Challenge

You are planning to use the ADvendio Creative Upload features to manage your creatives in ADvendio and upload them directly to your Xandr network. Now you are wondering:

• Which creative types and features are already supported?

• Which steps are needed to set up and configure the creative upload feature for Xandr

• Can ADvendio handle custom templates and custom macros? And how to configure this?

Solution

In order to setup the Creative Upload in ADvendio, there are so called Ad Creative Templates required. Those templates control, which fields and settings will be available in the Creative Upload UI and thus which information your Sales Reps will be able to see. Additionally you can determine for which Campaign Items, which Creative Template are available. This helps you for example to make sure to only use video creatives for your video Campaign Items and similar.

Also the templates will help to define which information is sent to which fields in Xandr. Each template in ADvendio will refer to a Creative Template in Xandr.

Underneath the each Ad Creative Template in ADvendio there are Template Variables, those can configure which fields are visible in the Creative Upload Screen, but also which settings or custom macros to use in Xandr.

Here is an overview about the data model and what it means:

To start configuring your ADvendio Org for the creative upload to Xandr, you need to follow these steps:

• Create Ad Creative Templates in ADvendio

• Configure your Ad Creative Template Variables for each template based on your Xandr Settings

• Connect Ad Creative Templates to Ad Types in ADvendio, to make them available to your Users

Which Features and Creative formats are currently supported for Xandr?

The following Creative formats are currently supported by ADvendio:

• Banners

  • Image format (directly uploaded image file & URL to an image)

  • Flash format (Only URL to a flash file)

  • HTML format (Only URL to an HTML file)

  • Javascript format (Only URL to a JS file)

• Interstitials

  • Image format (directly uploaded image file & URL to an image)

  • Flash format (Only URL to a flash file)

  • HTML format (Only URL to an HTML file)

  • Javascript format (Only URL to a JS file)

• High Impact

  • Image format (directly uploaded image file & URL to an image)

  • Flash format (Only URL to a flash file)

  • HTML format (Only URL to an HTML file)

  • Javascript format (Only URL to a JS file)

• Expendable

  • Image format (directly uploaded image file & URL to an image)

  • Flash format (Only URL to a flash file)

  • HTML format (Only URL to an HTML file)

  • Javascript format (Only URL to a JS file)

• Natives (With version 2.149)

The following features are currently supported:

• Custom Creative Templates (as long as they are using the supported formats)

• Custom Macros

Create an Ad Creative Templates in ADvendio

You start of by creating your Ad Creative Template in ADvendio, this will help you to configure the types of creatives you want to manage from ADvendio.

To use this for Xandr, you need to know the Xandr template IDs, so you can enter this information in ADvendio. To view the templates in Xandr, go to network → tools → Creative Templates

You see a list of all default templates from Xandr and your own custom templates. Relevant for ADvendio is the first column ID.

Let’s say we want to use the Standard Banner image template, which is default from Xandr. So we take the ID 4. Now we proceed to create an Ad Creative Template record in ADvendio, which could look like this:

1. Creative Template Name: You can pick any name that you like. This name will be shown to the user when uploading a new creative to ADvendio, so we recommend using something which is relatable for your users

2. Connection: Please link to the connection record, which represents your Xandr network

3. Creative Type: You can use this field to further classify

4. Template ID: please enter the Creative Template ID from Xandr, which you are planning to use. In our example it is '4'

5. External Status: Currently not used

6. Active: Please set your template to active, otherwise it will not be available during the creative upload process

Configure your Ad Creative Template Variables

Once the template is there, you will need to define which fields you want or need to use. In our example there are a few fixed variables we always need for the Xandr banner. Additionally you can add Custom Macros as Variables to ADvendio, so that they will be used during the Creative Upload.

To manage the variables of a template, you need to switch to the related tab in your Ad Creative Template record and view the related list ‘Ad Creative Template Variables’

Click the button new to create a new Variable. Depending on your creative format there are certain Variables which are always required. See also the section on the mapping below. Also you will need a Variable record for each Custom Macro of your template. Each Variable record you create will then be an own field in the Creative Upload window your user sees, so they can fill in the required information.

The fields mean the following:

• Name: A general name for your variable. This will also be shown as Field Name to the user during creative upload process, so we recommend picking something your users can recognize.

• Variable Type: Which data type is this variable? The selection will also reflect how your field will be shown for the users. Possible types are:

  • attachment: This type should be used for files.

  • boolean: This type represents a checkbox with true or false.

  • date: This type represents a date with a calendar selection.

  • integer: This type represents a whole number.

  • picklist: This type represents a list of multiple values.

  • string: This type represents a text.

  • textarea: This type represents a longer text.

  • attachmentURL: This type should be used for URLs to externally stored images.

• Required: Check this if the field is required for the user.

• Possible Values: Only applicable for picklist Variable Types to enter the possible values to be selected separated by a semicolon.

• Variable ID: The Id to target the value to the external system (case-sensitive). Please check the table below for more information.

• Default: A possible the default value to support the user in the selection.

• Help Text: A possible help text which will soon be shown in the UI.

Mapping ADvendio Variables to Xandr

Example for a Xandr Creative Template in ADvendio

So to use the Xandr Creative Upload a simple example for a template can look like this:

Underneath this AdCreative template, the following AdCreative Template Variables are created:

Connect your Template to Ad Types

Once the template is created with all its Ad Creative variables, you will need to define for which Ad Types you would like to assign this template. Without assigning the Templates to Ad Types you won’t be able to create new Creatives in the UI as described in: 4.12.2 How to upload Ad Materials (Creatives) to ADvendio? (BETA)

To connect the template to one or multiple Ad Types please go to the related lists of the Ad Creative Template record. For the related list “Assigned Ad Types“ you just need to hit the new button in order to select the relevant Ad Type for which this template and its variables should be usable. After you selected the Ad Type you can either hit the save button if you just want to assign one Ad Type. If you would like to assign multiple Ad Types you can also hit the Save & New button.

Setting up Native Formats

Natives in Xandr can contain a huge variety of different fields and settings to provide. In order to prepare those from ADvendio, you will first need to create specific Ad Creative Templates.

The template ID for this one always needs to be ‘39461’ since this is the ID Xandr uses for Natives. In ADvendio you are of course free to create multiple

To set up the Variables in ADvendio, there is a big list of options you could use which represent the different settings of the natives.

Roughly you could separate those into three different types:

1. The Basic settings like the name and the URL of the landing page

2. The actual elements of the native, like a title, body text, buttons and similar. They are also referred to as data assets

3. The image assets which will be used within the native, for example as main image or icon. In the current release ADvendio does not support video files, only images.

Most of these settings are optional, so you are free to only create those Ad Creative Template Variables in ADvendio, which you are planning to actually use.

The Basic Setup

For the basic settings, you will only need a variable, which represents the landing page URL, as the Creative Name is a default field in ADvendio.

Composition / Data Assets

To actually define the native, Xandr offers a variety of elements, like the Title, a body text, Call to actions and similar. We summarized those as Data Assets. For each of this Xandr fields that is relevant for you, you can create a ad creative template variable in ADvendio. None of these is required for the submit to Xandr to work.

Image Assets & Attachments

You are able to provide multiple images and icons for your native creatives in Xandr.

Setup