Description: This article provides information on InnovidXP’s CTV/OTT methodology, publisher certification process, what data the impression tracker collects, as well as the set up and implementation. This specifically relates to publisher certification of the InnovidXP impression tracker when a client is not ad serving through Innovid.
This document is aimed at being a reference for publishers who want to be certified by Innovid to run the InnovidXP impression tracker.
Methodology
InnovidXP has vast coverage of the CTV/OTT advertising space, accurately measuring response and tying TV ads to direct business outcomes. Whether brands are running CTV/OTT as standalone or as part of a broader TV campaign, InnovidXP quantifies TV’s impact, tracks response across devices, and informs campaign optimizations.
Impressions
An impression is a file that details which household has been exposed to an ad. We count all impressions where a household has been exposed to an ad for at least one second. We then use those impressions to calculate a range of key campaign delivery metrics, including:
- Reach: The number of households exposed to an ad during a campaign, measured across screens and devices served within the household.
- Frequency: The number of times a household has been exposed to an ad during a campaign.
- Impressions served: The number of impressions served in total across a campaign.
- Impressions per household: The average number of impressions served to each household during a campaign.
- Unique reach: The unique audiences reached by linear and OTT and by individual publishers within a campaign.
Measuring CTV/OTT
InnovidXP measures the business impact of CTV/OTT campaigns by connecting ad exposure to real-world outcomes. This includes measuring brand engagement/response via the brand’s website or app, including onsite and in-app actions, right down to actual sales. Through our pixels, we measure CTV/OTT performance across ad-supported streaming services and across screens from smart TVs to mobile devices and laptops. Results are refreshed daily.
CTV/OTT Performance Analytics
InnovidXP delivers real-time TV analytics, giving you always-on performance analysis at macro and granular levels. In addition to providing a single, unified platform for linear and digital TV measurement, performance insights and analytics include:
- Viewer response and impact by weekday/daypart, device type, creative, campaign flight, etc.
- Performance across publishers
- Comparison of CTV/OTT and linear ad effectiveness
- Key metrics such as frequency, conversion rates, and cost per visit
- Reach, frequency, and recency analytics, along with impressions delivered by geolocation
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Publisher Certification
InnovidXP publisher certification ensures quality control of attribution and measurement across platforms and devices.
Note: If we partner with a new ad server, we test to ensure all trackers (sometimes referred to as pixels) are firing correctly and reporting as expected.
Why Certification Matters
As an independent third-party measurement and attribution provider, we are deeply invested in ensuring the accuracy of data results on behalf of our clients.
Proactive publisher certification prior to campaign launch can significantly reduce the number of data discrepancies and/or in-flight errors with the rendering of tags. Moreover, certification is a critical component of meeting industry-adopted Media Rating Council (MRC) standards.
Format
Certification must be deployed separately for each publisher and/or DSP. These tags will be issued in a 1x1 format.
InnovidXP Impression Tracker Setup
The InnovidXP Impression Tracker is an HTTP GET request pixel that will be integrated into server tagging to collect data for a brand’s ads as they are served. It supports the parameters listed below. To generate the appropriate tracker pixel, we need the client macro document, which should be supplied during the certification process.
The following is an example URL that enables clients to integrate our fields into their tag. This URL is for use in OTT environments where JavaScript is not always available:
https://[clientcollectorhostname].tvsquared.com/impression?idsite=[idsite]&source=[ source]&creativename=[creativename]&creativeid=[creativeid]&campaignid=[campaignid] &userid=[userid]&rand=[rand]&publishername=[publishername]
IAB US Privacy and TCF Compliance
Innovid is a member of both the IAB US Privacy String CCPA Opt Out and GDPR European Transparency & Consent Framework (TCF). This provides our platform users with additional independent assurance that it operates to the highest standards of data protection across linear and OTT measurement.
US Privacy String
The IAB Tech Lab’s US Privacy String communicates signals regarding consumer privacy and choice under US privacy regulations. Version 1 supports requirements made under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
The String format enables digital properties to store and maintain a consumer’s privacy preference and transmit that data to relevant parties. Parties receiving the data are expected to act on it in accordance with any relevant governance. Refer to the IAB US Privacy String guidelines for more details.
US Privacy String Format
| URL Parameter | Corresponding Macro | Example Representation in URL |
|
us_privacy |
US Privacy String | &us_privacy=${US_PRIVACY} |
TCF Compliance
The TCF is designed to help all parties in the digital advertising chain ensure that they comply with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and ePrivacy Directive. We have two versions of our Impression Tracker available; one that is TCF-compliant and one that is non-TCF. The TCF-compliant version uses the following additional URL parameters and corresponding macros. Refer to the IAB TCF support materials for more details.
TCF Formats
| URL Parameter | Corresponding Macro | Example Representation in URL |
|
gdpr |
GDPR | &gdpr=${GDPR} |
|
gdpr_consent |
GDPR_CONSENT_XXXXX |
&gdpr_consent=${GDPR_CONSENT_XXXXX} For example: &gdpr_consent=${GDPR_CONSENT_985} for Innovid. |
To implement a TCF-compliant solution, the InnovidXP Account Manager can check if the publishers/ad servers used offer TCF-compliant operation.
TCF Vendor ID
Our TCF Vendor ID is 985.
What Data we Collect
We collect the following fields by default:
- IP Address
- Timestamp
- User Ref (URL they come in from)
- Publisher name
- Publisher ID
- Creative name
- Creative ID
- Placement Group name (same as channel/network name)
- Placement Group ID
If the client requests any of these additional parameters to be added to the impression pixel, add notes in the certification request form:
- User ID
- Device ID
- ID for the advert for debugging
- Referrer URL
- Advertiser name
- Advertiser ID
- Delivery platform (e.g., linear, web, mobile, OTT)
- Age rating of content
- List of genres for content (comma-separated list)
- Content ID during ad delivery
- Content name during ad delivery
- Advertising ID of the mobile device (if different from deviceid)
- Playout network name
- Playout network ID
- External/third-party ad network ID
- External/third-party ad network name
- External/third-party ad network placement ID
- External/third-party ad network placement name
Implementation
Pixels will need to be appended to each creative being served by the client at the ad server level, to ensure that we receive all of the impressions delivered and provide the clients with the appropriate measurement and attribution for their inventory.
Testing and Change Requests
We only perform tests when working with an ad server that we haven’t worked with previously; otherwise, we will move forward with the certification without formal testing.
If a request from our mutual clients comes in regarding InnovidXP impression pixel changes, we will use the supplied macro document from the relevant ad server and make the appropriate changes, provided the changes can be supported by the InnovidXP platform.