Standard video ad rules

Only available in Google Ad Manager 360.

Standard video ad rules allow you to set when and how videos appear within a single video stream. For example, you may want to show two 60-second ad breaks during an episode of a TV show, appearing at specific cue points.

Session ad rules allow you to set when and how pre-rolls appear with multiple video streams.

Create a standard video ad rule

1. Sign in to Google Ad Manager.

2. Click Video, then Ad rules, then New ad rule.

3. Enter a name, select Standard as the type, and select a priority.

4. Configure your rule based on the standard ad rule options.

5. Define date settings and optionally choose to delay applying the rule or set a limit on the number of days it will apply based on the publish date.

6. Configure targeting to apply this rule to particular ad requests. Ad rules without specific targeting apply to all ad requests, in order of priority.

7. Click Save.

Both standard and session rules can't apply to the same request. If rules of both types are eligible, the higher priority rule applies. This might be helpful in situations where you only want to show ads every few videos, but also want to ensure that a video with a sponsorship always shows an ad.

Standard ad rule options

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Enable or disable video pre-rolls, mid-rolls, or post-rolls

Enable	Enables the ad break type and allows you to configure ad display.
Disable	Deactivates the ad break type.
Defer	Defers to lower priority rules. For example, if you select "Defer" for pre-rolls, and a lower priority ad rule has "Disable" chosen, then pre-rolls never show.

Set mid-roll display frequency

Click Video, then Content, then select the video and ensure the "Duration" and "Mid-roll cue points" were ingested correctly.

When you set "Video mid-rolls" to "Enabled", you can see the following options which allow you to set the display frequency:

At fixed times	Displays ad pods at the second values you set. For example, you can enter 60,120,180 to show ads at the 60, 120, and 180 second marks.
Every N seconds	Displays ad pods at the second value interval you set. For example, enter 60 to show ads every 60 seconds.
At fixed cue points	Displays ad pods at the cue point values you set, matching predefined cue points in ingested videos. For example, enter 1,4 to show ads at the first and fourth cue points. You can optionally specify settings for each mid-roll to set configurations for every cue point.
Every N cue points	Displays ad pods at cue point intervals you set, which match the cue points in ingested videos. For example, enter 3 to show ads at every third cue point.

Time values must be entered in whole numbers only, without decimals. Minutes are based on clock time; pausing a stream does not stop the clock.

Last mid-roll settings ^(Beta) 

You can select Specify settings for the last mid-roll if you want the ad break that becomes the last mid-roll to have separate settings from the other mid-rolls.*

* This is a beta feature and is not yet supported in forecasting.

Configure ad pods and break templates

Enable video pre-rolls, mid- rolls and post-rolls to set up ad pods and break templates.

Pod type	Ad pods are groups of ads shown in sequence. Standard pods allow you to specify the maximum number of ads and the maximum duration for each ad. Optimized pods allow you to additionally specify the maximum pod duration.
Max ads	The limit on the number of ads that can be shown in a pod. The "No max" option is only available for optimized pods.
Max ad duration	The duration limit for each ad in the pod. If no ads of the specified duration are available to fill a required ad slot, that slot is not filled.
Max pod duration	The duration limit for the entire pod, which is the duration sum of all of the ads that can serve in the pod. This option is only available for optimized pods.
Pre-roll break template	For optimized pods, define how ads should serve with ad spots. You can configure a maximum of 10 ad spots per break template.

When you choose optimized pods, you configure one or more ad spots, which have a set duration, allow you to only serve to specific line item types, and optionally block backfill and inventory sharing.

Set frequency caps

Enable	Enables you to specify frequency caps for pods, streams, or both.
Disable	Deactivates all frequency caps for the ad rule.
Defer	Defers to lower priority ad rules. For example, if you select "Defer" for frequency caps, and choose "Enable" for a lower priority ad rule, then the settings for that ad rule apply.

Explore overlap in video ad rules

You can use the "Explore overlap" feature to understand how and when multiple video ad rules configured in your network apply at the same time. Rules overlap when their targeting settings define overlapping segments of inventory.

Example

• Rule A targets "Tablet" device category
• Rule B targets "Canada"

Rule A and Rule B overlap when an ad request comes from Canada, viewing on a tablet.

To explore overlap:

1. Sign in to Google Ad Manager.
2. Click Video, then Ad rules.
3. Either choose the rule you'd like to compare against other rules that might contain the same inventory, or click New ad rule to initiate a new rule. 
4. Ensure that you've defined the rule setting and that the targeting options are selected.

5. Locate "Explore overlapping video ad rules and view the merged result" and click Explore overlap.

   

   The panel that opens displays:

   • A table of any other existing ad rules with overlapping inventory, including a priority and an overlapping percentage
   • The merged result showing overlapping ad rule settings, or those that apply to all of the rules you've selected

   

6. You can select any or all overlapping rules below to update the merged overlap, or hover over targeting  to see the targeting defined for each overlapping rule.

Note: The overlap tool only shows other overlap for rules of the same type. For instance, if the background rule is a standard ad rule, the overlap tool only shows other standard ad rules.

Learn more about the merge behavior

When you select overlapping rules, the settings from all selected rules and the background rule are merged.

For standard as rules, the merge behavior is:

1. The rule with the highest priority is chosen first (a lower number means a higher priority).
2. All of the settings from that rule are compared, except when "Defer" is set on that position type.
3. All of the next highest priority ad rule are compared.

This process is repeated until "Defer" is not set on the position type.

For session ad rules, the highest priority ad rule's settings are chosen. No merging applies.

 

The overlap status is based on Ad Manager forecasting, which is derived from sampled historical data. You can use a historical report to view all data that applies to an inventory segment.