Set up roadblocks

Create a roadblock

Any line item with creatives can be made a roadblock line item with the Display creatives setting. If the order in which creatives appear is not important, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to Google Ad Manager.
2. Navigate to the "Adjust delivery" section in the Settings tab of a new or existing line item.
3. For the Display creatives setting, choose As many as possible or All.
4. Click Save.

If the order of the creatives is important, define a master/companion creative set.

Roadblock creative display settings

All

All delivers the line item only when there is available space to display all of the line item's creatives together on the page.

Guaranteed roadblocks need to be enabled for each network by an administrator:

1. In Ad Manager, click Admin Global settings Features.
2. Click to enable or disable Guaranteed roadblocks (GPT SRA only).

As many as possible

As many as possible delivers as many of the line item's creatives together as possible, but makes no guarantee that more than one creative will be served to a page.

If a lower priority line item set to As many as possible wins in the first slot, it effectively forces all other slots to be "blocked" even if there are higher priority line items which could be eligible to serve in the remaining slots. In the troubleshooting tab for the line items that lost to another line item with AMAP active, it show that the higher priority line items were rejected due to "roadblocking".

Example

If your page has only one ad slot, it is possible that only one creative from the line item is displayed by itself.

Ad Exchange line items do not compete against line items with "As many as possible" delivery. However, when many line items compete for one ad slot, it is possible for a line item with the "As many as possible" delivery setting to have been discarded before Ad Exchange entered the ad selection process.

Tagging considerations

While any Google Publisher Tag mode and tag type is compatible with roadblock line items, here are some tips to ensure your tags are set up for optimal roadblock performance.

Understand sequential ad request processing

The ad server always processes ad requests from a webpage or mobile app sequentially, in the order in which the requests are received. Even with single request architecture (SRA), the sequence for ad request processing is defined by the order of the googletag.defineSlot() functions in your tagging code.

One of the roadblock creatives must fill the first ad slot that matches the line item targeting. If a previously-defined ad slot matches the line item targeting, but another higher-priority line item serves, the entire roadblock will not be delivered.

Asynchronous rendering does not affect roadblock delivery

While these rendering styles can affect how creatives are displayed, they do not affect which line items are selected by the ad server.

Single request architecture (SRA) is required for guaranteed roadblocks

SRA informs the ad server of all ad slots at the initial request. This way, Ad Manager can ensure that an entire roadblock is returned if you selected the "All" option for the "Display creatives" line item setting.

If SRA is not implemented in your tags, line items with this setting are treated as if they were set to deliver "As many as possible" and are not guaranteed.

Multiple ad slots of the same size require their own creative

Each creative in a line item can only serve once on a page, so a separate creative needs to be uploaded in Ad Manager for each roadblock ad slot.

Example

If your page has two 300x250 ad slots, you need to upload two 300x250 creatives. A single 300x250 creative cannot serve to both ad slots.

Companions earn priority over other line items

Once a roadblock line item delivers to an ad slot, the remaining roadblock creatives are given priority over other line items, even those with a higher priority value than the roadblock line item, for all subsequent matching ad slots on the page.

Impression counting for roadblocks

For roadblock line items, you need to book impressions for each creative in the line item separately as an impression will be counted each time a creative serves to a page's ad slot.

Example

If your line item has 3 creatives, does not use a master/companion creative set, and you want to serve the line item 1,000 times, enter 3,000 impressions as the line item quantity. Ad Manager counts three impressions each time the roadblock delivers.

If your line item with 3 creatives does uses a master/companion creative set, enter a line item quantity of 1,000 impressions. The master creative impression is only counted as a single impression toward the impression goal.

For roadblocks with the "As many as possible" setting, the number of impressions can vary each time the line item delivers, depending on the number of creatives that serve together.