Safari Mobile Video Ads

[Paul Poulsen]

Hey all,

Starting on December 10, 2015, our mobile CTR dropped steeply. We're not sure of the exact cause, but didn't see anything change with our setup. Ads play on different Android devices, but not on iPhones (iPads work as expected).

Which SDK are you using (Android, iOS, HTML5, Flash)?

This would be the HTML5 sdk. We are using JWPlayer 6.12, which in turn is using "sdkv=h.3.116.4" in it's VAST requests. In trying to solve this issue, we tried updating JWPlayer to 7.2.4 which uses the same SDK version.

What ad tag are you using in your request?

For Safari Mobile, we are passing JWPlayer the following tag (after replacing the fields in square brackets according to this article):
http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ads?sz=640x480&iu=/29795821/Video_EmbeddablePlayer_Mobile&impl=s&gdfp_req=1&env=vp&output=xml_vast2&unviewed_position_start=1&url=[referrer_url]&description_url=[description_url]&correlator=

A sample of an actual network request (while we set the URL parameter according to instructions linked to, it is overwritten to the full page URL. This happens across devices and browsers, though, and hasn't been a problem.):
https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ads?sz=640x480&iu=%2F29795821%2FVideo_EmbeddablePlayer_Mobile&gdfp_req=1&env=vp&output=xml_vast2&unviewed_position_start=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fss-mobileads2.thorhudl.com%2Fembed%2Fathlete%2F3939267%2Fhighlights%2F270680375&description_url=http%3A%2F%2Fss-mobileads2.thorhudl.com%2Fembed%2Fathlete%2F3939267%2Fhighlights%2F270680375&correlator=242591578718208&cust_params=gradYear%3D0%26hasLogIn%3Dfalse%26reelLength%3D917%26isLogIn%3Dfalse%26isRecruit%3Dfalse%26isCoachAd%3Dfalse%26isAthlete%3Dfalse%26viewCount%3D2%26referrerRoot%3D&sdkv=h.3.116.4&sdki=1&scor=4352594550980608&adk=613753543&osd=2&frm=0&sdr=1&mpt=jwplayer&mpv=7.2.4%2Bcommercial_v7-&ged=ta1_ve3_pt3.3.3_td3_tt0_pd0_bs10_tv1_is0_er0.0.233.414_sv2_sp1_vi0.0.628.414_vp100_ct1_vb1_vl1_vr1_eb24171

Are you able to reproduce this issue using your ad tag in the sample app (Android, iOS) or the Video Suite Inspector (HTML5, Flash)?

Yes, I can recreate this issue with the HTML5 VAST inspector. NOTE: This ad tag is geared toward mobile devices, so to test with the VAST inspector, I used Chrome's Dev Tools to simulate an iPhone 6 and Galaxy S4 when testing the VAST inspector. Not doing this always resulted in an empty VAST response (I assume because of the user agent).

What steps must we take to reproduce your issue?
The network request above fails on our site and in the VAST inspector. After looking at successful VAST requests on Android devices, I was able to get the above request to work in the VAST inspector (spoofing an iPhone 6 in Chrome Dev Tools) by adding the GET parameter "eid=41351016" and changing the parameter "sdki=1" to "sdki=5". So the above network request would change to:
https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ads?sz=640x480&iu=%2F29795821%2FVideo_EmbeddablePlayer_Mobile&gdfp_req=1&env=vp&output=xml_vast2&unviewed_position_start=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fss-mobileads2.thorhudl.com%2Fembed%2Fathlete%2F3939267%2Fhighlights%2F270680375&description_url=http%3A%2F%2Fss-mobileads2.thorhudl.com%2Fembed%2Fathlete%2F3939267%2Fhighlights%2F270680375&correlator=242591578718208&cust_params=gradYear%3D0%26hasLogIn%3Dfalse%26reelLength%3D917%26isLogIn%3Dfalse%26isRecruit%3Dfalse%26isCoachAd%3Dfalse%26isAthlete%3Dfalse%26viewCount%3D2%26referrerRoot%3D&sdkv=h.3.116.4&sdki=5&scor=4352594550980608&adk=613753543&osd=2&frm=0&sdr=1&mpt=jwplayer&mpv=7.2.4%2Bcommercial_v7-&ged=ta1_ve3_pt3.3.3_td3_tt0_pd0_bs10_tv1_is0_er0.0.233.414_sv2_sp1_vi0.0.628.414_vp100_ct1_vb1_vl1_vr1_eb24171&eid=41351016

Of course, I assume there's a reason those variables are set the way they are for iPhones and a reason our DFP/AdExchange setup is not returning results for them, but I haven't been able to find anything about what they mean or how to return VAST results when eid is missing and sdki=1.

Any help in solving this would be greatly appreciated! Please let me know if you need more information or if this would be better suited in the Google DFP forums.

