Passing dynamic values from ad tags to DFA Data Transfer files

Passing dynamic values from ad tags to DFA Data Transfer files

Background on the u= parameter in Ad Tags for Data Transfer

The u= parameter is a string that is appended to the end of the ad tag to pass custom data to be tracked in Data Transfer files.

The most common use is to pass non-targeted key-value information into the reports by replicating the key-values from the request string. Web developers, who typically handle ad tags, will append the u= parameter to pass the dynamic key-value data.

Here are a few best practices for using the u= parameter:

1. The total key-value string (including the u= string) has a limit of 511 characters. The u= parameter section of the key-value string in the ad tag has a maximum of 255 characters within that.
2. The values are not parsed in the Data Transfer files, so they show up as one string, hence the flexibility of how you insert data. For example, you could use an underscore ("_") to delimit the information inside the u=.
3. U= parameter cannot include any reserved delimiters, including ( "=", ",", "|" or ";")
4. The u= parameter should be placed in the ad request as the last key-value, apart from the ord=[random] value, which should always be the last key-value in the string.
5. The "Site-Data" column captures the u= data in the Network Impression and Click files.

Example: If a trafficker wants to capture the key-values age=12 and gen=male in the u=, the tag will look like this:

http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/site/zone;key=value;sz=728x90;u=age_12-gen_male;ord=1234567890?

How can I include the u= value in my Ad Tags?

For every Placement, include the u= value and placeholder in the "Additional Key-Values" field and instruct the publisher where they should pass the value in.

Steps:

• The "Additional Key-Values" field in the Placement allows you to add the u= value and a placeholder that will be included in the ad tag for that Placement.
• Click into the applicable Placement (or follow the steps below when creating your Placement)
• Add u=[Placeholder] in the "Additional Key-Values" field for each applicable Placement. (See the screenshot below for an example.)

Example DFA Ad Tags w/ u= value and dynamic value Placeholder

Example Standard Ad Tag:

HREF="http://ad-emea.doubleclick.net/jump/N2591.127182.CNNINTERNATIONAL/B7019024;dcadv=3795928;sz=160x600;u=[BID_ATTR.bid_id];ord=[timestamp]?">

<IMG SRC="http://ad-emea.doubleclick.net/ad/N2591.127182.CNNINTERNATIONAL/B7019024;dcadv=3795928;sz=160x600;u=[BID_ATTR.bid_id];ord=[timestamp]?" BORDER=0 WIDTH=160 HEIGHT=600 ALT="Advertisement">

Example iFrames/JavaScript Ad Tag:

<IFRAME SRC="http://ad-emea.doubleclick.net/adi/N2591.127182.CNNINTERNATIONAL/B7019024;dcadv=3795928;sz=160x600;u=[BID_ATTR.bid_id];ord=[timestamp]?" WIDTH=160 HEIGHT=600 MARGINWIDTH=0 MARGINHEIGHT=0 HSPACE=0 VSPACE=0 FRAMEBORDER=0 SCROLLING=no BORDERCOLOR='#000000'>

<NOSCRIPT>

HREF="http://ad-emea.doubleclick.net/jump/N2591.127182.CNNINTERNATIONAL/B7019024;abr=!ie4;abr=!ie5;dcadv=3795928;sz=160x600;u=[BID_ATTR.bid_id];ord=[timestamp]?">

<IMG SRC="http://ad-emea.doubleclick.net/ad/N2591.127182.CNNINTERNATIONAL/B7019024;abr=!ie4;abr=!ie5;dcadv=3795928;sz=160x600;u=[BID_ATTR.bid_id];ord=[timestamp]?" BORDER=0 WIDTH=160 HEIGHT=600 ALT="Advertisement">

</NOSCRIPT>

</IFRAME>

Example JavaScript Ad Tag:

<NOSCRIPT>

HREF="http://ad-emea.doubleclick.net/jump/N2591.127182.CNNINTERNATIONAL/B7019024;dcadv=3795928;sz=160x600;u=[BID_ATTR.bid_id];ord=[timestamp]?">

<IMG SRC="http://ad-emea.doubleclick.net/ad/N2591.127182.CNNINTERNATIONAL/B7019024;dcadv=3795928;sz=160x600;u=[BID_ATTR.bid_id];ord=[timestamp]?" BORDER=0 WIDTH=160 HEIGHT=600 ALT="Advertisement">

</NOSCRIPT>

Sharing Advertiser

Advertisers can be "shared". Shared Advertisers are built on a parent-child relationship. The child advertiser inherits the Floodlight configuration of the parent advertiser. To share Advertisers, click the Share button under the Floodlight Configuration tab.

Before sharing an Advertiser, please consider the following:

* To inherit the parent's Floodlight set-up, the child Advertiser must be empty. Advertisers with already existing Floodlight activities cannot be shared.

