Native video in Ad Manager

Native ads match both the form and function of the user experience in which they’re placed. They mirror the visual design of the experience they live within, and look, feel, and behave like natural content on the publisher property in which they’re displayed.

Learn more about how native ads work in Ad Manager.

In addition to native display ads, Ad Manager allows you to create rich video experiences across platforms with native video, via video app install ads, video content ads, or custom formats. You can run either video or display formats within a single native ad slot. Native video ads support both app and web placements, all of reservations, direct deals, and indirect programmatic support.

• VPAID video is not compatible with native video.
• Creative preview does not currently support native video.
• Custom native video ads aren't supported for Programmatic Direct. See the available features for Programmatic Direct.

Ad behavior and requirements for native video

Native video ads for Ad Manager allow you full native styling options, including fluid sizing for desktop, mobile web, and mobile app requests.

Currently, only banner or in-feed placements are available, not interstitials. Ad Manager or third-party VAST video is allowed, and displays with the following behavior:

Video playback

The video automatically plays where not restricted by the browser. In instances where the browser does not allow autoplay, the poster image is shown, and requires users to click to play the video. Some browsers may also behave differently when a video playing is out of the user view (for instance, when switching to another tab). This may result in minor Active View and video completion discrepancies. The video automatically pauses when more than 50% out of view and resumes when 50% in view. However, video playback is not explicitly paused if a new tab is opened while the video is playing. In those instances, video playback behavior may vary across browsers. Programmatic native video ads are only eligible to serve to users with a wifi connection. For non-programmatic, all traffic is video-eligible.

Sound

Autoplay begins with sound off User must click for sound

 

The following technical details apply to native video ads. Support for additional features and advanced customization options will be available in future releases.

	Current support
Rendering	Native styles or custom rendering for mobile app
Video hosting	Ad Manager or third-party
Video asset max size	512 MB*
Impression tracking	Native video ad impressions are counted after the player begins playing the ad, to align with industry standards for video. For mobile app custom rendering of custom native templates, your app must call the recordImpression method.
Players used	Android: EXO player iOS: Google video player Web: HTML5 player wrapped in webview
Required SDK (for mobile app)	Native styles Android Google Mobile Ads SDK 9.0 or higher iOS 7.16.0 or higher Custom rendering Android Google Mobile Ads SDK 10.2 or higher iOS 7.16.0 or higher

^{* Networks without an Ad Manager 360 account are allowed up to 30 MB hosted video.}

Request native video via the SDK

Native video ads for in-app can be called using standard display banner ad code.

You are required to use the MediaView asset instead of the ImageView asset if you want to include a main image asset in the layout for your native ad. Learn more about implementation and available customizations in the developer guide.