Set up display creatives

Create a display creative

To get started, create your display creative in Campaign Manager 360 and upload assets. Follow the steps below to upload one creative. If you need to upload several creatives, save time with a batch upload.

1. Open your campaign, or the Creatives tab of your advertiser.

2. Click New, then Display.

3. Give your creative a Name.

4. In the Creative assets section, choose the dimensions of your creative. 

   • For high-density image assets, check that the dimensions matches the size of your placement.

   • If you're using an HTML5 asset, add any additional information you need.

5. Click Add asset, then select the creative's primary asset from your computer.

   What assets do I need?

   • Primary asset: Display creatives support image and HTML5 as the primary assets.

   • Polite load file to use with HTML5: Add an image file under 40 KB. This image appears if there is a delay loading the page or primary asset, such as in the case of a slow internet connection.

   • (Optional) Backup image to use with HTML5: Add a backup image in case HTML5 isn't supported on a user's browser.

   Learn more about the asset guidelines for display creatives.

6. For HTML5 assets, check your landing pages and click tags. 

   • (Optional) Add a backup image in the Creative assets section.

7. (Optional) Set Creative fields to add a reporting label for your creative. 

8. Click Save. 

Identification details

View the "Identification" section of your creative properties. Here you can name your creative and check the type, compatibility, version, and status.

Creative name: The name used in Campaign Manager 360 and in reports. Leave this field blank to use the file name of the asset.

Type: The type will always be display.

Compatibility: Compatibility tells you what kind of environment is required for your creative. Display creatives have a display compatibility, meaning they can render on a webpage or in an app.

SSL: SSL is a way to keep content secure over the internet. Secure sites (URL starts with https) use SSL. Make sure your creative is compliant if you plan to serve it to secure sites. That means it will work on both secure and non-secure sites. A compliant creative does not use any non-secure URLs (http). If you set a placement to require SSL compliance, Campaign Manager 360 will only let you assign compliant creatives. Note: Landing pages don't affect SSL. They can start with http. Learn more.

Status: The status of your creative.

Dimensions

View dimensions under "Creative assets."

1. If you add a regular image asset, the dimensions should match the asset. 

2. If you add a high-density image asset, the dimensions of the creative must match the aspect ratio of the image asset. The creative dimensions should match the dimensions of any assigned placements. For example, you can use a 600 x 500 asset in a 300 x 250 creative assigned to a 300 x 250 placement. 

3. If you add a single-size HTML5 asset, set the dimensions manually. The assets of your polite load should match the dimensions of the parent HTML5 asset. 

   • (Optional) If you add a backup image, its assets should also match the dimensions of the parent HTML5 asset.

4. If you add a responsive or multi-size HTML5 asset, make sure all of the supported dimensions of the creative match all of the dimensions supported by the asset. 

   • (Optional) Add one backup image per dimension supported by the parent HTML5 asset.

HTML5 asset details

Generated HTML5 version: If you have an older Flash creative with an auto-generated HTML5 version, its name and file size will appear here.

Feature dependencies: Feature dependencies are features that Campaign Manager 360 has determined a browser must be able to support in order to render your HTML5 asset correctly. If Campaign Manager 360 detects that a browser does not support the required HTML5 features, nothing will be displayed unless you have added a backup image.

You can revise your list of feature dependencies if needed, but only for HTML5 assets you upload yourself. You cannot add or remove feature dependencies for auto-generated HTML5 versions of your Flash creative.

How to add or remove feature dependencies

Remember that you can revise your list of feature dependencies if needed, but only for HTML5 assets you upload yourself. You cannot add or remove feature dependencies for auto-generated HTML5 files.

• To add features, click Add features. Select the features you wish to add and click Apply.

• To remove features, click the x next to each feature you wish to remove.

• To clear all the features in your list, click Clear. Note that with 0 feature dependencies, your HTML5 asset will always be delivered.

• To revert to the list Campaign Manager 360 detected, click Restore detected.

Make sure your list includes all the features that your browser actually needs to display your creative correctly. If you remove a feature, Campaign Manager 360 won't confirm that a browser can support it before delivering the HTML5 asset.

When should I remove feature dependencies?

Remove feature dependencies if they aren't required. Campaign Manager 360 may detect a feature that isn't actually necessary for your creative to render properly on a browser. Here are two common cases:

1. If an HTML5 asset is simple and doesn't require any special features, you may need 0 feature dependencies. For example, a creative that only uses an image tag shouldn't have any feature dependencies, because any browser can handle a standard image tag.

2. Some HTML5 assets are set up to handle browser issues on their own. They check whether the browser can support their features and then make adjustments if needed: it may use render with simpler features, or use an image that was included in your .zip (or .adz) file.

   In this case, you don't need Campaign Manager 360 to check whether a browser can handle every feature detected in the creative. Remove feature dependencies from your list if you want to let the creative decide how to handle them.

Check with your developer to make sure your creative doesn't have feature dependencies. Otherwise, the user may see browser errors or oddly formatted media. Using the list Campaign Manager 360 detects may be your best option if you're not sure which features are absolutely necessary.

Serving logic

Campaign Manager 360 serves your HTML5 asset whenever possible. If HTML5 is unsupported, nothing serves unless you have added a backup image.

