Documentation - Tutorials and Best Practices

Ad Validation3 min read

Google's Ads HTML5 Validator Deprecated — If you're a user of Google Ads HTML5 Validator, you may have to find an alternative soon. For many years, Google's ad validator has been used by Ad Ops to check the quality assurance of HTML5 creatives. At the time of writing (April 2022), "deprecation of the HTML5 Validator has been postponed pending further evaluation". Google may however pull the plug any moment soon. What are the alternatives? Fortunately, Google's HTML5 ad validator is not the only one around. Here are 3 alternatives to validate HTML5 creatives for Google Ads. AdValify.ioIt measures ad load speed, the number of HTTP requests, initial load and subload, JavaScript errors and things like CSS/JS minification. You can customize the ad

Ad Validation4 min read

Ad Validation vs Ad Verification - What's the difference? — Ad validation and ad verification are related but distinct processes used to ensure the accuracy and quality of online advertising campaigns. This article is written for ad ops professionals and HTML5 designers. I'll explain the differences and show you how to validate ads using an online tool. What is Ad Validation? Ad validation refers to the process of evaluating the technical specifications of an ad to ensure that it meets the requirements set by the ad server or platform on which it will be served. It usually involves checking the file format, file size, ad dimensions and other technical characteristics to make sure that it is compatible with the publisher's ad server and will display correctly for the intended audience. How to validate ads manually? Here are the steps you can follow to validate ads manually: File size. Verify that the file size of the ad meets the requirements of the the publisher.

Ad Validation46 min read

Ad Validation Checklist (50+ data points) — Host-initiated subload, document.write(), CPU usage... Are you working in ad ops and have to validate ads regularly? Use this checklist to tick off ad validation tests you've performed on a creative. List for Ad Tags and HTML5 AdsData pointDescription check Load Siz

Ad Validation9 min read

Test-a-tag.com Alternative — You've tried Test-a-tag.com but it doesn't meet your needs. You're not alone. Perhaps you're looking for a better, simpler and more extensive alternative to Test-a-tag.com. Test-a-tag.com lets you preview ad tags easily. While it's a great free service, it doesn't perform ad validation checks on the ads. Think about Initial load, CPU/RAM usage, third party cookies, SSL issues and so on. Below I'm showing you a great alternative to Test-a-tag.com that will help you to create a quality assurance report for ad tags, HTML5 creatives, VAST and video. AdValify.io is an alternative to Test-a-tag.com AdValify.io is an alternative to Test-a-tag.com. It doesn't only preview the creative, but it also peforms QA tests on the ad. It

Ad Validation9 min read

Advalidation.com Alternative — You've tried Advalidation.com but it doesn't meet your needs. You're not alone. Perhaps you're looking for a better, simpler and more affordable alternative to Advalidation. Advalidation.com was one of the first ad validation tools available to validate Adobe Flash ads against a couple of data points. Think about CPU peak levels and Flash cookies. We're in 2024 now with more alternatives to choose from. Below I'm showing you 3 alternatives to Advalidation that will help you to create a quality assurance report for ad tags, HTML5 creatives, VAST and video. What are the alternatives? #1 AdValify.ioIt measures ad load speed, the number of HTTP requests, initial lo

Ad Validation22 min read

Ad validation dictionary and glossary — Host-initiated subload, document.write(), CPU usage... What kind of things do you check when validating ads? Here's a list of commonly used data points in ad validation. Ad validation checks for Ad Tags and HTML5 AdsData pointDescriptionScanner Load Size: Total The total load size of all network responses after loading the creative. document_scannerLaunch Scanner Load Size: Initial The total load size of all network responses before the DOMContentLoaded event.

HTML5 & Ad Tags2 min read

Creative borders — Most publishers require ads to have clear contrasting borders. It's typically a black 1px wide line around all 4 edges. In this article I'll explain why such a border is required and how you can detect it automatically. Why do creatives have high contrasting borders? These are the main reasons: To distinguish. Ads with a black border will help to clearly distinguish the ad from the rest of the content, making it easier for the user to identify the content as an ad. Hierachy. Natually, people are hard-wired to be attracted to something that stands out. A black border does exactly that job. It helps to understand that it's a separate entity, and thus something to click on if considerd useful. To prevent blending. If an ad with a white background doesn't have a border, the ad's content may blend in with the main content on the page. This has undesirable effects if the user clicks on elements on the ad with the intent

HTML5 & Ad Tags4 min read

Memory/RAM usage — Heavy ads can be a real pain for publishers. High RAM usage of third-party ads can slow down your page, especially on mobile phones where RAM is often limited. Nested iframes, each having their own DOM, are usually the cause for a high memory footprint. Ad verification vendors and other forth-parties are all add their own logic which consumes memory. So how can you detect the amount of RAM used by a single ad? You can load the tag on a test page, and use Chrome Dev Tools to measure the RAM usage. It's a time-consuming task and not scalable if you have thousands of ads to check. Let's use an API to detect RAM usage Wouldn't it be great to automate the whole process? Use the APIs from AdValify.io to automatically scan ad tags and measure memory usage. Here's how to do that using PHP. First, download this PHP cl

HTML5 & Ad Tags3 min read

CPU usage — As a publisher, you want to be sure ads don't consume too much CPU resources. Especially on mobile devices, ads using too many resources may drain batteries quickly. HTML5 ads usually come with animations. The IAB recommends to use CSS transitions for animations, instead of CPU hungry JavaScript code. As a publisher, it's important to measure how much CPU an ad uses before it goes live. After all, an impeccable user experience is of interest for both publishers and advertisers. Chrome just does't like Heavy Ads Since a few years, Chrome may automatically unload ads that use too many device resources, like CPU and memory. This intervention is part of Google's war against ad blockers by improving the user experience in Chrome.

