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Ad Error Types

To help you troubleshoot and resolve ad error issues, here’s the list of ad error types found in TargetVideo Analytics:

Empty VAST response

This fatal error can be caused when no ads are returned in a VAST response after one or more wrappers. This also includes empty VAST responses from video fallback.

In third-party networks, the fill-rate can be less than 100%. If so, this is an expected error. For example, if the third-party expects to fill 60% of the time, you should expect 40% errors.

Recommended action

Publisher

Ensure that the error rate is in line with the fill-rate of the third-party network. Video fallback may be helpful to avoid the loss impressions.

Buyer

Ensure that bids are not returned with an empty VAST response, and that empty responses are not returned by the advertiser or agency that hosts the creative.


General VPAID error

This fatal error can be caused by any VPAID error, which could be any of the following:

  • SSP VPAID wrapper not buying
  • SSP VPAID wrapper timeout
  • VPAID creatives required insecure mode
  • An Authorized Buyers "IMA Adapter" tag is used with the IMA SDK, and a VPAID ad is returned (the "Direct SDK" tag should be used)

Recommended action

Publisher

Ensure that any VPAID creative requests are supported for devices and players. You can use video creative profiles to control which creatives are eligible to serve.

Buyer

Ensure that any VAST responses that return HTML5 VPAID wrappers from IAS/DV/MOAT include an MP4 asset, and that the wrapper is not aborting playback. Also, ensure that you don't bid on impressions without a determined advertiser or buyer, or attempt to initiate a client-side resale.


There was a problem requesting ads from the server

This fatal error can occur when either the encoding or decoding of a URL was not successful.

Recommended action

Publisher

Ensure that any special characters in your URL strings are encoded correctly.

Buyer

Alert the publisher.


VAST redirect timeout reached

This fatal error can be caused when a VAST redirect tag does not return a response within the timeout (5 seconds is the default) specified in a wrapper element. It could include request errors, such as an invalid URI, unreachable or request timeout for a URI, security, or other exceptions related to VAST URI requests. It could also be due to a high latency connection (for example, 3G) or simply a slow response from a buyer.

Recommended action

Publisher

Increase the timeout limit of your player via the SDK.

Buyer

Ensure that the VAST redirect URI is reachable and no protocol issues exist (for example, responses hosted on HTTP and served to an HTTPS site.


Unable to download or timeout of MediaFile URI

This fatal error can be caused by a problem fetching or playing the MediaFile, and could be any of the following:

  • The loadVideoTimeout is set too low in the IMA SDK. The default is 8 seconds.
  • Low bandwidth or poor website implementation with competing requests that delay loading of the MediaFile.
  • A video auto-plays in a mobile environment, whereas it should be click-to-play (there are some exceptions).
  • Showing video ads in an auto-play environment (for example, a playlist), while the window is not in focus (either another tab is selected, or window is minimized).*

For players that use the IMA SDK, video fallback may be helpful to avoid losing impressions.

Recommended action

Publisher

Increase the timeout limit of your player via the SDK.

Buyer

Ensure that any CDN-hosted creatives are returned within the specified media timeout.


Unhandled error from VPAID

This is the result of an unknown VAST 2 error, which likely stopped the ad request.

Recommended action

Publisher

Alert the buyer

Buyer

 Work with the publisher to troubleshoot the exact issue


Empty VAST response returned

This fatal error can be caused when no ads are returned in a VAST response after one or more wrappers. This also includes empty VAST responses from video fallback.

In third-party networks, the fill-rate can be less than 100%. If so, this is an expected error. For example, if the third-party expects to fill 60% of the time, you should expect 40% errors.

Recommended action

Publisher

Ensure that the error rate is in line with the fill-rate of the third-party network. Video fallback may be helpful to avoid the loss impressions.

Buyer

Ensure that bids are not returned with an empty VAST response, and that empty responses are not returned by the advertiser or agency that hosts the creative.


The ad response was not understood and cannot be parsed

The response from the ad server was malformed or indeterminate.

General linear error

This fatal error can be caused when a video player is unable to display the linear ad. It may occur when the MediaFile is not a valid video file of the specified format, or because the browser restricted autoplay with sound, or another unknown reason.

Recommended action

Publisher

Check for player issues, allow your player to detect restricted autoplay, or alert the buyer.

Buyer

Ensure that the VAST response returns a valid creative.


VAST response declared unsupported MIME types for all MediaFiles

This fatal error can be caused by a VAST response that declares unsupported MIME types for all available MediaFiles (for example, Flash on mobile, or WebM on iOS). It may indicate that the wrong creative type attempted to play.

This error type is more common on mobile.

Recommended action

Publisher

Ensure that the creative format or technology requested is supported by the video player's device and platform. For example, VPAID creatives should not be requested from mobile apps.

Buyer

Ensure that all returned creatives respect the video format in the bid request.


The browser prevented playback initiated without user interaction

Autoplay videos are not supported in some browsers. This error is thrown when the browser has prevented an attempt to auto play.