Line item settings reference – ART19

This reference covers specific line item settings and how each affects delivery.

Campaign type: Billable vs House

ART19 offers two main campaign types. Billable line items must have a Brand (Agency is optional); these attributes can affect delivery when other campaigns target the same inventory, because of Competitive Separation rules. House line items have no Brand or Agency requirement, are unpaid, and have no CPM option. House line items are typically used for internal promos or CTAs, and can optionally be associated with an agency and brand.

Line item type: Standard vs Sequential

Line item type also affects delivery. Sequential line items contain two or three ads served in a specific order to tell a cohesive story. An exclusive sequential line item will not share an episode download with any other line item.

Fill Rate

Fill Rate, found on the Information card, throttles delivery. Once a line item is selected for insertion, its Fill Rate is applied. A Fill Rate of 50%, for example, means the line item is delivered only half of the time it otherwise would be.

Run

A line item needs a Flight in order to deliver. You can have multiple flights within a line item, with 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 stops delivering once it reaches its goal. You can have only one goal at a time, and only the most recently set goal is considered. For example, a $15,000 spend goal with a $15 CPM stops delivering at 1,000,000 impressions. You can also set a Daily Impressions Goal in the Pacing card.

Line item series settings

Once a series is added to a line item, you can set a series-specific CPM and goal, define which ad types the series can receive, and choose whether the line item delivers to RSS listeners, API listeners (those using the ART19 embedded player), or both. You can also decide whether the line item is available to all episodes in the series or only specific episodes, which can greatly affect delivery.

Frequency

Frequency controls how many ads from a particular line item and/or brand can be inserted into a single episode download, and how many times an individual listener can receive an ad from that line item.

Per download, line item maximum: if you have two ads in a line item and want both to deliver in a single download, setting the line item maximum to 2 allows the line item to be selected twice in the same download.
Per download, brand maximum: if you have several line items for Brand A running at once but don't want them in the same episode, setting the brand maximum to 1 ensures no more than one Brand A ad is delivered to a single download.
Per listener, line item frequency: to make sure a unique listener gets only one impression from a line item per day, with a maximum of six over a four-week period, set line item frequency rules of 1 impression in 1 day and 6 impressions in 28 days.

Competitive Separation

Competitive Separation ensures competing ads aren't present in the same episode download or targeted AIP. You can separate ads by competing industries or by brand domains. For instance, when creating a line item for Ford, you can separate against the domain toyota.com, or apply broader separation against the industry IAB2 - Automotive. Separating by industry is broader and may affect delivery when multiple line items target the same inventory.

Geo-Targeting

Geo-Targeting lets you target line items to listeners in specific locations by Continent, Country, International Region, State, City, or DMA. Geo-Targeting also lets you exclude locations at any of those levels.

Positional Targeting

Positional Targeting determines which AIP markers a line item can serve into. You can select AIP types (such as Pre-Rolls), numbers (such as Pre-Roll 1), and even specific positions within an AIP (such as Pre-Roll 1A). Positional targeting is set per line item-series, but you can define default positional targets for all targeted series on the line item.

Common questions

If two line items are equally prioritized and target the same AIPs, how does competitive separation affect selection order? The line items are randomly selected and inserted into available AIPs, so they should conclude at about the same time.

What is the difference between exclusive and non-exclusive sequential line items? An exclusive sequential line item will not share an episode download with any other line item. A non-exclusive one may; if inserted, it is prioritized against other non-sequential line items competing for the same position in the episode's following AIPs.

Why is my line item receiving additional impressions after it has concluded? Podcasts are consumed as downloads or progressive downloads, so all ad decisioning happens at the time of the first request. Because of this, it is standard industry practice to keep the selected ads within a download for up to 24 hours, so listeners who only partially downloaded an episode don't hit playback issues. Keeping ads within a download for that window can result in additional impressions after a line item has concluded.

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. If a line item is not selected for one position, it is evaluated for the next position until it finds a match. If there is only one active line item, it is always inserted into the first AIP it is targeted to.