Important VAST Tag Changes for GAM and JWP Support for Publisher Provided Signals

Blog 2 min read | Mar 27, 2024 | Francesco Montesanto

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As the only Google Certified Publishing Partner with a Video Specialist certification, JWP is committed to helping publishers navigate upcoming policy changes and monetization opportunities.

Policy changes for accurate inventory description

Starting April 1, 2024, Google will require publishers to update their VAST tags with two additional parameters when requesting video ads from AdX: the player’s placement and audibility type.

Placement

The placement parameter accepts a constant value, indicating whether the in-stream inventory is declared as in-stream or accompanying content per the guidance in the updated IAB specifications.

  • Usage Example
    • In-stream request: plcmt=1
    • Accompanying content request: plcmt=2

Audibility

The muted video parameter accepts a constant value, which indicates whether the ad playback starts while the video player is muted or unmuted.

Please note that JWP already sets the correct value for VPMUTE in all existing GAM VAST tags through the IMA SDK.

  • Usage Example
    • Muted: vpmute=1
    • Unmuted: vpmute=0

Example

A properly formatted VAST tag, using the IMA SDK, where JW Player is embedded as a muted autostart on-view placement between two paragraphs, should look like this:

https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ads?iu=/123/preroll&description_url=__page-url__&tfcd=0&npa=0&sz=640×480&gdfp_req=1&output=vast&env=vp&unviewed_position_start=1&impl=s&correlator=&vpmute=1&plcmt=2

Support for Publisher Provided Signals

Last year, Google enabled publishers to scale their first-party audience and contextual data to improve programmatic monetization. These signals are sent in the &ppsj VAST ad tag parameter for video ads.

JWP now has out-of-the-box support for Google’s PPS initiative, using an AI engine to analyze uploaded content videos on its platform. The extracted data segments for IAB content taxonomy can be automatically included in the ad request to GAM via the IMA SDK.

Contact your local account representative to opt-in for Google Publisher Provided Signals. This feature is free for enterprise customers.