Contents
Ad Selection With Multiple Campaigns
FAQs: Specific Line Item Settings
Introduction
This guide describes how ART19’s ad serving technology works. The goal of this document is to help you manage your line item more effectively, leveraging all the line item tools that ART19 offers. It does not cover the technical aspects of dynamic ad insertion.
For more information, please Contact Support.
How to Use this Guide
This guide is organized into three sections:
- The Line Item Delivery section details the requirements for an ad line item to be served into a podcast.
- The Ad Selection With Multiple Line Items section explains how ad selection works when more than one line item targets the same podcast at the same time.
- The Line Item Settings section provides more detail about individual line item settings mentioned in previous sections.
Each section has accompanying FAQs. While it is helpful to understand the content in preceding sections to make sure you have a holistic view of ART19’s ad selection process, you can also access specific sections using the table of contents.
Line Item Delivery
Line Item delivery is determined by three factors: Content settings, Line Item settings, and listening Audience. In order for a line item to deliver, it must meet the requirements in each category. For more information about how delivery is affected by other line items, see Ad Selection With Multiple Line Items.
Content Settings
Podcast episodes must be set up to receive ad line items. Content settings are configured on the Series and Episode Detail Pages.
Once an episode has been set up (see Creating an Episode for more details), you must create at least one Ad Insertion Point (AIP) Marker and select its Position Type. If there are other Markers present, the Position Type for your new AIP may be preselected based on location.
When you first add an AIP, certain settings will have default values. For instance, Maximum Total Time is set to 120 seconds, and Maximum Number of Ads is set to 1. You can change these individual AIP settings or the default settings for every new AIP you create at any time.
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**Note: These settings are specifically required for ad insertion.
Line Item Settings
In order for a line item to be delivered to a podcast, it must be set up correctly. Line settings are configured on the Line Item List and Line Item Detail pages.
When creating a new line item, you must first provide a unique name, then select a Brand and Agency. If you haven’t already created your Brand (required for Billable Line Items) and/or Agency (optional), you can do so via the Brands and Agencies links in the left navigation panel.
New Line Items have many default settings. For instance, they are set to Standard priority and are eligible for listeners globally. You can change these settings at any time. In order to run, a line item must also have at least one flight, targeted series, positional targeting, and an active ad. Though there are many ways to further customize your line item, these are the minimum requirements for it to be eligible for selection.
In order for a line item to be delivered to a particular episode, the line item's settings must match the content settings noted above. For instance, the line item must target a Position (e.g. Post-Roll 1) that exists in the episode, and the duration of the ad creatives must be less than the episode’s Maximum Total Time setting.
Summary
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Audience
Even if the Line Item and Content settings agree, a line item won’t deliver in full if there isn’t a sufficiently-sized, qualifying listening audience. Understanding how audience targeting works allows you to expand or reduce your pool of listeners, and thus your line item delivery.
For example, if you have 300 listeners in Tanzania and you geo-target only that country, then the campaign can deliver to those 300 people but is unlikely to meet a larger impression goal.
Two common ways to increase your listener pool are to target more geographic regions, and include more series and/or episodes.
FAQs: Line Item Delivery
If I target my line item to Pre-Roll, Mid-Roll, and Post-Roll positions, which position will it be inserted into?
Line Items are delivered to the first available position in an episode. In this scenario, if a line item is not selected for a position, it will be evaluated for the next position in the episode until it finds a match. If there is only one active line item, it will always be inserted into the first AIP it is targeted to.
If I have multiple ads in a single line item, how do they rotate?
All active ads in your line item will be distributed evenly. For example, if you have two ads in your line item, each will receive 50% of the impressions.
Why isn’t my line item delivering?
Your line item may not deliver if your content settings and line item settings do not agree. Here are a few things to check:
AIP
- Make sure your AIP has a Maximum Total Time longer than the total duration of ads you want to play in that position.
- If you’d like more than one ad to play in the targeted AIP, check the Maximum Number of Ads setting.
