Create a content source for video on demand

For Ad Manager to serve video on demand (VOD) content with ads, it needs to ingest the video content itself for Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI).

Tip: Complete these requirements before you create a content source for VOD.

1. Transcode your video content to HLS
2. Publish an MRSS feed with your DAI VOD content
3. Create an ad tag for DAI

Create a content source

1. Sign in to Google Ad Manager.
2. Click Video, then Content sources, then New content source.
3. Complete the following:
   • Name: The source name you choose here is for display only.
   • Type: Ad Manager currently supports MRSS and Brightcove feed types for DAI sources. Note that Brightcove feeds support HLS only. 
4. Enter the URL of a paginated feed that contains all of your videos, with no more than 100 videos per page. The DAI MRSS feed specification is identical to the traditional Video Solutions MRSS specification, but there are some additional fields for DAI. You can see sample feeds for DAI.

5. For MRSS content sources, you can optionally select User URL authentication and enter the username and password.

6. Select your sync rule, which determines how often Ad Manager performs a sync with your content source:
   • Automatic: Refresh the newest content in the feed every few minutes for content that has a <lastModifiedDate> later than the time of the previous new content sync.
   • Manual: Refresh only when "Sync" is clicked from your content sources. Learn more about content syncing.

7. Activate Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI). Once activated, additional fields appear.

   • Enter the master ad tag. Learn how to create an ad tag for DAI.
   • Choose whether or not to activate Server-side tracking (also known as Server-Side Beaconing, or SSB) on your streams. If you plan to serve mid-roll ads, then you cannot activate SSB. Learn more about support and limitations for Server-Side Beaconing versus the IMA SDK.
   • Choose whether Subtitles are required for content from this source. If required, the VOD media won't be ingested if there's an error ingesting the subtitles or subtitles are missing.
   • If you intend to serve mid-rolls ads in your video content, activate HLS mid-roll conditioning. Mid-rolls can only be served in video players that use the IMA SDK.
   • Activate DAI authentication keys as a security measure to authenticate stream requests. Use the keys alone or with your external CDN authentication.

   •  Configure Video on demand content configurations (optional).

     Supported for HLS only.

   • Activate Ingest error notifications to receive email notifications.
   • Activate Allowed IP access for specific IP addresses to access this content source, regardless of blocked geographic regions.

   • Activate Relative playlist delivery (associated to the delivery prefix in your CDN configuration).

     Supported for HLS only.

   • Activate Offline mode to download content with ads and to watch it offline.
8. Click Save.

Double-check the URL and Dynamic ad insertion settings before saving
Once you save, you cannot modify a content source's URL or activate/deactivate Dynamic ad insertion. If you save a content source containing errors, you need to set up a new content source to make corrections.

Receive video content ingestion alerts

If Ad Manager encounters an issue while ingesting content from the defined MRSS feed URL, an email is sent to any active user with the "Receive ingestion error notifications for video content with dynamic ad insertion" user role permission.

For any issues related to DAI troubleshooting or outages, contact publisher support.