
|
The |
googletag.defineSlot(
|
|
The |
googletag.companionAds().
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The This allows competitive exclusions to work across the video and display ads. |
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Optional for "auto-play" video and audio. The method can prevent the scenario in which a display ad loads to the ad unit, but is displayed for only a few seconds before the companion ad is delivered. Compare this with click-to-play ads, where it's not necessary to deactivate the initial load because the display ad should load and show until the user clicks to play, thus loading the companion. |
|
Sample GPT code including companion display ads
The full <head>
of a page might look like this:
<script type='text/javascript'> window.googletag = window.googletag || {cmd: []}; (function() { var gads = document.createElement('script'); gads.async = true; gads.type = 'text/javascript'; gads.src = 'http://securepubads.g.doubleclick.net/tag/js/gpt.js'; var node = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; node.parentNode.insertBefore(gads, node); })(); </script> <script type='text/javascript'> googletag.cmd.push(function() { //↓set with actual ad units and sizes for your website googletag.defineSlot('/12345/path/to/adunit', [300, 250], 'div1').addService( googletag.companionAds() ).addService(googletag.pubads()); googletag.defineSlot('/12345/path/to/adunit', [160, 600], 'div2').addService( googletag.companionAds() ).addService(googletag.pubads()); googletag.defineSlot('/12345/path/to/adunit', [728, 90], 'div3').addService( googletag.companionAds() ).addService(googletag.pubads()); googletag.companionAds().setRefreshUnfilledSlots(true); googletag.pubads().enableVideoAds();// ↓only necessary on auto‑play video pages googletag.pubads().disableInitialLoad(); googletag.enableServices(); }); </script>
While the <body>
code might look like this:
<div id='div1' style='width:300px; min-height:250px;'>
<script type='text/javascript'>
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('ad-div-1'); });
</script>
</div>
<div id='div2' style='width:160px; min-height:600px;'>
<script type='text/javascript'>
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('ad-div-2'); });
</script>
</div>
<div id='div3' style='width:728px; min-height:90px;'>
<script type='text/javascript'>
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('ad-div-3'); });
</script>
</div>
min-height
property is preferred over the use of the height
property to reserve the minimum space on the page for the ad slot, while still allowing for a larger ad to serve.
