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Video Ad Serving Template

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Metadata format for video advertising

Video Ad Serving Template (VAST) is a specification defined and released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) that sets a standard for communication requirements between ad servers and video players in order to present video ads.

It is a data structure declared using XML.

VAST has 8 versions: 1.0 (deprecated), 1.1 (deprecated), 2.0, 2.0.1 (the schema version as the official VAST 2.0 schema), 2.6, 3.0, 4.0, 4.1 and 4.2.

Request

In order to play a video ad in a video player, the video player sends a request to a VAST ad server.

It is a simple HTTP based URL that typically appears as follows: http://www.example.com/?LR_PUBLISHER_ID=1331&LR_CAMPAIGN_ID=229&LR_SCHEMA=vast2-vpaid

Response

The ad server responds with a VAST data structure that declares these parameters:

  • The ad media that should be played
  • How the ad media should be played
  • What should be tracked as the media is played
  • The companion ad that should be displayed alongside the master ad

For example, the above request returns the following response (trimmed): 

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
 <VAST version="2.0">
    <Ad id="229">
    	<InLine>
    		<AdSystem version="4.9.0-10">LiveRail</AdSystem>
    		<AdTitle><!]></AdTitle>
    		<Description><!]></Description>
    		<Impression id="LR"><!]></Impression>
 			.......
 		    <Creatives>
 			    <Creative sequence="1" id="331">
            		<Linear>
            			<Duration>00:00:09</Duration>
 	                    <TrackingEvents>
        	                <Tracking event="firstQuartile"><!]></Tracking>
                            <Tracking event="midpoint"><!]></Tracking>
                           	.......
                        </TrackingEvents>         
                        <VideoClicks>
            		     	<ClickThrough><!]></ClickThrough>
            			</VideoClicks>
                        <MediaFiles>
        				    <MediaFile delivery="progressive" bitrate="256" width="480" height="352" type="video/x-flv"><!]></MediaFile>
        				    ......
    				    </MediaFiles>
    				    ......
    				</Linear>
    			</Creative>
    		</Creatives>
    	</InLine>
    </Ad>
 </VAST>

References

  1. Grenager, Teg (2012-07-19). "Video Ad Serving Template (VAST) Version 3.0" (PDF). Interactive Advertising Bureau: 8. Retrieved 2015-05-14.
  2. "Digital Video Ad Serving Template (VAST) 2.0". IAB - Empowering the Marketing and Media Industries to Thrive in the Digital Economy. Retrieved 2017-06-01.
  3. "Digital Video Ad Serving Template (VAST)".
  4. "Digital Video Ad Serving Template (VAST)".

See also

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