[Creative Upload] Set Up Google Ad Manager Creative Upload Features

Challenge

You are planning to use the ADvendio Creative Upload features to manage your creatives in ADvendio and upload them directly to your Google Ad Manager (GAM) 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 GAM

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

Solution

To set up 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 which Campaign Items, and which Creative Templates 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 GAM. Some of the templates in ADvendio will refer to a Creative Template in GAM.

Underneath each Ad Creative Template in ADvendio, there are Template Variables, which can configure which fields are visible in the Creative Upload Screen.

To set up your Creative Upload for Google AdManager you will need to go through the following steps:

1. Create or Import (version 2.155 and up) Ad Creative Templates into ADvendio

2. Configure your Ad Creative Template Variables for each template based on your GAM requirements

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

Features and Creative formats currently supported for GAM

The following Creative formats are currently supported by ADvendio:

• All image-related formats

  • Image (direct upload of files)

  • Image URL (URL to an externally stored image)

  • Overlay (direct upload of files)

• Campaign Manager 360 Creatives (Tags)

• Third-Party Creative Available with March 2024 (2.170)

• Custom Code Creatives Available with March 2024 (2.170)

• Custom Template Creatives / Natives → Available with Version 2.157

• Video Redirect Creatives Available with March 2024 (2.170)

The ADvendio Creative Data Model

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

Import your templates from your Google Ad Manager Network

You can now import templates from your Google Ad Manager network into ADvendio. With this enhancement, you have ready-to-use templates already created at the click of a button!

To access this feature, you will need to go to your Google Ad Manager Connection record in ADvendio and select ‘transfer to ADvendio’

Open

Within the window that opens, you will need to select Creative Templates and decide which templates you’d like to import.

• Creative Standard Templates → This includes the required templates for the default Google Creatives, such as images, image URLs and similar)

• Creative Custom Templates → This includes Custom Creative Templates and Native formats in Google Ad Manager, which you can fully customize for your Google network. (Available with Version 2.157)

Open

Once the import is done, you receive ready-to-use templates, which contain all the required technical information for ADvendio. You can then proceed to further customize them to your needs, for example by adding additional help texts to the variables (see mapping section below).

Problems during the import

After the import process from the AdServer is finished, you will receive a result email. This will also provide you with an overview of problems during the import process. Some of the more common issues can be:

• Non-working / invalid credentials for your connection

• Missing Permissions on your Third-Party Platform User

• Salesforce Problems, when uploading data, such as no editing permissions on the required fields and objects, storage limitations or custom validations

• If a Creative Template can not be created by the ADvendio import process, all related variables will also fail, with an error message that ‘ADvendio__UniqueKeyExt__c was not specified’

Manually create an Ad Creative Template in ADvendio

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

Let’s say we want to use the Standard file image template. 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 relatable to your users

2. Connection (optional): Please link to the connection record, which represents your GAM network

3. Creative Type: Determines which type of Creative will be uploaded to Google AdManager. The following formats are currently supported:

   1. Image

   2. Image URL

   3. Overlay

   4. Campaign Manager 360

   5. Third-Party Creative

4. Template ID: Currently not used

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

Manually 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 GAM banner.

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. Each Variable record you create will then be its 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 a Field Name to the user during the 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 to 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.

  • ExternalAttachment: This is used for file attachments, which are supposed to be stored in an external storage solution, instead of Salesforce file storage.

• 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 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 Google Ad Manager

*Please note, that ADvendio currently requires exactly the values listed here to be set, otherwise the creative upload will end in an error message.

Example for a Google Ad Manager Creative Template in ADvendio

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

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

Assign Dates to Creatives

To enable the date customization for your creatives, you need to check the "Override Dates" checkbox. This step allows you to set flexible start and end times for your creative content.

When you have enabled "Override Dates," an additional section will appear in your organization's Creatives settings under "Optional Settings."

For more detailed information about this feature, please refer to 4.12.2 How to upload Ad Materials (Creatives) to ADvendio? | Creative Assignment Dates for Google Ad Manager and Xandr.

Connect your Template to Ad Types

Once the template is created with all its Ad Creative variables, you will need to define 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?

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 select 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.

Release 2.171 Breaking Change in import of Picklist Type Variables

What has changed:

We slightly changed the logic as how Creative Templates for Google are imported. This affects Variables, that have a predefined set of possible values, like for example the DestinationURLType.

Before, these were imported as String type variable, so that users had to manually enter the expected values:

After the change, we now import them as picklist Variable Type and already prefill the possible values. This makes them ready to use, without having to further modify the creative template in that regard.

Will you be affected?:

If you are not using the Transfer to ADvendio Feature to import Creative Templates, you will not be affected by this change.

As stated above, if you have modified Creative Templates in any form and run the import again, we will overwrite any modifications. If you want to customize your templates, please overwrite the Unique Key External field, so that our import will not overwrite changes. Starting with version 2.171, the following Creative Templates, will be imported in the new style:

• Image

• Overlay

• Image URL

• Google Custom Template

• Campaign Manager 360

• Third Party

• Custom Code

• Video Redirect

• HTML

The variables by default were added as picklists for the following present variables at different templates:

• DESTINATION_URL_TYPE = "CLICK_TO_WEB", "CLICK_TO_APP", "CLICK_TO_CALL", "NONE"

• ORIENTATION = "FREE_ORIENTATION", "PORTRAIT_ONLY", "LANDSCAPE_ONLY"

• SSL_MANUAL_OVERRIDE = "NO_OVERRIDE", "SSL_COMPATIBLE", "NOT_SSL_COMPATIBLE"

• SKIPPABLE_AD_TYPE = "DISABLED", "ENABLED", "INSTREAM_SELECT", "ANY"