Ad Tags Overview

The Zype platform supports advertising as a way to monetize your video content. In order to monetize your videos with ads, you need to add and configure a valid tag within your Zype account. Below we've provided a brief ad tag overview, the types of tags that Zype can support in our web embeds, mobile devices and OTT apps, and how to add and configure an ad tag.

What is an Ad Tag?

An ad tag is a piece of code that is placed on a publisher's web page that calls an ad server for the purposes of displaying an advertisement.

Types of Ad Tags

Zype supports the following types of ad tags. Click on each one to learn more about ad tags. Please see the detailed support matrix below to see which ad protocols are supported in each of Zype's templated endpoints.

- VAST tags

- VPAID tags

- VMAP tags

- Google IMA

Ad Tag Standards & Specifications

For more info on VAST, VPAID, and VMAP ad tags, you can view IAB's guidelines here.

Other important support notes:

• For Google DFP, at present Zype supports VAST 2.0 ad tags that don't include pre-configured ad timings wrapped around an ad tag. You can utilize the Zype platform to configure ad timings at the video level.
• At present Zype does not support VPAID ad tags in Safari and older versions of Internet Explorer.
• Zype strongly suggests implementing an https ad tag. When acquiring a tag from your ad network, please be sure to specify you need an https tag, which will ensure a smooth implementation of the ad tag with Zype.
• Zype strongly suggests using non-Flash creatives within your ad tags. Flash creatives are not compatible with Zype's HTML5 web player and support may become deprecated by native players within other OTT apps in the near future.

Ad Timings

For full detail on what ad timings are, see our Ad Timings article.

In a nutshell, ads are displayed based on the ad timings that are set on a per-video basis in Zype. Each video has a pre-roll ad timing configured by default upon import/upload, meaning that ads are set to appear before the video plays. You can choose to add in mid-roll timings, which will interrupt your video to play an ad. These are particularly useful if your content already has ad breaks built in. Lastly, you can configure post-roll timings for 1 second after your content ends, which will call an ad at the end of video playback.

An ad pod is a group or "pod" of ads that is served in response to a single ad call, returned as a pre-roll, mid-roll, or post-roll ad. Ad pods are set on the server side, and configured within the ad tag itself and are only configurable in VAST 3.0 tags. For example, if you'd like a mid-roll ad break to play three consecutive ads, versus just one single ad, you can implement an ad pod tag and set your ad timing to include a mid-roll call. Not all ad pod tags will render on all devices, so check out the matrix in our Ad Pods article to best plan around your advertising needs.

Ad Tag Support by Device, Ad Timing, and Tag Protocol

Before adding and configuring an ad tag, please reference the below advertising support matrix that outlines what Zype supports per tag type for Web Player (desktop and mobile browsers).

Configuring an Ad Tag in Zype

Zype does not create or supply ad tags. To configure ads, you must first obtain an ad tag from an ad network. An ad being served to your videos is dependent on the inventory of your ad servers at the time of the request.

Additionally, you'll need to configure ad timings in order to properly leverage ad tags. Learn how to configure exact time placement of ads on a per video basis through Ad Timings.

When you are ready to create and configure an ad tag for your Zype devices and apps, follow the instructions below.

1. Select Ads on the Zype navigation menu.

2. Once on the Ads page, select New Ad Tag to configure settings for your new ad tag.

3. Name - Enter a name for the ad tag. The name will be used in reporting and analytics details.

4. Target - By default, the tag targets all devices, though you may limit this by device category and type. If you choose to change the target, you will have to select the category or device from the list.

• For example, to enable advertising for only your Amazon Fire TV app, target the ad tag to be “By Device” and then use the dropdown to choose the specific device: “FireTV”
• To enable advertising for all your devices, target the ad tag to be “All Devices”
• To enable advertising for only your set top apps (i.e. Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, etc, but not for web and mobile), target the ad tag to be “By Device Category” and then use the dropdown to choose: “OTT”
• To enable advertising per video category, target the ad tag to be "By Video Category". This will enable the category selection menu, and it'll allow you to select the video categories you want this particular tag to target. In this way, when a video is added to that category value, the ad tag will be triggered at the ad timings automatically. 

5. VMAP - If your VAST ad tag contains a VMAP scheduling template, toggle the VMAP button to turn it ON. VMAP tags ignore video ad timings. Note: VMAP is only supported in Zype's web player.

6. Active - The ad tag is turned on by default. To make it inactive, toggle the Active button to turn it OFF. This means that you will need to turn it on later to allow it to serve ads on your apps and/or devices.

7. Companion - If your ad tag includes Companion Ads, toggle the Companion button to turn it ON. Note: This must be turned on for companion ads to be exposed to the page. Companion ads do not currently work with IMA or SpotX tags

8. Ad Tag URL - Enter the URL for the VAST ad tag provided by your ad network. Note: You must confirm this tag is an https ad tag before implementing.

9. Macros and Parameters - If your ad server or ad exchange requires ad macro values, you can use Zype's supported ad macros to customize your ad tag so that these values are dynamically updated and sent back to your ad server or exchange every time an ad is requested from your video player or endpoint apps. Learn how to use the Zype-supported ad macros.

10. Select Save Settings.