Native video creatives

Use a native video creative to promote your website with a video. To make a creative, you'll provide a bundle of creative assets including a video, images, copy, and a call to action. The publisher or exchange will arrange and render these assets in a native format appropriate for the page or app they're displayed in.

Native video creatives are display creatives with in-banner video. They can only be assigned to display line items, not video line items.

Native video is not supported on all exchanges. For information on which exchanges offer native video inventory in Display & Video 360, check the Video inventory column in Supported native exchanges.

Example native video creative for the fictitious brand Vorato

Assets

Assets checklist

Use this checklist to design your native creative. Optional assets are marked, but it's a good idea to include them so your creatives are compatible with more publisher layouts.

Logo (required)	File types: .jpg, .jpeg, .png Dimensions: Minimum 100 x 100 pixels, maximum 2000 x 2000 pixels File size: Maximum 1200 KB Aspect ratio: 1:1 Color model: RGB or CMYK File name must be ASCII and 50 characters or less
Video (required)	Video source file to display in the creative. Always upload a source file with the highest possible specifications you have available so that Display & Video 360 can transcode the asset into as many serving files as possible. Video specifications
Cover image (required)	Rectangular, 1.91:1 aspect ratio image to display over the video player before the video is played. File types: .jpg, .jpeg, .png Dimensions: Minimum height 627 pixels, maximum size 2000 x 1047 pixels File size: Maximum 1200 KB Aspect ratio: 1.91:1 (strongly recommended, 85% of inventory). For the most inventory, create additional creatives with cover images aspect ratios of 16:9, 4:3, and 1:1. Color model: RGB or CMYK File name must be ASCII and 50 characters or less
Advertiser name (required)	Displayed in the creative. Your Display & Video 360 advertiser name is filled in by default. Maximum 25* characters
Headline	Displayed in the creative. Optional if long headline is used, but at least one headline is required Maximum 25* characters
Long headline	An alternate, longer headline that only appears in some native layouts. Optional if headline is used, but at least one headline is required Maximum 50* characters
Body text	Description of the product or service Optional if long body text is used, but at least one body text is required Maximum 90* characters
Long body text	An alternate, longer description that only appears in some native layouts. Optional if body text is used, but at least one body text is required Maximum 150* characters
Landing page URL (required)	The web page to direct people to when they click your ad. Maximum 1024* characters
Caption URL (required)	A shorter, friendlier version of the landing page URL to display in the creative that only appears in some native layouts. For example, “example.com/shop”. Maximum 30* characters
Call to action (required)	The text on the ad's call-to-action button or link. For example, "Shop now". Maximum 15* characters

* Character limits are for single-byte characters. If using double-byte characters (common in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean languages), divide by 2. 

Serving properties

To report on your native creatives in Campaign Manager 360 or via a third-party measurement provider, click Details, then expand the Serving properties section.

Property	Requirements
Impression tracking URL 1 and 2 (optional) The URL of one or more third-party impression trackers to call when the ad is displayed.	Up to 1024* characters Standard URLs only. HTML script tags (<script>), image tags (<img>), and JavaScript files (ending in .js) are not supported.
JavaScript tracking URL (optional) The URL of a JavaScript file provided by a supported verification provider. For example, https://www.example.com/measurement.js. When you add a JavaScript tracking URL, it will only be included when your creative runs on exchanges that support JavaScript trackers (see the "Features" column in the supported exchanges list). On other exchanges, your creative will still run, but without third-party measurement.	Up to 1024* characters HTML script tags (<script>) are not supported.
Video third-party URLs (optional) Third-party video tracking URLs that track interactions with your video creative.	Up to 1024* characters Script tags are not supported.

* Character limits are for single-byte characters. If using double-byte characters (common in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean languages), divide by 2. 

Minimum assets required to bid

Display & Video 360 will not bid with a creative unless the bid request includes the minimum assets for the format. This means your native ad will only run on publishers or exchanges that use a minimum of one of the following combinations of assets.

Combination 1	Combination 2
Image	Image
Headline or Body text	Headline or Body text
Logo or Advertiser name	Call to action

Control creative text length

At least one headline and one block of body text are required. For maximum reach, include short and long versions for both headline and body text. If you need more creative control, you can include only the text lengths you prefer and Display & Video 360 will not bid on native inventory that doesn't include your preferred length of text.

For example, your creative concept may require the long headline (50 characters) to accommodate a long brand name, while you may prefer to use only the short body text (90 characters). Enter these in the "Long headline" and "Body text" boxes. Display & Video 360 will only bid on native inventory that can show both the long headline and the short body text together.

Create a native video creative

Follow these steps to upload a single creative. If you want to add more than one creative at once, save time by bulk uploading native video creatives.

Step 1: Make a new native video creative

1. Open your advertiser.
2. Click Creative Format Gallery in the left menu.
3. To show only native formats, click the Native tab at the top.
4. Under Native video, click Create. The new creative appears in Ad Canvas, where you'll see 3 empty creative previews, with expandable Assets and Text panels on the right.