* Modifications to shared Floodlight tags can only be made in the parent Advertiser.

* Sharing cannot be undone.


In order to share a Floodlight tag configuration:

1) From the Advertiser's Tab, search for the child advertiser (the one inheriting the Floodlights).

2) Click on the child's "Floodlight Configuration" Tab

3) Press the [Share Advertiser] button

4) Search for the parent Advertiser (the advertiser that contains the main Floodlight configuration).

5) Select the parent advertiser and click Save.

Spam Clicks

DCM Engineers are investing heavily in advanced spam filtering in DCM. Spam is an issue that Google has taken very seriously since the earliest days of its business and has invested significant time and resources to combat. We'll be applying our learnings from other areas of the business to this new platform to provide the most accurate ad serving experience possible. Aside from our general our spam technology, Google recently purchased Spider.IO, an anti malware company and we are working closely with them as well other internal Google teams that specialize in spam protection to integrate their technology across our product stack, including DCM.  

Customers migrating from DFA6 to DCM have reported an increase in spam clicks. Conversions and impressions are not affected, as 96% of spam clicks were identified to come from non-cookied users. Our Engineers have identified the cause and are actively working on a fix. The fix will bring parity with DFA6 in mid-May. 

It is also possible that the issue is related to implementation. If you see a spike in the number of clicks for a particular Campaign or Ad, we recommend that you utilize reporting to identify the site that is driving any additional clicks. So, I'd also request you check with the Site "MNI", if they are driving a high number of clicks. If possible, request them to send the report broken down by day with Geo.  Also, if you provide the live URL (instead of test page), it would help me check the implementation and update you with additional information.

Raw impression

Impressions yesterday on the UI gives the number of times yesterday (midnight to midnight, Eastern Time) that users accessed a web page that included this activity's Floodlight tag but it is just a raw data and not the actual data which may not update correctly. Even the warning signs that you see on the UI takes a few days to update even if the floodlight is fixed on the site and it collects data. You should always go with the figures in the report rather than the one on the UI.

Frequency Cap setting

If you would like to apply frequency cap to the ad so that a user would get to see the OTP only once within an hour. If yes, you can achieve this by applying frequency capping to an ad.

Below are the steps to set up frequency cap for an ad:

1. Go to the Delivery Properties section of the Ad Properties page for a new or an existing ad.

2. Enter a Frequency, which is the maximum number of times that the ad can be shown to each user during the time period you'll specify. The frequency can be any number from 1 to 15.

3. Enter a Time Period, which is the number of minutes, hours, days, or weeks before the frequency cap is reset for each user. The maximum is 129,600 minutes (2,160 hours, 90 days, or 12 weeks).

4. Choose the correct unit of time from the drop-down list: Minutes, Hours, Days, or Weeks.

Floodlight tag and Google AdWords

Floodlight tags accept Google AdWords Conversion Tracking as part of their dynamic tags. There are just few things to bear in mind when implementing this:

1) Each AdWords Account will be linked to one DoubleClick Floodlight Tag.

2) You can choose to integrate the Full Javascript Tag or the 1x1 Pixel as either a "Publisher" tag or a "Default" tag. The Google code will only send a conversion signal if the user clicked on a Google ad within the account.

3) If you need to use more than one Google AdWords Account, please make note of the following exceptions:
- You/Your client will need to generate the AdWords Conversion Tracking code for each account that your advertiser wants to track conversion activity.
- You will need to use "Publisher" tags for each account and will be required to associate the "Publisher's Site" in the Floodlight interface with the "site" that is used in the DFA creative tag. These must be two separate publishers as the pixels cannot fire at the same time.


When deciding where to place your Google AdWords Conversion Tracking, you should consider the differences between the two types of dynamic tags:

- Default Section
The pixel will fire every single time someone hits the conversion page. The AdWords Conversion Tracking code will only record a conversion if it can detect that the user has a cookie that ties to the advertiser's AdWords campaign.

I.e.: If a user clicks on a Google ad, then goes to NY Times and clicks on the advertiser's ad as part of a direct buy with the NY Times, DoubleClick will credit the NY Times with the conversion but Google will count the conversion, too, because the user has a Google cookie tied to the campaign that came from the first click.

- Publisher Section
This method requires that the advertiser is using DCM click tracking or 3PAS tags. When they create the click trackers or 3PAS tags, they will assign the site of those tags to the 'Google Display Network'. In their publisher section, they will then implement our conversion pixel under the same site name of 'Google Display Network'. This lets the Floodlight code do the heavy lifting and it will detect that the user who just converted came from a click that was associated with one of the click or 3PAS tags that they have assigned to the 'Google Display Network' and will then fire the conversion code associated with that site. This might lead to more accurate conversion numbers as Google will only be asked to count a conversion when DoubleClick tells it to count a conversion (eliminating the discrepancy example above) but if there is a longer Look-back window than 30 days, they are not using DCM click/3pas tracking or if they do not have their tagging set up properly the values will be completely off.