- Make sure your content has an AIP type and position that your line item is targeting. For example, if you’re targeting Pre-Rolls but your targeted content only has Mid-Roll AIPs, no ads will be inserted.
Run
- Check that the run time is correct and that your flight dates align with the time you want your line item to be active.
Pacing
- Make sure that your Goal has not yet been reached. It’s possible that delivery is being throttled due to an “Evenly” paced line item pacing ahead. You can turn pacing to “As Fast as Possible” to verify whether this is the case.
Audience
- Check that all possible series are included.
- If your line item is targeting a small Geographic target, it’s possible that the targeted audience is not large enough to meet your line item goals.
Ad Selection With Multiple Line Items
ART19’s ad trafficking tools allow you to target more than one line item to the same podcast at the same time. You can use this functionality to target different line items to different audiences within a series (e.g. serving one line item to listeners in the United States, and another to listeners in Germany), or you can target multiple line items to the same audience to increase the likelihood that no podcast is downloaded without a full ad load. When targeting multiple line items to the same series audience, understanding why one line item will be served over another is vital.
It’s important to note that the ad selection process is linear, meaning that the ad server will check available AIPs individually in sequential order. This may affect which line items are selected later in the episode, as earlier ad decisions may exclude line items from being considered for later AIPs based on Frequency and Competitive Separation settings.
The ART19 ad server determines the order in which line items are selected based on a few line item settings: Priority, Pacing, and CPM.
Priority
All Line Items are assigned Standard priority by default, but they can be changed to Urgent, High, Low, or Very Low. Outside of exclusions that disqualify a line item from being delivered, line item priority is the first setting considered for selection. A higher priority line item will always be selected over a lower priority line item.
Pacing
Line Items pacing will be set to "As Fast as Possible" by default. If you set pacing to deliver "Evenly" on one of your line items, the ad server will then factor line item pacing into the selection order. When considering multiple line items, a line item that is pacing behind will always be selected over another line item with the same priority. A line item that is pacing ahead will not be served again until it is back on pace. A line item is on pace when it has a run time that is proportional to the amount of impressions remaining.
Note: The pacing algorithm assumes consistent download numbers, and cannot predict fluctuations in listenership. In an "Evenly" paced line item, download changes may not be factored into the pacing algorithm right away, which can result in uneven delivery until the system adjusts.
For more information about how line item pacing works, see Pacing in the Line Item Settings section.
CPM
Line Items do not have a CPM by default. If you enter a CPM value, it will be factored into line item selection. In service of yield optimization, a line item with a higher CPM will always be selected over another line item at the same priority with a lower CPM, so long as the lower CPM line item is not pacing further behind. CPM currency will depend on the value provided in the Ops settings page at the time of profile creation.
Note: CPM values can be entered for the whole line item, or on a specific series the line item is targeting. ART19 will consider latest currency exchange rates at the backend for line item prioritization for global currency CPMs.
Scenario 1: Priority
| Line Item | Priority | Pacing Type | Pacing Status | CPM | Selection Order |
| A | High | As Fast as Possible | N/A | $10 | 1st |
| B | Standard | Evenly | On Pace | $10 | 2nd |
| C | Low | Evenly | Pacing Behind | $25 | 3rd |
Each line item has a different Priority setting, so it is the only factor considered for ad selection.
Scenario 2: Pace
| Line Item | Priority | Pacing Type | Pacing Status | CPM | Selection Order |
| D | Standard | Evenly | Furthest Behind | $0 | 1st |
| E | Standard | Evenly | Pacing Behind | $15 | 2nd |
| F | Standard | Evenly | On Pace | $25 | 3rd |
Each line item has the same Priority setting, so the ad server looks at the Pacing Status of each line item, instead.
