What Are Ad Tag Variables?
Some ad tags contain variables that are expected to be recognized and filled in at runtime by the video player. The Bolt Player has an extensive list of variables that it can recognize and substitute with real values when it issues an ad request. If you are an Enterprise Publisher, you can make use of these variables within your ad tags in order to provide maximum information to your ad server such as: the operating system of the user, the device type of a user, even the type of network connection.
How Can I Use Ad Tag Variables?
Implenting ad tag variables is a fairly straightforward process. You simply insert the variable you would like into the actual ad tag itself. For example, your standard ad tag may look something like this:
http://ad.youradserver.com/PUB/12345
If you wanted to send more information to the ad servers to help them select more targetted advertising, you can append ad tag variables to the end of the ad tag. For example, we want the ad server to know the width and height of the video player, referring URL, content URL, media ID, title, device, model, operating system and version,unique ID and the time. To do this, we simply add the following ad tag variables to the end of the ad tag:
http://ad.youradserver.com/PUB/12345;width=__WIDTH__;height=__HEIGHT__;referring_url=__WEB_URL__;content_url=__CONTENT_URL__;media_id=__MEDIA_ID__;title=__TITLE__;device=__DEVICE__;model=__MODEL__;os=__OS__;osversion=__OSVERSION__;uniqueid:__UNIQUEID__;time=__TIME__
Before the ad tag is even sent to the ad server, the ad tag variables you appended to the end of the ad tag will be replaced by the Bolt Video Player with the users own values as you can see in the same example.
http://ad.youradserver.com/PUB/12345;width=615;height=313;referring_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.example.com;content_url=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn.yoursite.com;media_id=45678;title=My%20Video%20Title;device=desktop-mac;model=desktop-mac;os=MacIntel;osversion=10.10.4;uniqueid:12345467890;time=1441808087;
Ad Tag Variables Available to Use
| Ad Tag Variable | Ad Tag Value |
|---|---|
| __WEB_URL__ | URL of the page on which the Player is located, encoded |
| [LR_URL] | URL of the page on which the Player is located, encoded |
| [VIDEO_DESCRIPTION] | URL of the page on which the Player is located, encoded |
| VIDEO_DESCRIPTION | URL of the page on which the Player is located, encoded |
| __TIME__ | Current time |
| [timestamp] | Current time |
| [TIMESTAMP] | Current time |
| __CONTENT_URL__ | URL of the video currently playing |
| [VIDEO_FILE_URL] | URL of the video currently playing |
| VIDEO_URL | URL of the video currently playing |
| __WIDTH__ | Current width of the Bolt Player |
| _WIDTH_ | Current width of the Bolt Player |
| __HEIGHT__ | Current height of the Bolt Player |
| _HEIGHT_ | Current height of the Bolt Player |
| __RANDOM__ | Long random number |
| RANDOM | Long random number |
| __TITLE__ | Title of the video currently playing |
| [VIDEO_TITLE] | Title of the video currently playing |
| VIDEO_TITLE | Title of the video currently playing |
| __CATEGORIES__ | Categories of video currently playing |
| __KEYWORDS__ | Keywords of the video currently playing |
| __MEDIA_ID__ | Unique ID of the video currently playing |
| VIDEO_ID | Unique ID of the video currently playing |
| __UA__ | User agent of the viewer’s browser |
| _UA_ | User agent of the viewer’s browser |
| __OS__ | Operating system of the viewer’s computer |
| __DEVICE__ | Device being used by the viewer |
| __MODEL__ | Device being used by the viewer |
| __OSVERSION__ | Version of the OS used by the viewer’s computer |
| __UNIQUE_ID__ | Unique ID associated with the viewer |
| _UNIQUE_ID_ | Unique ID associated with the viewer |
| [cellcarrier] | Viewer’s mobile carrier, if available |
| [networkconnectiontype] | Network connection type used by the viewer’s device, if available |