%P macros

Syntax errors on the %p macros used inside the 3rd party pixel are preventing the pixels from working as intended.

General %p syntax: %p[start_key_string]![end_character]

The [end_character] should be defined. The end character tells the macro "stop passing values when you hit this character".

Your Floodlight tag looks like follows:

{Insert Floodlight tag that is suffering the issue, with values included if possible}

In the 3rd party pixel, our %p macros are expecting an ending character that will tell them when stop reading, however, this is not implemented at the moment. As a result, when our macro starts reading the value that is coming after the parameter {name of the parameter}, for example, it just keeps reading till the end of the line.

This erros is preventing the pixels from tracking properly. To fix this, add an end character for each %p macros. The [end_character] is typically a semicolon (;) or a question mark (?) to end the string. For example:

- Quantity: %pqty=!;

- Revenue: %pcost=!;

- Order ID: %pord=!?

For more information on DCM macros, please go through the following links.
https://support.google.com/dcm/table/6096962?hl=en&visit_id=1-636177386777577723-156265568&rd=2


https://support.google.com/dcm/answer/2837696?hl=en

In-APP Floodlight Events

1) An ad call from within an app is made to the Doubleclick server
The app network is responsible for passing the hashed device identifier in the ad calls for impressions and clicks*
Note: if you are buying on DBM, the parameter is already passed in the bid request for most mobile app inventory

2) Doubleclick maps the hashed device identifiers to another value to protect user privacy

3) The conversion activity in an app (through the use of Google Tag Manager for Mobile SDK or a supported 3rd party SDK) includes the passing of the hashed device identifier

4) Doubleclick will match up values when a conversion occurs, and the conversion will show up in Reporting


In-APP Tracking set up:

Google Tag Manager

Setup GTM Mobile Container. Integrate into app, resubmitting to app/play store.

Floodlight Configuration:

Create/edit Floodlight config to link to GTM container.

Floodlight Activities:

Setup each Floodlight Activity, save, then push to linked GTM container.

InApp tracking: setup

http://ad.doubleclick.net/ddm/activity/src=[AdvertiserID];type=[GroupString];cat=[ActivityString];dc_muid=[MD5-hashed value of IDFA, Android ID, or AdID];dc_lat=[0|1];u1=[FriendlyName1];u2=[FriendlyName1];ord=[Timestamp]?

Integrate Floodlight tag into app, resubmitting to app/play store.

ALL Mobile Floodlight parameters must be parsed in the GET call.

dc_muid is the MD5-hashed value of IDFA, Android ID, or AdID. dc_lat=[0|1] (if available) is a flag (with a value of 1) indicating if the user has enabled the "Limit Ad Tracking” option for IDFA or AdID.

src is the advertiser ID that is the source of the Floodlight activity. cat is the activity tag string, which Floodlight servers use to identify the activity group to which the activity belongs. type is the group tag string, which identifies the activity group with which the Floodlight activity is associated.
ord is a random number that is used to make the Floodlight tag unique and prevent browser caching.
u1, u2, ... (if available) are the custom Floodlight variable key-values.

DCM Mobile targeting

What:

There are new mobile targeting criteria: Platform Type (PC, tablet, smartphone, feature phone - MDL), Operating System (Apple, Android, Palm, etc), Operating System Version.
These three already existed: Connection Type (Wifi, Mobile), Mobile Carrier (T-Mobile, AT&T, etc), Browser (Mobile Browsers, Safari ipad, Android Browsers, etc)

Why:

These new mobile metrics: Platform Type, OS's, and Operating System Version allow you to be more targeted with your mobile advertising.

- Platform Targeting: Serve richer ads to tablets versus phones because tablets have larger screen real estate. Serve call prompting ads to phones.
Connection Speed Targeting: Make sure to serve your high-end video ads to users with a fast connection speed (because users with slow connection speed won't be able to download videos).
- OS: Let's say you have a new app on the iTunes store and on the Google Play store. By targeting your ads to correct OS, you'll ensure that Apple users click through to the iTunes store and Android users click through to the Google Play store.
 - OS Version: Let's say you are running a complex rich media ad that uses heavy HTML5. Some lower versions of iOS may not support HTML5, so you'd want to target the iOS that does support HTML5.

Where:

Similar to all other targeting parameters in DFA6, Mobile Targeting parameters (connection, carrier, platform, operating system, browser) are managed in the Ad Properties tab. In contrast to all other targeting parameters in DFA6, Mobile Targeting parameters are housed under a section in the Ad Properties tab labelled "'Technology".

How:

Use these mobile targeting criteria in the same way that you would other targeting criteria.
Go to the Ad Properties tab.
Scroll down to Technology.
Select the mobile metrics that you'd like to target.