Font files: File types supported for fonts are ttf, eot, woff, woff2. Campaign Manager 360 only parses ttf fonts to extract the font family, foundry, style, and weight. Note that there is no rights protection. 

Landing pages for HTML5 assets

Display creatives use click tags to define landing pages for HTML5 assets. You can use the landing pages at the creative level or override them with landing pages at the ad level.

• Creative-level: Campaign Manager 360 automatically detects click tags when you upload your assets. You can edit these landing pages if needed. Display creatives allow reporting labels on click tags, so if you choose this option, your reports can break clicks down by exit event. Leave the ad-level landing page blank if you want to use the landing pages in your creative properties.

• Ad-level: You can set click tag landing pages at the ad level. When your ad serves, it will use these landing pages instead of the ones in your creative properties. Your reports will not use click tag reporting labels.

Steps to use ad-level landing pages

How to: Once you assign your creatives to ads, you can set landing pages at the ad level, in the ad properties. Look under "Landing page" in the "Creative assignments" section of your ad properties. Click the link to Set landing pages per exit. Pick from a list of campaign landing pages or set a custom landing page, click Done, and save your properties.

Outcome: When your ad delivers the creative, clicks will direct the browser to the ad-level landing pages, set in the ad properties. Every click tag will use the same ad-level landing page. This way, you can set a different landing page for each ad that has your display creative.

However, Campaign Manager 360 will not report on which exit receives a click, because ad-level landing pages do not have reporting labels.

Steps to use the creative-level landing pages

How to:

1. Set the landing page in the "Click tags" section of your creative properties. You can pick from a list of advertiser landing pages or set a custom landing page. You can also add reporting labels in this section.

2. Once you assign your creative to an ad, check the ad's "Creative assignments" section, in the "Landing page" column. Follow the link to Set landing pages per exit. Remove all the landing pages in this section or select Use creative default. Otherwise, the ad-level landing page will override your click tags.

Outcome: When your ad delivers the creative, clicks will direct to the landing page set in the "Click tags" section of your creative properties. Your reports will break down clicks by click tag reporting label, so you will be able to see which exit receives each click. This is not possible if you set landing pages at the ad level. 

Work with click tags in display creatives

1. After you upload your assets, check the "Click tags" section. Campaign Manager 360 displays the click tags found in all your display assets. Note that if two click tags have the same name, Campaign Manager 360 only accepts the first one you upload.

2. Set click tag destinations in the Landing page field. You can pick from a list of advertiser landing pages or set a custom landing page. Remember that Campaign Manager 360 only uses these landing pages if you do not specify a landing page at the ad level.

3. If you add your own click tags, click Validate to make sure Campaign Manager 360 can find them in your creative.

Click tag guidelines

Click tags define landing pages for each exit on your creatives with HTML5 assets. An exit is any area that can be clicked that directs the browser to a landing page. Each click tag defines the landing page for a different exit.

When an exit gets a click, the creative calls Campaign Manager 360 for the landing page associated with that exit. You can set this landing page in your creative or your ad, depending on your needs.

Campaign Manager 360 detects click tags when you upload your assets. You can change the landing page your click tag uses anytime, even after you export tags. That's because the click tag is a standard variable, a placeholder for the landing page rather than a hardcoded value.

There are some best practices for setting up your click tags since the ad-level overrides the creative-level settings in display creatives:

• ​Make sure your creative uses the click tag variable as the click destination.
• The click tag should be easy for the ad server to read—no minification or obfuscation, though you can use minifers in the rest of your code and in other files.
• We do not recommend hard-coded URLs in your asset because that prevents Campaign Manager 360 from tracking clicks and prevents traffickers from updating the URL. After upload, Campaign Manager 360 will warn you if there are hardcoded URLs in the asset.

Backup image

A backup image is not required and is not needed if an image is the primary asset of your display creative. If added, a backup image only serves if no HTML5 asset is available or supported by the user's browser. 

A backup image’s dimensions must fit the parent asset.

Key to backup image properties

• Backup landing page: This is the landing page where the browser is taken after the backup is clicked.

• Target window: This decides which frame or window displays the creative. You can display it in a new window, the current window, the current frame, or the parent frame. The current frame is the frame in which the creative is clicked. The parent frame contains the current frame.

• Exit reporting label: A label in your reports that is associated with activity on the backup and any other asset that has this label.

  You may wish to check whether the exit event reporting label of the backup image is different from the reporting labels in your Creative events section: when two reporting labels are the same, Campaign Manager 360 does not distinguish between them in your reports.

Creative fields 

Set creative fields if you wish to label your creatives to help identify them in reports. If you don't need to set these properties, just save your creative.

Creative fields and their associated values are set at the advertiser level. For each creative, you can set one Field Value for each Field Name:

1. Find the row for a creative field whose value you want to set and click Edit .

2. Select a value from the dropdown list.

3. Click Update, then Save.

In reports, this creative will now be associated with the selected field name and value.

Next steps

• Preview: Once your creative is set up, you may want to preview it. To do so, click the preview button at the bottom of the creative properties window. 

• Assignments: Assign your creative to ads and your ads to placements. Display creatives work on standard and default ads. They are compatible with display placements.