An instream ad unit defines how and when an ad plays within your video content. To create a new instream ad unit, navigate to the Ad Services section, click Create New, then select the type of instream ad you’d like to create. This page covers the pre-roll ad unit setup, as it’s the most common use of instream.
1.0 | Ad Unit Settings
- Title: The name of your ad unit.
- Code: The reference code for the ad unit. If nothing is entered, it defaults to the title.
- Description (optional): A short description of the ad unit.
2.0 | CTA Settings
- CTA text: Add text for a CTA (Call to Action), a clickable overlay button that appears on your ad while it’s playing (for example: “More information” or “Visit website”).
- Midplay CTA: Controls whether the CTA button is shown during ad playback. Options:
- Hide (default): CTA is not shown.
- Show if no VPAID ad: CTA is shown only when the ad is not a VPAID ad.
- Show: CTA is always shown.
- CTA position: Place the CTA at either the top right or top left of the player.
- CTA background color: Sets the background color of the CTA button. Only visible when Midplay CTA is set to “Show if no VPAID ad” or “Show”.
- CTA highlight color: Sets the highlight (hover) color of the CTA button. Only visible when Midplay CTA is set to “Show if no VPAID ad” or “Show”.
3.0 | Pre-roll Settings
- Playout: Associate the ad unit with a playout (a configured player channel) to apply it to all content loaded in that playout.
- Media Clip: Associate the ad unit with a single specific media clip instead of an entire playout.
- Commercial behaviour: Controls how often the ad plays. Options are:
- Once per load (default): the ad plays every time the player is loaded.
- Once per session: the ad plays once per browser session, regardless of how many times the player is loaded.
- Once per clip: the ad plays once per individual video clip.
- Minimum clip duration for pre-roll: Sets how long a media clip must be before a pre-roll ad is triggered.
- Allow skipping: Enable or disable the “Skip Ad” button on your pre-roll.
- Skip countdown text: Edit the text shown during the countdown before the skip button appears (only visible when “Allow skipping” is enabled). The default text is “You can skip this ad in”.
- Skip countdown seconds: Set the number of seconds before the skip button appears (entered in the same row as the countdown text).
- Skip button text: Edit the text on the skip button (only visible when “Allow skipping” is enabled).
- Show upcoming video thumbnail: Displays a thumbnail of the upcoming video during the pre-roll, so the viewer knows what content will play next.
- Upcoming video text: Add a label to the thumbnail (e.g. “Stay tuned for this:”). This sub-setting is only available when Allow skipping is disabled.
4.0 | Display Settings
- Controls visibility: Controls when the control bar is shown. Options:
- Automatic (default): the control bar is hidden during playback and on pause.
- Always show: the control bar is always visible.
- Always hide: the control bar is never shown. When this option is selected, the play/pause and mute/unmute settings below are hidden.
- Show play/pause button: Enables the play/pause button on the control bar. Only available when Controls visibility is not set to “Always hide”.
- Show mute/unmute button: Enables the mute/unmute button. Only available when Controls visibility is not set to “Always hide”.
- Show progress bar: By default, the progress bar is enabled. Use this setting to disable it. Note that disabling the progress bar does not affect any individually configured play/pause or mute/unmute buttons; those remain active. Only available when Controls visibility is not set to “Always hide”.
- Progress bar color: Change the color of the progress bar.
- Text commercial time remaining: Displays text announcing the remaining time of the ad.