Certification Type for Rich Media and HTML5

Rich Media InApp (MRAID) Certification: certifies that mobile applications are MRAID-compliant and our Rich Media InApp Creatives render properly. Certification needs to be completed before any InApp Campaign goes live with a publisher/network.

HTML5 InApp and Desktop/Mobile Verification: verifies our Standard HTML5 Creatives render and function correctly on mobile applications and web. It is a nice-to-have, but it does not have to be completed before a campaign goes live since the product is normalized. Have publisher to test iFrame/JavaScript tags that serve HTML5 creatives.

What is DCM 'Skippable Ad Tracking'?

This DCM feature in In-Stream Video creatives does not enable a publisher to have a skip button.Rather, it allows a publisher that already has a skip button to fire off two new tracking metrics in our DCM Reporting called 'Video Skip' and 'Video True View'.

To get a bit technical, you get two new sections in the VAST tag’s ad response if 'Include Skip Button' is checked in an In-Stream Video creative in DCM: 'skip' and 'engagedView', MET IDs 29 and 30, under the section . This can be added retroactively to existing VAST tags by checking off 'Include Skip Button' in your In-Stream Video creative in DCM.

Video True View: Number of times the user has watched 30 seconds of the ad or to its
completion, whichever is shorter.

Video Skip: Number of times the user has clicked to skip the ad. This metric does not include
instances where the user abandons the page without clicking skip or viewing the ad.

In addition, VAST tracking can support multiple 1x1 urls (such as Nielsen and Comscore) as well as
support most existing DFA Reporting including Geo reporting and Reach/Frequency reporting.

What is TrueView?

YouTube’s TrueView In-Stream format lets you show pre- or mid-roll video ads against all lengths of
content. After the ad plays for five seconds, the viewer gets the choice to skip or watch the ad. You only pay when the viewer has either watched 30 seconds of an ad, or watched the ad to complete
(whichever comes first).
In DoubleClick Campaign Manager (DCM), we provide the 'Include Skip Button’ checkbox on the creative level that allows TrueView metrics like ‘Video Skip’ and ‘Video True View’ to track in DFA Reporting.

What is Ad server and what is Adnetwork?

Ad server is a tool or interface used by Ad Agencies and Clients to make easier ad trafficking, reporting, optimization and ad performance. Ad server generally provides different data like Impression, clicks, Click Through Rate, Leads, downloads, video tracking etc.

Ad network is a company which connects advertisers to web sites that want to host advertisement, also this is a single buying opportunity for media buyers, an opportunity to access advertising market for small publishers. Ad network should have their own Ad server

DCM: Custom Floodlight Variables

Custom Floodlight variable is an advanced feature in Floodlight tag by using this we can capture the information beyond the basic (Visits and Revenue). Now a days you have the scope of setting 100 Custom variables per Floodlight configuration.

Adding the custom variable tags would involve basically the floodlight with an extra parameter in the tag which you would need to have filled in dynamically as the page loads, depending on the option a particular user is looking at. With this set up, the total conversion data would be available in the Custom Floodlight Variable report for the breakdown.

Below are the steps to enable a custom variable for a Floodlight:

1) Select the 'Floodlight Configuration' tab for an advertiser
2)Scroll the the bottom and enter a friendly name for a custom variable
3) Open the Floodlight under the 'Floodlight Activities' tab and select
the required u-value under 'Include Custom Floodlight Variables'
4) You should then see something like 'u1=[Subs Type]' added to the
Floodlight tag in the preview.

The webmaster is responsible for dynamically inserting the correct values
into the Custom Variables.

You should keep in mind the following points:

1) DCM is unable to read and process some special characters and if you try to pass special characters as part of the custom variable values, the populated values sometimes do not show up in reports, or they show up incorrectly.

2) Avoid passing special characters into custom variables. However, if youcneed to use a special character as a separator for multiple values, use acpipe (|). For example, if you try to pass product names to a customcvariable by replacing u5=[productnames] withcu5=product1+product2+product4, you'll produce an error. Instead, the valuecshould be passed as u5=product1|product2|product4.

Please note, that if you add the variables to existing Floodlight tags, you will not lose any previous data, the tag will simply start including the new variables (and their values) in the Custom Floodlight Variable report. After adding a variable, remember to resend the Floodlight tags to the webmaster so that he implements the modified tag on the site.

Why is it not appropriate to compare Google Analytics and DoubleClick Campaign Manager data

It's important to note that conversion rates for each product will differsince each product uses different measurement systems. Since DCM and Google Anaytics are two different products and they are not integrated, the numbers are expected to be different.

I understand not being able to compare the data sets is frustrating, but I can tell you that better integration between the two products is on the way.

