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Knowledge Base

Native Ads Banner Templating

Marketplaces use native ads that consist not just of images, but also multiple text fields, background images, foreground images, and other customizable elements. These elements can vary across different placements, making it challenging to maintain consistency and streamline ad creation across campaigns.

Creative templates provide a solution by offering pre-designed banners that enable teams to quickly build ads following a structured, repeatable framework. These templates are highly customizable and can include specific fields. Whether you need fields for a button, images, headlines, custom parameters, or other design elements, templates allow you to standardize and simplify the process.

example of a banner ad.

How It Works

Creating a New Template

Retailers can create custom templates tailored to their needs. These templates can be configured with various fields, such as text, images, external links, and other elements, to meet the specific requirements of the placement. Here’s how you can create and configure a new template:

  1. When creating a template, first define the static preview image and the fields that will make up the template. For each field, you’ll need to specify:

    • Field Type: Choose from text, image, select, button, link, etc.
    • Variable: The variable name that the field is going to use.
    • Field Name: Define a clear label for the field to identify it in the campaign creation process.
    • Description: Provide an explanation or instructions about what should be entered into the field.
    • Required or Optional: Decide if the field is mandatory for advertisers to complete, or if it can be left blank.
    • MinLength: min number of chars for text fields
    • MaxLength: max number of chars for text fields
    • Default: default value for the field
    • Prefix: for fields of type link, they will start with the prefix
    • MultiSelect: for fields of type select if the user should select one or multiple
    • Options (querystring): keys and values for fields of type select

    This can be done using a CSV or the UI

    Screenshot of creating new template

    Screenshot of reviewing new template

  2. Then, give it a unique name, a brief description to help advertisers understand its intended purpose, and optionally add a dynamic preview URL.

    Screenshot of reviewing new template

Dynamic Preview Configuration

Dynamic preview URLs allow real-time visualization of how template fields will appear in the actual ad placement. The preview system loads your specified URL in an iframe and dynamically populates template variables with campaign data.

  1. Prepare Your Preview Environment: Before configuring dynamic preview in the template, ensure you have a preview URL available that can render the template structure. This could be on your local development environment or a deployed staging application.

  2. Configure Preview URL Pattern: Set up your dynamic preview URL using template variable placeholders. The URL structure should include parameters that correspond to your template fields:

    https://your-preview-domain.com/?slotId=slot-1&headline={headline}&mainImage={urlEncodedImageURL}&price={price}&availability={availability}
  3. Template Variable Integration: The preview system will automatically replace template variables in the URL with actual values as advertisers fill out campaign fields, enabling real-time preview updates.

  4. Client-Side Rendering: Your preview URL should include the necessary client-side logic to locate and populate template elements with the provided parameters.

Using Templates

  1. On the Banner Ads campaign creation page choose to start from template

    Screenshot of picking an existing template
  2. Select a template from the list

    Screenshot of selecting existing template
  3. Fill the template fields

    Screenshot of filling in existing template
  4. Continue with the banner campaign creation flow

    Screenshot of using template in campaign

Template Response Structure

Each winner in the auction response includes a content object containing the parameters configured during campaign creation:

{
"results": [
{
"resultType": "banners",
"winners": [
{
"rank": 1,
"asset": [
{
"url": "https://topsortassets.com/000.json",
"content": {
"cta": "Shop Now",
"mainImage": "https://topsortassets.com/0001.png",
"headline": "Test Headline",
"backgroundImage": "https://topsortassets.com/0002.jpeg"
}
}
],
"type": "url",
"id": "http://topsort.com",
"resolvedBidId": "ChAGiHlBYmh4DaUEsuubfw7wEhABl8c_uHx3Aa8pw_EgHrHIGhABjoa6wYJ3wqhfIGHIdxYgIhYKEmh0dHA6Ly90b3Bzb3J0LmNvbRAFMOGtDw",
"vendorId": "babolat",
"campaignId": "0197c73f-b87c-7701-af29-c3f1201eb1c8"
}
],
"error": false
}
]
}

The content object structure directly corresponds to the template fields configured during template creation, enabling your frontend to dynamically render the appropriate creative elements for each placement.