Scenario 3: CPM
| Line Item | Priority | Pacing Type | Pacing Status | CPM | Selection Order |
| G | Standard | As Fast as Possible | N/A | $25 | 1st |
| H | Standard | Evenly | On Pace | $15 | 2nd |
| I | Standard | Evenly | On Pace | $10 | 3rd |
Each line item has the same Priority setting and no line items are pacing behind, so the ad server compares CPMs to determine ad selection order.
FAQs: Multiple Line Items
If I set up two line items with the exact same settings, how will they deliver?
The line items will be selected in a semi-random order. This will result in even delivery so long as settings involved in ad selection (Priority, Pace, CPM) remain unchanged during the flight of each line item.
What happens if I change a line item from Standard to High Priority?
If there are other line items targeting the same audience, the line item will supercede all lower priority line items until it is no longer available for ad selection (e.g. it hits its goal or is pacing ahead). If there are no other line items targeting the same audience, this will have no effect.
How do exclusions get factored into ad selection with multiple line items?
There are three line items settings that affect the delivery of other line items targeting the same inventory: Competitive Separation, Frequency, and Exclusivity for Sequential Line Items. When a line item is selected, the ad server may exclude other line items targeting the same audience based on these settings.
For example, suppose Line Items A is a High Priority line item with an Automotive brand. It is selected before Line Item B, a Standard Priority line item that is competitively separating against the Automotive industry within a download. The ad server excludes Line Item B from the download because Line Item A was already selected and has a brand that conflicts with Line Item B’s competitive separation setting.
For more information about these specific settings, see our Help Center article for Advanced Line Item Settings.
Specific Line Items Settings
This section details specific line item settings and how they affect delivery.
Information. ART19 offers 2 main campaigns types: Billable and House. “Billable” campaigns must have a Brand (Agency is optional). These attributes can affect campaign delivery when there are other campaigns targeting the same inventory because of Competitive Separation rules.
House Line Items don’t have Brand and Agency requirements. “House” line items are “unpaid” and don’t come with a CPM option. House line items are typically used for internal promos or CTAs, can be optionally associated with an agency and brand.
“Billable” Line Item Information Card
“House” Line Item Information Card
Line Item Type (Standard or Sequential) also affects delivery. Sequential Line Items contain two or three ads served in a specific sequence to tell a cohesive story. Exclusive sequential line items will not share an episode download with any other line items.
"Billable" Line Item Ad Delivery
"House" Line Item Ad Delivery
Fill Rate is found on the Information card, and can be used to throttle delivery. Once a line item is selected for insertion, Fill Rate will be applied. For example, a Fill Rate of 50% means that the campaign will only be delivered half of the time it otherwise would have.
Run. Line Items need to have a Flight in order to deliver. You can have multiple flights within a line item, and there can be dark periods between flights when the line item is inactive.
Goal. You can set a Goal based on Impressions or Spend. A Spend-based Goal must have an accompanying CPM. A line item will stop delivering once it reaches its Goal. You can only have one Goal at a time, and only the most recently set Goal will be considered.
If you set your Spend Goal to $15,000, and your CPM to $15 dollars, then your line item will stop delivering when it reaches 1,000,000 impressions.
You can also set up a Daily Impressions Goal in the "Pacing" card. See Pacing for more details.
Line Item Series Settings. Once a series is added to a line item, you can also set a Series-specific CPM and Goal, define what Ad Types the Series can receive, and whether the Line Item can be delivered to RSS listeners, API listeners (i.e., listeners using the ART19 embedded player), or both.
From here, you can also decide if the line item will be available to all episodes within the series, or specific episodes. This can greatly affect line item delivery.
Pacing determines the speed at which your line item is delivered. Pacing is set to "As Fast as Possible" by default, meaning ads will be served whenever a line item meets the delivery requirements until the line item goal is met. Pacing set to "Evenly" will deliver a line item consistently over the span of its run time. Daily Pacing is determined by the number of impressions in the Daily Goal. Daily Pacing can be set to deliver "Evenly" or "As Fast as Possible" to meet the Daily Goal.