In Google Analytics, the Conversion Rate represents the percentage of visitors that convert on at least one of the goals defined for a particular profile. Only one conversion is counted per visitor session,
even if they convert on several goals, or one goal more than once. DCM records conversions based on the type of activity you had selected (standard, unique, sessions). Also, Google Analytics URL tagging method records only post click data.

Here are some other differences between the two products:

- GA uses Referring URLs which not a reliable way of determining DoubleClick-driven traffic

- GA requires acceptance of JavaScript, DCM does not

- GA requires cookies, DCM does not. DCM can use IP addresses when cookies are not available.

- If a user clicks on an ad twice within thirty minutes without closing his or her browser, this will be registered by Analytics as one visit to the site; whereas DCM would record two conversions.

- GA does not filter for fraudulent data

Also note that DCM applies algorithms to identify robot and spider clicks.

Definitions:

Visits - represents the number of individual sessions initiated by all the visitors to your site. If a user clicks on your ad twice within thirty minutes without closing his or her browser, this will be registered by Analytics as one visit to your site, even if the user left your site and then returned shortly after.

Visitors - represents the number of unique users that visit the site on a daily basis. Any sessions from the same user on the same day will be aggregated into a single visitor, but may represent two or more separate visits.

Page Views - defined as a view of a page on your site that is being tracked by the Analytics tracking code. If a visitor hits reload after reaching the page, this will be counted as an additional page view.

DCM: Click to Landing Page Discrepancy - Goes up

The reason you see a higher number of post-click activities than clicks recorded is due to the fact that the counter type of the floodlight tag is set to 'Standard'. This means that DCM will count each visit to this webpage as a separate post-click activity.

Let's imagine a user clicks on the ad and goes to the webpage, we have 1 click and 1 post-click activity. Now let's say this same user goes back to the landing page but through a different medium rather than a DCM ad (through Google, or a bookmark, etc), we will record another post-click activity. This means we will now have 1 click but 2 activities. This is how you can see more post-click activities than clicks.

You can change the counter type to 'Unique' which means that DCM will count only the number of conversions by unique users within a 24-hour period. This means that if a user visits the page multiple times within 24 hours, we will only count one post-click activity. If, however the user visits the webpage again, outside the 24 hours, we will record this as a separate activity.

If you want to ensure that only one post-click activity per browser session is counted, then the advertiser is responsible for dynamically inserting a session ID, typically based on data included in a session cookie served to the user by the advertiser. You can set the tag type to Per Session but you will need to speak with the webmaster about whether this is possible as they will need to implement this at their end.

After making changes in DCM, please remember to send the newly generated tags to the site.

DCM: Marin Integration and Data transfer

Marin integration can be done by using piggybacking dynamic pixels with DCM floodlights, and in this case, Marin records conversion data (including revenue) directly using their piggybacked pixel.

If the integration is done in this method, I’ll also need to corresponding floodlight IDs which has the piggybacked Marin pixels. I’ll pull up a report for these activities for the dates in question, and verify if there were any conversions for those days.

Alternatively, Marin could also use DCM Data transfer files, and extracting data using their own system. Just to give you an overview, DCM generates server logs for the data transfer enabled network, and generate 3 log files daily. One for impressions, one for clicks and one for Floodlights(conversions). These contain data for the all the advertisers within the network. As these logs are generated daily, if there’s no impression/click/conversion activity for a specific advertiser on any given day, its ID won’t populate in the log file.

There are referenced using match tables, and the required data is extracted/attributed using separate tools. Just to let you know, the naming convention for the data transfer log files is below:

NetworkImpression_[network_ID]_MM-DD-YYYY.log.gz

NetworkClick_[network_ID]_MM-DD-YYYY.log.gz

NetworkActivity_[network_ID]_[Floodlight_ID]_MM-DD-YYYY.log.gz

If you could let me know the name of the log file that Marin is using for any of the date, I’ll be able to lookup using the same in your Google cloud storage (GCS) bucket, and confirm availability of the log files. Based on the above naming convention, your GCS bucket has all the three log files added for the dates in question. I've attached two screenshots for your reference.

It’ll be helpful to know how Marin is setup, in order for me to pinpoint the issue. Please let me know if it’s possible to discuss this over a call, and if so, the time that works best.

DCM: Video completes are exceeding video starts, and impression counts.

The below response could be useful when we have any issue wherein the video completes are exceeding video starts, and impression counts.

I understand that, we’re seeing discrepancies for in-stream Placements, I’d like to share that, the root cause of the issue here is related to our enhanced traffic quality filters. This is a known issue, as we aren’t filtering the enhanced video events, however, we’re filtering impressions (I’ve seen similar issues reported to us earlier), that’s why the video completes are high than the impressions.

DoubleClick has developed a sophisticated set of algorithms that determine which clicks/impressions are invalid. According to an analysis, there’re three major reasons for these invalid events:

Spiders, robots, crawlers and other automated agents
Programs that download websites for offline use
Link analyzers and code validators

Spiders, crawlers and other automated programs are often, though not always, designed to first check for a file called robots.txt before sending a request to any server. This file sends instructions to the automated program that can tell the program not to make any requests to that server.

