Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

How do I preview an HTML ad tag?

Preview an ad tag by uploading the tag's HTML (script)
Get a live preview
View the landing page screenshot, URL, and query parameters
View network timelines, load times, file sizes, and more to ensure ads are compliant
Share with clients and get feedback

What is an HTML ad tag?

An HTML ad tag is a snippet of HTML markup that will load an ad in a web browser. The HTML often includes JavaScript, and it tells the browser how, where and when to load the ad.

Here's an example of an HTML ad tag from Google Campaign Manager 360:

<ins class='dcmads' style='display:inline-block;width:300px;height:250px' data-dcm-placement='N4031.197864ADREADY/B26252916.317973820' data-dcm-rendering-mode='iframe' data-dcm-https-only data-dcm-ltd='false' data-dcm-resettable-device-id='' data-dcm-app-id='' data-dcm-click-tracker='${CLICK_URL}'> <script src='https://www.googletagservices.com/dcm/dcmads.js'></script> </ins>

How do ad tags work?

When a user goes to a site, the user's browser sends info to the ad server. This info typically contains info on the user visiting the site and the ad's placement info. Then the ad server sends the ad tag to a third-party data provider so that it has the correct targeting info. It may also pass the tag to a number of other third parties for things like brand safety or geo-targeting.Then, the ad server sends the tag back to the advertisers and loads the ad in the user's browser which returns the ad tag with a creative URL that is likely hosted somewhere else as well.

What are HTML ad tag specifications?

Ad specifications are a set of metrics and rules to guide the design, production, and serving of ad creatives.
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) publishes ad creative guidelines that you can easily adopt or use as a starting point for defining your own ad specifications.

Once you have an ad tag specification in place, you can develop ad quality assurance (ad QA) checklists to ensure your ads always meet the spec.

What is the network timeline?

The Network timeline allows you to see and analyze the network requests that make up each individual page load within a single user's session. In our case we're giving you a network timeline of an ad load. You can use this view to investigate the causes of slow ads and identify performance bugs.When we talk about "requests" in the context of the network timeline, we mean the line-by-line calls for the files that build an ad or send information from the browser to another system. Any given ad in your visitor's session may make requests for: