Livestream Enterprise customers can make advertising revenue by integrating their Livestream account with Google Ad Manager (formerly known as DoubleClick for Publishers, or DFP) on the Livestream player on both live and on-demand content.
Here is a live player serving a pre-roll ad; notice the Ad countdown in the bottom left corner and the Skip Ad option in the bottom right corner.
Here is the same player as it transitions to the live content:
To enable pre-roll advertisements on your Livestream account you will need the following:
- Livestream Enterprise Account
- A Google Ads account: https://admanager.google.com/home/#
- A video file or 3rd party VAST tag to traffic.
- You can fine VAST samples here.
To comply with GDPR, we cannot set “non-essential” cookies without providing EU visitors with a link to our cookie policy with an option to opt out of them. Google Ad Manager requires “non-essential” cookies. We cannot provide the required disclosure on the site(s) where you embed the Livestream player. Therefore, we will be unable to serve ads to EU visitors through the embedded player. We are adding this disclosure to livestream.com. Players on livestream.com (including your event pages) will be unaffected and will continue to serve ads to all users, including those in the EU.
Google provides a helpful introduction to Ad Manager here; for help with setting up Google Ad Manager, please see their help center.
When integrating your Google Ads account with Livestream, there are two pieces of information you need: Your Network Code and the Path to Ad Unit.
You can find the network code in the upper left corner of your Ads home page below your account name.
After this, you will need to create or use an existing ad unit. Navigate to the Inventory tab on the left side, then select Ad Units.
This menu lists ad units. An ad unit name is what you enter into your Livestream settings to tell Livestream where to find your ads. If you wish to use a pre-existing ad unit, make sure that the ad unit you are using is for video, at either of the following sizes
- 400x300v (video / VAST)
- 920x508v (video / VAST)
To create a new ad unit, select New ad unit. Choose whether to add it at the current level or to nest it within an a selected, pre-existing ad unit (if you do not have any, it will say "One Level Below Network").
Enter the name and other relevant information.
Open the Video (VAST) sizes menu, then click the field labeled Master. It is important to set your size to either 400x300v (video / VAST) or 920x508v (video / VAST). No other sizes are supported.
Additional settings on this page are optional. Select Save at the bottom of the page when you have finished.
To traffic an ad to your account you will need to create an order. To do this, go to the Delivery menu on the left side. From there, go to Orders > My Orders > New Order.
Enter all of the relevant information in the New order and New line item sections. Be sure to mark the Inventory sizes as Video VAST and set the size as 400x300 or 920x508.
The Trafficker is someone within your organization who is responsible for uploading creatives and tracking the performance of this order and its line items. This person's user role must include the following permission: "Edit orders and line items, and submit for approval." That field will contain this person's email address.
Fill in the other required information, including campaign times and quantity of impressions, as desired. Then scroll down until you see the Add Targeting section. Select Inventory on the left, then Ad units. You will see the one you created.
Click Include next to your ad units name, your ad unit will appear on the right in the Selected Criteria area.
Next, select Save and... at the bottom, then Upload creative set.
From here, give this creative a name. You will see three different options for uploading a creative; select Video.
Overlay and Display Unit creatives are not currently supported by the Livestream player.
Fill in the information about the video you are uploading, then select Or Upload a New Asset...
You can save while it is transcoding your video. After that you will need to approve the order.
After approving the order, Ad Manager will warn you that there might not be enough ad inventory. You can disregard this message and proceed because Ad Manager does not have any historical data to forecast what is available.
In your Livestream account, go to Settings and navigate to the Advanced menu.
In the Google DFP Integration section, check Enable DFP Advertisements and enter your Network Code and Ad Unit name into the corresponding fields. If your Ad Unit is nested within another Ad Unit, you will need to enter the path separated by forward slashes ("/") e.g. /region/state
Enterprise customers who use Livestream Studio can use the same integration to serve live mid-roll advertisements. This means if you are producing an event and you want your viewers to receive an ad or multiple ads in the middle of the broadcast, you can trigger them from the Studio.