DoubleClick uses robots.txt files to help prevent clicks from automated programs. This file doesn’t, however, prevent downloading programs and link analyzers from generating automated clicks. If DC receives repeated, successive clicks/impressions from the same user within a set time frame, then it concludes that the user is an automated agent and not an actual person. These clicks/impressions are determined to be invalid, and thereby designated to be discarded.

An analysis has shown that very few impressions by real users are discarded using this algorithm. Once a user is identified as an automated agent and the impressions are invalidated, all subsequent clicks/impressions that occur are also discarded.

Further, to give you more details, our number one priority was to implement enhanced spam filtering for impression and click data then the enhanced metrics.  Our internal teams are aware of the discrepancies, and working to resolve them over time. That being said, we're working towards resolving these discrepancies in Q2, though, we don't have a more official timeline. Once these filters are in place, I'm pretty sure, there won't be any mix up

Floodlight tag can't be implemented in email

If you are trying to implement the Floodlight tag in email body. Please read this article completely before proceed.

I'm afraid that won't work in most cases. The mail stage is an exposure, not a conversion. The Floodlights are recommended to stay on the site because a "conversion" by definition is an action on the site or a buy.

Additionally, the email campaigns are never tracked 100% correctly. Please see the explanation below:

- IMPRESSIONS ON 1x1:
Only a fraction will be recorded since in many mail systems the images are not displayed by default. When called the tags, they can't have a random number anyway (no JS), so you will undercount in any case. For both these reasons, a massive underestimation of the opened mails will be produced.

- CLICKS:
If the user clicks on links tracked by click trackers, this action will be indeed counted. However, it is not guaranteed that the following conversions will be recorded, since the user can click from an email client (Outlook, Thunderbird etc.) and open a default browser (IE, Firefox etc.) which could have a different cookie set.

Apart from this, implementing Floodlight tag into the email body is not recommended because:

1) Only Image Floodlights will have a chance to be fired.
2) No possibility to generate random numbers (under counting).
3) By default, many clients are blocking images anyway.

abr=!ie

The abr=!ie parameter tells the DFA ad servers not to serve JavaScript content if the browser is Internet Explorer. This parameter is included only in the Iframe/JavaScript combination tags, not in JavaScript tags without Iframes. According to HTML conventions, browsers are not supposed to read any content between tags. As such, any browser that recognizes Iframes should read only the DFA Iframe tags, not the JavaScript tags. However, some obsolete versions of Internet Explorer read both sets of tags. The abr=!ie parameter ensures that these browsers are served only one ad for each set of DFA ad tags. This parameter is included only in the Iframe/JavaScript combination tags, not in JavaScript tags without Iframes.

If you are using the correct and the complete Iframe tag provided by DFA, then abr=!ie would not cause any issue.

You can check the Floodlight implementation on your website

Floodlight is one of the important tagging feature to record the conversion for the advertisers. If any advertiser implements floodlight tag on their website and check whether it's implemented correctly, they can check the tag implementation at their own by following steps:

Floodlight activities are conversions, and you can't have a conversion without a campaign driving it there. So if there is no DFA tracking at all, there will be zero Floodlight conversions. Same with revenue.

In Report Builder, you can pull a Floodlight impressions report. This will give raw data for how often the Floodlight tag fires, regardless of any activity.

Checking Floodlight

> Go to FireFox > Install HTTP Fox add on.
> Once the add on is installed, run it ( by getting under Tools button)
> In the search bar for HTTP Fox, put FLS to filter out floodlight tags firing on the page.
> Load the url into the browser.
> Any floodlights firing on the page will show up in the add on window.
> Compare the tag firing on the page with the respective tag in DCM. For example, the below highlighted portions (values) of the tag firing on the page should match with the respective tag generated in DCM:

http://123456.fls.doubleclick.net/activityi;src=123456;type=abc123cat=abc345;ord=4360688670599.461?

If you want to fire the tag correctly, please make sure the comment section is correctly closed and also the ord Id should not be zero. In sales tag the ord Id can be the Order Id of the transaction.

Additionally,  the sales tags are usually set on the final page where the transaction is completed successfully. If you want to track how many people visited the page, you can just use a standard floodlight tag on the initial page.

Also, if you want to track the details like the donation amount, you can use the standard tag with custom variables to track the value and then implement it on the submit button.

You can refer to the help center article here to know the different floodlight tags. You can also pass the link here to your webmaster that would help him in understanding different methods of implementing floodlight tags.

