Save and publish creative drafts

Building interactive creatives is often a collaborative effort between the creative agency, media agency, production teams, and the marketer. To make it easier for your teams to work in parallel, you can now save many creative types as drafts. Draft creatives can't be assigned to a line item to serve, giving your team a chance to review and sign-off before the creative goes live.

About drafts

When you make a new creative that supports draft versions, you can choose whether to save it as a draft or publish it immediately. 

Draft versions of a creative cannot be assigned to line items, so there's no need to worry that a creative that's still in development will be accidentally shown to a consumer. If you or a member of your team attempts to assign a draft creative to a line item, you'll get an error message.

Using drafts is optional, so if you prefer, each time you upload a new creative asset, you can immediately publish.

Why use drafts?

When you create a draft, you can share a creative preview link with anyone. This supports several different workflows:

• Share a preview with the brand or client before it goes live.
• Share a preview to get explicit approval from your media team.
• If different members of your team handle creative upload and creative “sign off”, one person can upload, and the other can publish after it's been shared with and approved by your stakeholders. This allows you to define your own workflow and process.

Supported creative formats

The following creative formats support drafts:

HTML5, Blank Slate, Cue Cards, Panorama

Save a creative as a draft

When you add a new creative to Display & Video 360 and want to save it as a draft, click Save draft. Saving as a draft does not start the creative review process.

Publish a creative draft

When you're ready to publish a creative, click Publish.

Data-driven creatives can only be published when:

• At least one variant is assigned to every row in the dynamic feed
• All required fields of the creative are set (including landing page URLs).

After you publish, the creative will be eligible for assignment to a line item and the creative review process begins.

Edit a published creative

When you edit a creative, the published version will continue to serve if it was already approved. To make changes, you'll need to create a new draft. When you publish a draft it replaces the published version, the creative review process restarts, and the creative will be paused until it's approved for serving.

You have two options when editing an HTML5 creative: you can either immediately replace the published creative with an uploaded .zip file, or you can create a draft version and publish when you're ready.

Replace a published HTML5 creative without creating a draft

To quickly replace a creative .zip file for a published creative:

1. Remove the published creative .zip file by clicking Remove.
2. Upload a new asset.
3. Click Publish.

The asset you uploaded replaces the published creative asset, and the creative review process restarts. The creative will be paused on any assigned line items until it's approved for serving.

Create a draft version, then publish when ready

1. Click Create draft.
2. Make changes to your creative. To save your changes, click Save draft. 

A draft version is now saved, while the published creative is unaffected. If the published creative was already approved and serving, it'll continue to serve.

Some changes require a new creative

You'll need to make a new creative instead of creating a draft if you want to change any of the following:

• Creative dimensions
• Creative format
• Rich media events (counters, exits, and timers)

View and edit published and draft versions

After you've published a creative and you create a draft to make changes, you can switch between the two versions and make changes to either one.

Switch between draft and published

1. To switch between versions, next to the creative name at the top, find the Draft or Published drop-down.
2. Select either Draft or Published to view that version.

Edit the draft

When you create a draft for a creative that's been published, you can only make changes in the Ad Canvas and Dynamic Rules tabs. The Creative details tab is marked read-only.

• To make changes in the Ad Canvas and Dynamic Rules tabs, first make sure you're viewing the draft version, make changes, then click Save draft.
• To make changes in the Creative details tab, switch to the published version.

Edit the published creative

After you publish a creative, the Ad Canvas and Dynamic Rules tab (data-driven creatives only) are marked read-only. There's no draft mode for the Creative details tab. Changes you make and save in the Creative details tab are immediately applied to the published creative, and will restart the creative review process (except for changing the creative name or adding notes).

• To make changes in Ad Canvas or Dynamic Rules, switch to the draft version or create a draft.
• To make changes to a data-driven creative in the Creative details tab, first make sure you're viewing the published version, make changes, then click Save details. Note: If you're working with an HTML5 creative, there's no "Save details" option. Instead, publish the creative to save and publish all draft changes.

Preview the published or draft version of an HTML5 creative

To check out the differences between the published creative and the draft version, you can preview both versions.

1. Use the drop-down menu next to the creative's name to select either Draft or Published.
2. Click Preview.

Don't see a preview button? First, make sure the creative is saved or published. If there's still no preview button, your creative may be a rich media creative with video. Previews are not currently available for this creative type.