Step 2: Add video, images, and copy in Ad Canvas

1. In the Assets panel on the right, add images by dragging each file from your computer and dropping it over “Drop file here”. Or click Upload, then select an image file from your computer.
   1. Add a video source file. Drag a video file from your computer and drop it over "Drop file here". Or, click Upload, then select a video file from your computer. Video files can be up to 1 GB.
   2. As soon as you add a source file, you’ll see information in the Serving files section as Display & Video 360 generates the transcodes. You can leave the page and work on other things while the transcodes are processing. Learn more about transcodes in Display & Video 360
   3. Add a square logo image.
   4. Add a cover image with an aspect ratio of 1.91:1 (minimum 1200 x 627 px).
   5. Enter at least one headline and at least one block of body text. The shorter headline and body text are used in more native ad designs, but you can use any combination of lengths you prefer. For maximum reach, include short and long versions of both the headline and body text.
   6. Enter a landing page URL beginning with http:// or https://. If you're using a click tracker URL that redirects to your final landing page URL, enter this here.
   7. Enter a caption URL to display a shortened, friendly version of your landing page URL in the creative.

Step 3: Name the creative and add tracking

1. At the top of the page, click the Details tab.
2. In the Basic details section, enter a name for the creative in Display & Video 360.
3. To track the creative outside Display & Video 360, click Serving properties.
   1. (Optional) Add impression tracking URLs from ad measurement providers. If your advertiser is linked to Campaign Manager 360, impressions will be recorded in Campaign Manager 360 automatically. To avoid reporting discrepancies, do not add CM impression trackers here.
   2. (Optional) To track video interactions or quartile events using a third-party verification service, add a tracking URL for each video event you wish to track. Click Add URL and then select the type of video interaction you want to track. You can enter multiple versions of each type of URL. Only URLs are accepted; don’t include any HTML tags.

      Available third-party tracking URLs

      • Impression: Tracks video impressions.
      • Click tracking: Tracks clicks on the video or video controls. This URL is for tracking only. If you're using a click tracker URL that redirects to your final landing page URL, enter this as the landing page URL in the "Assets" section of the creative.
      • Start: Tracks the number of times a user starts playing video.
      • First quartile: Tracks the number of times the video plays to 25% of its length.
      • Midpoint: Tracks the number of times the video plays to 50% of its length.
      • Third quartile: Tracks the number of times the video plays to 75% of its length.
      • Complete: Tracks the number of times the video plays to the end.
      • Mute: Tracks the number of times a user mutes the video.
      • Pause: Tracks the number of times a user pauses the video.
      • Rewind: Tracks the number of times a user rewinds the video.
      • Full screen: Tracks the number of times a user expands the player to full-screen size.
      • Stop: Tracks the number of times a user stops the video.
      • Custom: Tracks the number of times a user performs a custom click, such as clicking on a hot spot.
      • Skip: Tracks the number of times a user skips the video.
      • Progress: Tracks an optional time marker agreed upon with the publisher.
   3. Enter a JavaScript tracking URL from a supported verification provider (ComScore, DoubleVerify, Integral Ad Science, Moat). Note: Since the exchange or publisher is responsible for serving native creatives, it's not guaranteed that all impressions will serve the measurement URL. For details on publisher and exchange support, see Supported native exchanges.
4. (Optional) Click Additional details to add an integration code for an external system or notes about the creative.
5. Click Save.

Can't find your native video creative in your advertiser's creative list? If you just created it, the video may still be processing and the creative should appear within 30 minutes to an hour.

As you add copy and creative assets, the preview updates automatically, showing how the different elements in your creative might be rendered. This preview is not an accurate representation of how the creative will display in a live environment, but will give you an idea of how each creative element might look.

You'll see a preview of your video after you save the creative.

Display & Video 360 manually and automatically reviews your creatives to make sure they work. Creatives are also checked to make sure they comply with Google's ad policies and the policies of exchanges they can serve on. You can check the status of your creatives in the Creative status tab.

Preview a native video creative

Preview while you create your ad

As you add text and images to your creative, the preview updates automatically, showing how the different elements in your creative might be rendered. This preview is not an accurate representation of how the creative will display in a live environment, but will give you an idea of how each creative element might look when it's displayed in an app or website.

To preview your video, save the creative and wait for video processing to complete.

1. Launch preview : Preview samples of how your creative will look on real publishers. This button is only available after video processing is complete, which can take up to an hour. If you don't see it above the preview, try again later.
2. Use the left and right arrows to view your assets in 1 of 3 different layouts. These previews aren't real publisher ads, but are representative of different placement sizes and asset combinations.

Review publisher-styled previews

To see samples of how real publishers will style your native assets, open the publisher samples preview. Unlike the initial quick preview, these samples use real native ad styles from publishers. Note that these previews represent a range of potential native ad designs, but do not include every design variation.

1. Open a native creative.
2. At the top right of the quick preview, click Launch preview . The Publisher samples page opens in a new window. If you don't see the Launch preview icon, your video is still processing. Wait a few minutes for processing to complete, then refresh the page.
3. Scroll down the Publisher samples page to view samples from different publishers using your native assets.

When you preview native video creatives on the Publisher samples page, note that the videos aren't playable. Instead, you'll see a video thumbnail. (This is intentional to avoid the distraction of multiple videos playing on one page at the same time.)

See a preview on a sample publisher page

On the Publisher samples page, some samples include an additional preview mode that displays your ad on a sample web page or mobile app page. To open this preview in a new window, click Preview at the bottom of the sample card.

^{Example native video ad preview on a Rollingstone.com mobile web page.}