Google Tag Manager, basic knowledge

Now a days Google Tag manager is very useful tool and I recommend to use this  tool to manage your tagging technology. If you don't have any idea on GTM please follow the go through the steps below:

1. Google Tag manager is a free tool. In order to signup and create a new account, please visit the link below:
http://www.google.com/tagmanager/

Refer our resources to learn more about Google Tag Manager:
Google Tag Manager
Setup and Workflow

2. Using the GTM container ID you would be able to link the DFA Advertiser with Google Tag Manager. Once the Advertiser is linked to Google Tag Manager you would be able to push the Floodlight activities from DFA to Google Tag Manager.

For more information on Floodlight Integration and approvals, click here.

3. Before publishing the tags you would be verify the tags using preview and debug mode. In order to verify the tags, please refer the link below and follow the instructions.

https://support.google.com/tagmanager/answer/2695660

4. As of now we do not have specific link to track the release notes. Our team is going to start posting release notes weekly to the help center soon.

Audience List

What is an Audience List?

Remarketing is a free feature of DCM that enables you to create lists of users who have been exposed to your Floodlight Activity Tags, and target ads to those lists.

Audience Lists use Cookie-ID’s which identify users (browser specific), in order to know which pages (Floodlight Activities) they have visited.

Audience List Targeting can be performed during both inventory buying and for creative messaging.

A Remarketing Contract with DoubleClick is required to signed before Audience Lists are enabled for your DCM Account.

Floodlight in DCM

What is Floodlight?
Floodlight is an optional feature of DCM

Floodlight Tags allow advertisers to track and report on conversions — the actions of users who visit their website after viewing or clicking on one of the advertiser's ads.

Floodlight tags are placed on the advertiser's website.

Floodlight Tags are found at the Advertiser level in DCM

How does Floodlight work?

Whenever a user is served or clicks on a DCM Ad, or visits a DCM Floodlight Tag – we set the DoubleClick ID Cookie in their browser.

A cookie is a small piece of text that allows our servers to identify users via the anonymous ID.

Cookies are browser specific. (User = Browser)

An attributed “conversion” occurs when a User interacts with one of your DCM Ads before visiting one of your Floodlight Tags.










 Lookback Window:

The Lookback Window is the set duration of time you feel any Ad interactions influence a user's conversion intent.

Only Clicks and Impressions within the Lookback Window are attributable as ‘driving’ a conversion.

In App Tracking

There are a few different scenarios to be considered with mobile conversion tracking. Before I describe these scenarios, please keep in mind the following:

Feature phones store cookies with limitations (i.e. phones that are not smartphones might not store cookies at all, or they might store cookies but these cookies could be deleted when powering off the device -this really depends on the device-)
Certain browsers (read Safari -both on mobile and desktop-) block writing third-party cookies. This is their default setting (note that a user could change this behavior). It's important to mention that if a user clicks on ad, DoubleClick will become a first-party to the browser (doubleclick.net momentariy appears in the browser URL box and the user is taken to the destination URL -this is done to track clicks-). Once the cookie exists, DoubleClick can read this cookie. If a user never deletes its DoubleClick cookie, this user will be tracked across any page that has a DoubleClick ad. Safari does not (by default) block reading third-party cookies, only writing third-party cookies.

Mobile Web (publisher) to Mobile Web (advertiser page)
This scenario is exactly the same as in desktop.
Click-through conversions are tracked
View-through conversions are tracked *
* As stated earlier, only if the browser doesn't block writing third-party cookies. If the browser does block writing third-party cookies, the DoubleClick cookie may already exist (if the user previously clicked on a DCM ad, where DoubleClick is considered the 1st party and is able to write the cookie).

In-app (publisher) to Mobile Web (advertiser page)
Click-through conversions are tracked only provided that the user is taken to a full browser when clicking on the ad.
Mobile Web (publisher) to In-app (advertiser)

Conversions cannot be tracked.

In-app (publisher) to In-app (advertiser)
Click-through conversions are tracked *
View-through conversions are tracked *
* If the mobile network (publisher) passes the Mobile Ad ID (Apple's IDFA or Android's Advertiser ID) to DoubleClick (the app network ad SDK is responsible for passing the device identifier AdID/IDFA in the ad calls for impressions and clicks) and the Advertiser is using a Google Tag Manager Mobile Container (using Google Tag Manager's SDK) or implementing the Floodlight so that it passes the Mobile Ad ID (see 'Direct Floodlight calls').

At DoubleClick we are working to bring solutions that don't rely on the cookie for mobile conversion and cross-device conversion tracking (as cookies were designed at a time where multiple devices were not taken in mind). Unfortunately, I currently cannot share more information regarding this.

HTML_IE_FF

I’ve checked the creative code and it looks like the zips had target=_blank coded within the clickTag which was opening 2 windows when clicked, so I removed the target attribute as window.open would serve the purpose of opening a new window.

Even after removing the target attribute, we still get the [Javascript Window] error in mozilla. Here's a quick fix I applied by using a void parameter to discard the null value (screenshot attached).