[Vu Chau (IMA SDK Team)]

Hi Paul,

What are the issues (and accompanied errors) you are encountering with the above implementation? We toyed with your tags, but got an empty VAST response in all test scenarios, including in Chrome's mobile emulator and Android Chrome.  So would you be able to provide us with a live page where we can see the issue in action?

Thanks,

Vu Chau

IMA SDK Team

[Paul Poulsen]

Hey Vu,

The error is this in VAST inspector:
(12:45:21 PM) Ad error: AdError 1009: The VAST response document is empty.

Here is a shareable link from the VAST inspector:
https://developers.google.com/interactive-media-ads/docs/sdks/html5/vastinspector?tag=https%3A%2F%2Fpubads.g.doubleclick.net%2Fgampad%2Fads%3Fsz%3D640x480%26iu%3D%252F29795821%252FVideo_EmbeddablePlayer_Mobile%26gdfp_req%3D1%26env%3Dvp%26output%3Dxml_vast2%26unviewed_position_start%3D1%26url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fss-mobileads2.thorhudl.com%252Fembed%252Fathlete%252F494174%252Fhighlights%252F7646398%26description_url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fss-mobileads2.thorhudl.com%252Fembed%252Fathlete%252F494174%252Fhighlights%252F7646398%26correlator%3D2070037517041664%26sdki%3D5%26eid%3D41351072%26cust_params%3DgradYear%253D0%2526hasLogIn%253Dfalse%2526reelLength%253D685%2526isLogIn%253Dfalse%2526isRecruit%253Dfalse%2526isCoachAd%253Dfalse%2526isAthlete%253Dfalse%2526viewCount%253D15%2526referrerRoot%253D%26sdkv%3Dh.3.117.1%26scor%3D3296809689546752%26adk%3D1471199089%26osd%3D2%26frm%3D0%26sdr%3D1%26mpt%3Djwplayer%26mpv%3D6.12.4945%26ged%3Dta1_ve3_pt5.4.5_td5_tt0_pd0_bs10_tv1_is0_er0.0.155.300_sv2_sp1_vi0.0.640.360_vp100_ct1_vb1_vl1_vr1_eb24171

Using that link, here are my repro steps for a successful VAST response.

1. Open the Chrome developer tools  in Chrome (Version 47.0.2526.106 m) in Windows 8.1 on Parallels on my MacBook Pro (OSX 10.11.2).
2. Click the smartphone icon to simulate a mobile device.
3. Select Samsung Galaxy S4 from the dropdown menu (also worked in Apple iPhone 6).
   
4. Navigate to that shareable link.
5. Click Test Ad.
6. See a Jersey Boys ad for the Orpheum in Sioux City or a Cesar dog food ad.

While I was putting those steps together, there was a chunk of time where I only got empty VAST response errors. I'm not sure why, but that may have been what you all saw too.

As for a live example, the latest things I've tried to get these tags are on a test server, but a very similar example can be seen in production at http://www.hudl.com/embed/athlete/494174/highlights/7646398. The main difference is that we are using the same tag for browser and mobile on production, but switched to a mobile-specific tag while debugging this.

Thank you for your help and such a speedy response!

[Vu Chau (IMA SDK Team)]

Hi Paul,

Thanks again for the details.  We did try simulating the page in a mobile environment in the dev tools, and I have just tested it out again using the steps you gave but am still seeing the empty VAST response error.  However, when I was on the live page, sometimes I was able to see a preroll served, and sometimes not.  That isn't strange at all.  My question would be: do you have any frequency capping measures in place?  The SDK's role only goes as far as requesting and rendering the creative.  The ad server will decide which creative is eligible to serve based on various factors, including the device's form factor.  It can be the case that there are frequency capping constraints in place, such as geo, that influence the server's ad serving, and so it would return an empty VAST.  The SDK receives this empty VAST XML, not being able to parse and interpret it, is bubbling up error code 1009, which is empty VAST response as you saw.

Using the same implementation, I would also try to test with other ad tags to see if they continue to serve successfully, or otherwise.  Also talk to your technical account manager and have them look into the front end.  It should not be an SDK issue since we are successfully handling the error and resuming to content.

Vu Chau

IMA SDK Team

[Paul Poulsen]

Thanks for your help, Vu, that makes sense. I'll get in touch with DFP.

[Paul Poulsen]

Hey Vu,

Could you connect us with any support people on the DFP team who would be interested in taking a look at this?

We believe the problem is constrained to iOS 9.2, although some models of iPhones in the office receive VAST responses as expected while others consistently received empty responses (as does the xcode iPhone 6s Plus emulator). We've also noticed DFP has targeting and reporting options for iOS 9.0.X and 9.1.X, but not 9.2.X.

Thank you,

Paul

[Veer Arjun Busani]

Hey Paul,

You can check out the DFP Product Support forum here. Also you could contact your TAM on this. One more channel would be to email support at publishe...@google.com

Thanks,

Veer Arjun Busani

IMA SDK Team