When pacing "Evenly," the system looks at the total line item Goal, and distributes the required number of impressions across the Run. As the number of delivered impressions grows, the system continually adjusts priority and pacing accordingly. If there is more than one Flight in the total line item Run, then pacing "Evenly" will ensure that the line item is distributed across remaining flights.
For example, if a line item has a 10,000 impression Goal and two five-day long Flights, then the system will deliver roughly 1,000 impressions per day when active. If listenership drops one day and only 900 impressions are delivered, then the outstanding 100 impressions will be distributed across the remaining days, as the system readjusts to meet the Goal.
| Day | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | Total |
| # of Imps. | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 900 | 1,025 | 1,025 | 1,025 | 1,025 | 10,000 |
Make sure that you set the Daily Goal high enough that it will meet the total Line Item Goal when multiplied by the number of days in the Run. When the Daily Goal is too small to reach the total Impression or Spend Goal for a campaign, a warning message will appear.
Frequency controls the number of ads from a particular line item and/or brand that can be inserted into a single episode download and the number of times an individual listener can receive an ad from the associated line item.
Example1 - Frequency Per Download: Line Item Maximum If you have 2 ads in a line item and you would like them both to be able to deliver in a single download, setting the Line Item Maximum setting to 2 allows for this line item to be selected for delivery twice in the same episode download.
Example 2 - Frequency Per Download: Brand Maximum If you have multiple line items for Brand A that are running at the same time but don’t want them to run in the same episode, setting the Brand Maximum setting to 1 assures that there will never be more than one Brand A ad delivered to in the same episode download.
Example 3 - Frequency Per Listener: Line Item Frequency If you want to make sure a unique listener can only get 1 impression from a line item per day with a max of 6 line items from a line item over a 4 week period, setting Line Item Frequency rules of 1 impression in 1 day and 6 impressions in 28 days will enforce that logic.
Competitive Separation allows you to ensure that competing ads aren’t present in the same episode download or targeted AIP. You can separate ads by competing Industries or brand domains. For instance, if you are creating a line item for Ford and you want to separate against Toyota, you can competitively against the domain toyota.com. If you want to apply broader competitive separation, you can separate against the industry IAB2 - Automotive. Separating by industry is broader and may impact line delivery if multiple line items are targeting the same inventory.
Geo-Targeting. The Geo-Targeting tool can be used to target line items to listeners in specific geographic locations. You can target by Continent, Country, International Region, State, City, or DMA. The Geo-Targeting tool also allows you to exclude locations by Continent, Country, International Region, State, City, or DMA.
Geo-Targeting Inclusion & Exclusion Search View
Geo-Targeting Card in Line Item
Positional Targeting determines which AIP markers your ad line item can serve into. You can select AIP Types (e.g.. Pre-Rolls), Numbers (e.g. Pre-Roll 1) and even specific Positions within an AIP (e.g. Pre-Roll 1A). Positional Targeting is set up on a Line Item-Series basis, but you can define default Positional Targets for all targeted Series on the Line Item.
FAQs: Specific Line Item Settings
If two line items are equally prioritized and target the same AIPs, how would competitive separation affect selection order?
The line items would be randomly selected and inserted into available AIPs. As a result, the line items should conclude at approximately the same time.
What is the difference between Exclusive and Non-Exclusive sequential Line Items?
Exclusive sequential line items will not share an episode download with any other line items. Non-Exclusive Sequential Line Items may. If a Non-Exclusive sequential line item is inserted into a download, it will be prioritized against other non-sequential line items competing for the same position in the episode’s proceeding AIPs.
Why is my line item receiving additional impressions after it has concluded?
Podcasts are consumed as downloads or progressive downloads, which means that all ad decisioning must take place at the time of the first request. Because of this, it is standard practice across the industry to maintain selected ads within a download for up to 24 hours so as not to introduce playback issues to listeners who have only partially downloaded an episode. Ultimately, this can result in additional impressions after a line item has concluded.