And this worked! The test creative is now clicking through in Mozilla and IE. The IE however, you’ll have to check the pop up to Allow Blocked Content.

I’ve attached the modified creative for your reference. You can share it with the creative developers and confirm the same.

Please do not hesitate to let me know if you face any further issues or you've trouble opening the zip files.

VAST (Video Ad Serving Template) and Vpaid

What is DCM In-Stream?

An in-stream video refers to video ads. DCM is able to serve video ads to video players on a publisher's website.

DCM In-Stream ads are VAST compliant. VAST stands for "Video Ad Serving Template". It is a set of standards set by the IAB that allows for widespread compatibility across the web for video ad serving.

VAST is the IAB-established 3PAS standard for In-Stream Video. Traditionally, each website has its own video player with its own look and functionality. VAST standardizes an XML file that acts like a digital filing cabinet, providing links to video files, companion banners, non-linear banners, and tracking pixels that live on DoubleClick’s server. This allows publishers to keep using their own video player, while pulling in the assets they need from DoubleClick's servers.

What is VPAID?

VPAID stands for “Video Player-Ad Interface Definition” and is an IAB-published industry standard for interactive in-stream video ads.
There are two types of VPAID creatives: VPAID linear and VPAID non-linear.

VPAID linear: This type of creative appears by itself, not alongside publisher content. It can appear before, between, or after the publisher's video.
For example, a VPAID linear creative might interrupt a publisher's cartoon to display a video commercial with interactive graphics overlaying the advertiser's video content. LIVE EXAMPLE

VPAID non-linear: This type of creative only overlays content over a publisher's video, and will not interrupt the publisher's content. However, interacting with the overlayed creative (with a click) can interrupt the publisher's video and render the advertiser's content instead.
For example, a VPAID non-linear creative might show a small image across the bottom of a publisher's cartoon. Clicking the image might interrupt the publisher's cartoon and load a video that takes up the whole video player.

Difference:

VAST :In-stream video redirect creatives allow DCM to track other in-stream video creatives, including those that are running on a non-DoubleClick ad server. The in-stream video redirect creative has no assets and redirects to a VAST URL you specify. You’ll add the VAST URL in your creative and can specify the same settings as a video creative, including companions.

VPAID:VPAID creatives are rich media creatives that render in a publisher's in-stream video player. They typically use a Flash asset and involve video content and rich media. One important ability of VPAID creatives is that they can pause or mute the publisher's video player and bring up their own content, including interactive options.

Iframe in iframe isn't recomended in DCM

DCM doesn’t officially support the implementation of IFrame in IFrame due to some known technical issues. If you piggyback an IFrame Floodlight tag, or a 3rd party IFrame tag you might encounter some problems.

We suggest only piggybacking image Floodlight tags. This will avoid any Iframe in Iframe issues. Image tags will not fire any other default/publisher tag implemented inside them.

Known technical reasons Iframe in Iframe causes issues:

-Some old browsers have problems in rendering nested Iframes if they don't have an unique ID attribute. This problem is usually resolved by assigning a specific ID attribute to each Iframe , for example:

OUTER IFRAME (Floodlight)

Flatrate impressions set up in DCM

If any one has any query relkated to flat rate and how it can be set in DCM to calculate the value correctly then you should follow the information below:

I would like to inform you that the cost for Flat Rate is calculated normally until the threshold of the number of booked units just like CPM. So, in order to calculate the flat costs correctly, we recommend to enter 1 in the units field and then the cost of the placement you have agreed under 'cost' and select 'cap cost'. In this way, if one impression is served, the cost will be reached and thus you will pay the fixed amount. The real purpose of the Flat Rate would be to have an absolutely fixed
cost regardless of the impressions, and at this moment it can be achieved in DCM inputting Flat Rate cost with just 1 unit.

The "flat rate" function allows you to set a cap on the cost, but if you don't hit the clicks set, then the cost doesn't accrue. Once the booked number of clicks is reached, no additional cost accrues."

DCM_HTML 5

HTML5 Specs

Standard sizes: 160x600, 300x250, 300x600, 468x60, 728x90 and 320x50 (mobile).

Files must only contain one HTML script file + images. Cannot contain additional javascript files. HTML file must be named index.html.

Image file names cannot contain spaces.

Must be built in Flash Professional CC and developed as a HTML5 Canvas, or hardcoded.

Cannot be built in Adobe Edge – significant clickTag issue with multiple files.

Must contain clickTag: {window.open(window.location.hash.substr(1,window.location.hash.length),"_blank");}

Maximum file size: 150kb (inclusive of all files)

Creative cannot be over 30 secs. Best practice is no loops. You can choose to build a refresh button into creative for user initiated replay.

Must have 1 pixel non-white border

Other than the creative area, the html5 file has to have a blank (white) background/canvas.