7.2.24 How to set up the Availability Check for exclusive products? (Inventory Forecast)

Owned by Nicole Jünger, created
Last updated: 2024-07-15
5 min read

Available with Version:

2.160 and up

Available with Version:

2.160 and up

Role

System Administrator

Challenge

Configure the Inventory Forecast feature by setting up the inventory and its associated settings. And to gain a better understanding of the feature's specifics and how it works.

Solution

To use the Inventory Forecast feature there are different steps to follow. Please read more below:

Turn on the Inventory Forecast

We added a checkbox to our Administration Settings called “Use Inventory Forecast Service“ which serves to start the Job.

 

Grant OAuth access

The new job is running as an external service on our AWS servers. To enable authentication for this service which will calculate the availability results, it is needed to grant OAuth access.

There are 2 ways to do this. Please find more information on the following Wiki page: 1.6 How to authenticate/authorize ADvendio Gateway for the use of our Third Party System integrations? Authorize ADvendio message / OAuth

If you did not enable this you will receive the hint to enable it, an error or no results (depending on the feature which is being used).

Set up Inventory

Compared to our former Exclusivity Check logic we deprecated the following logic: Constant Quantity and Maximum Applicability Unit field on Content/Content Ad Price Assignment. The fields will be deprecated soon and are only used for the old logic anymore.
In addition we deprecated the values “1” and “Guaranteed AI” for Constant Quantity in the new logic.

We support the definition of availabilities as follows:

Object

Priority of fields when set (1 = first value to be looked at if applicable)

Fields

Meaning

Object

Priority of fields when set (1 = first value to be looked at if applicable)

Fields

Meaning

Ad Specs

4

Maximum Applicability

The availability of your Ad Spec for the defined time unit (e.g. 1, 2, 5).

4

Maximum Applicability Unit

The time unit to define for which time frame the availability value from above needs to be looked at (Day, Week, Month,…)

Ad Prices

3

Constant Quantity - required (Default if empty = “Quantity”)

How should your availability be calculated? We have 3 modes to choose from:

  • Quantity (default): The availability of your items is only defined based on the Quantity value. The Quantity should be linearly distributed across the runtime. (Frequency will be ignored)

  • Frequency: The availability of your items is only defined based on the Frequency value. The Frequency should be linearly distributed across the runtime. (Quantity will be ignored)

  • Runtime Campaign Item: Quantity and Frequency define the availability calculation. Quantity counts as the number of units booked while the Frequency reflects the number of time units in comparison to Campaign Item time frame and Maximum Applicability Unit (e.g. 5 Units booked on 5 days). Please take note that for this mode no distribution will happen across the runtime but the quantity will be booked each day/week/… of the runtime again.

  • Requested Availability: The availability of your items is only defined based on the Requested Availability value. The Requested Availability should be linearly distributed across the runtime. (Quantity/Frequency will be ignored)

Please check the table below for allowed combinations of Constant Quantity and Maximum Applicability values.

Maximum Applicability

The availability of your Ad Price for the defined time unit (e.g. 1, 2, 5).

Maximum Applicability Unit - required

The time unit to define for which time frame the availability value from above needs to be looked at (Day, Week, Month,…)

Especially for weekly units please set the field “Starting Day for Availability Units“ to make sure that the correct week starting day is taken into account.

Starting Day for Availability Units

This field is essential to be set as soon as you are working with weekly availabilities. This number defines the week starting day in a number that can differ between 1 and 7. 1 is Monday and 3 would be Wednesday. 

For Booking Calendar usage a similar setting will be required as well: “Week Commencing Day“. 7.2.25 How to set up the Booking Calendar Lightning? | Step 2: Setup Filters

Contents

2

Maximum Applicability

The availability of your Content for the defined time unit (e.g. 1, 2, 5). This availability is always restricted to a combination with the Ad Price.

Content Ad Price Assignments

1 = most detailed level

Maximum Applicability

The availability of your Content in combination with an Ad Price for the defined time unit (e.g. 1, 2, 5).

Please take note that only the following combinations of Constant Quantities and Maximum Applicability Units are allowed. Otherwise, the service will return a not available message:

Constant Quantity (Ad Price)

Allowed Maximum Applicability Unit values (Ad Spec, Ad Price, Content, Content Ad Price Assignment)

Constant Quantity (Ad Price)

Allowed Maximum Applicability Unit values (Ad Spec, Ad Price, Content, Content Ad Price Assignment)

Quantity (default if empty)

Day

Week

Month

Quarter

Year

Frequency

Day

Runtime Campaign Item

Day

Week

Month

Requested Availability

Day

Week

Month

Quarter

Year

Availability definition on Content Ad Price Assignments

We support a new source for availability information with our new feature. You can define availabilities also on the Content Ad Price Assignment level.

Capacity group definition

In addition, we offer support capacity capping if you don’t want to exceed a certain number of ads being booked for a certain combination of products. The object to define this is called “Capacity Groups” and requires a name, a capacity and to be linked from the relevant Content Ad Price Assignments. Please take note that we recommend the definition of these groups to only be based on the combination of products which also counts into this capacity.

Checking Availability with Contents

  • Please make sure to enable the admin setting “Calculate number of Requested Contents” to evaluate the Contents selected in the Media Configuration and Campaign Builder properly.

  • Make also sure to add the field “Requested Contents” to the Tab Setup (for Media Configuration) or to the Item Configuration Settings (for Campaign Builder). If you don’t want your users to see the fields you can also hide them again after adding them. The setting above will set the correct values.

Working with Publication Dates

When there is at least one publication date on a site defined it is required to always set publication dates.

When you add Publication Dates to your requests the availability calculation will work slightly differently:

  • The Campaign Item timeframe will be ignored in the availability request

  • Constant Quantity values for “Quantity” and “Frequency” will be distributed across the number of Publication dates selected while the Constant Quantity value “Runtime Campaign Item” will book the Quantity set in the Campaign Item for each Publication date.

API requests

To request the Availability with our API please check the changes noted on the following page: Forecast API - Documentation (Section 1.8.5: Request for non-adserver Campaign Items with Content (Inventory Forecast))

Blocking

We support Blocking of inventory for the following objects:

  • Blocked Placements

  • Blocked Ad Types

  • Blocked Ad Specs

  • Blocked Contents