HTML5 & Ad Tags3 min read

Third party cookies — As a publisher, you want to be in control over the cookies dropped on your web pages. Privacy laws and high fines non-compliance makes it imperative to check ads for third-party cookie dropping. But how do you detect the ads that drop cookies? In this tutorial I'll explain how to check ads for cookie dropping using an automated and programmatic method. Small publishers can run the ad on a test page and manually check in Chrome Dev Tools which cookies have been dropped. Although this works fine, it's obviously not scalable when you have thousands of ads to check. Let's use an API to detect cookie dropping Wouldn't it be great to automate the whole process? Use the APIs from AdValify.io to automatically detect third-party cookies dropping of ads. Here's how to do that using PHP. First, download this PHP class f

HTML5 & Ad Tags3 min read

Network requests — As a publisher, you want to be sure ads on your web page load fast and secure. Although the ad tag usually consists of only a small piece of code, it may load many assets from multiple servers. Think about shared libraries, pixels and ad validation codes. How are you going to measure all of that? Forget 3rd parties. It's all about 4th parties. Back in time, a publisher used to run ads through their own ad server, and that was it. Today's ads are commonly trafficked through multiple 4th parties: ad networks, DSPs, SSPs, ad validation vendors, etc. Each of them add their own functions and algorithms, leading to code bloat before you know it. The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) recommends ads to make no more than 15 HTTP requests. You can find this information

Video & VAST5 min read

The MP4 MOOV atom — The position of the MOOV atom in an MP4 file is important when serving video ad content. Placing the MOOV atom at the correct position will allow video ads to start more efficiently. In this article, written for ad ops professionals and ad server vendors, you'll learn all about it. What is the MOOV atom? The MOOV atom (movie atom) is an important component of the MP4 video format and contains information about the file structure, the video duration and the exact location of the media stream. The MP4 container contains many data structures, each with their own function. Important ones are ftype, mdat and moov which I'll briefly discuss here. ftype: a data structure containing information about the file type mvhd: an atom contains information about the v

Video & VAST3 min read

VAST Video Ads and the CORS header — Are you performing Quality Assurance checks on VAST creatives? One of the first things we want to check is the presence of the CORS header (access-control-allow-origin). Learn why CORS should be on #1 of your QA checklist. What is this all about? Web video players make an ad request to the ad server using the JavaScript XMLHttpRequest (XHR). Browsers apply a security restriction called same-origin to these XHR requests, meaning that publisher.com cannot retrieve data served from advertiser.com. This is exactly the setup we see with VAST video ads. The security restriction on XHR requests is meant to avoid issues with people being logged in on a different website that is displayed in the browser bar. In theory, someone could steal account information if the same-origin policy was not applied. What if the CORS header is missing? If this HTTP header is not added to the response, a VAST-compliant video player wil

Video & VAST4 min read

H.264 vs H.265 — VAST Video ads are generally encoded in an MP4 container to facilitate browser support across devices. Inside this container, H.264 has been the industry standard for many years to compress video data. Since 2013, a newer standard called H.265 or High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) is on the rise, offering higher compression rates and lower file sizes. Should we all use the newer H.265 standard for VAST video ads? Are you a publisher serving pre-roll video ads from your advertisers? Read on to learn why a QA check on VAST tags is indispensable to make sure the video plays correctly on all devices (and to increase your revenue). How can I check if a VAST video is encoded in H.264? You have two options here: Open the VAST tag, download the MP4 video to your computer and open it in

Video & VAST4 min read

Video Ad Dimensions & Ratio — The dimensions of a video refer to the width and height in pixels of the video container. Together, they are an importact factor with regard to the quality and aspect ratio of the video ad. Common Aspect Ratios The video dimensions and aspect ratio used for an ad varies depending on the target audience and platform on which the ad is shown. Some common aspect ratios that are used in video ads today are: 16:9. An aspect ratio used throughout the industry for widescreen video. It has a width of 16 units and a height of 9 units. Common video dimensions that are used in video ads are 1920x1080, 1280x720 and 854x480. 1:1. A square aspect ratio commonly used in social media videos. Both the width and height are equal in size. Common video dimensions that are used in video ads are 1080x1080, 720x720 and 480x480. 9:16. A vertical aspect ratio used for mobile video ads. It's the reverse of the standard widescr

Video & VAST3 min read

Video Ad Duration — The duration of a video ad may vary based on the specific requirements set by the publisher and the targeted audience. There are no strict guidelines for the duration of a video ad, though the industry naturally came up with video lengths that are commonly used today for a variety of reasons. Here are the 4 common durations for video ads in 2024: 6 seconds. These video ads are intentionally short, and are typically used for messages that quickly grab the attention of the user. This type of ad is commonly used a pre-roll or bumper ad before the main content starts playing, or is played directly when the main content ends. 15 seconds. Being somewhat longer than the 6-second ads, these type of video ads are commonly used for more complex messages that take more time to transmit. They may be used as standalone ads or be part of a full campaign with longer ad durations and companions. 30 seconds. This seems to be

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