---
title: "Copy and preview an ad tag"
description: "Copy a placement's default tag from the grid or tree without opening the editor, and check how the tag serves on the standalone preview page — container size and page mockups, request overrides (code type, IP, channel, custom parameters) and the shareable 30-day preview link."
type: "howto"
audience: [network-manager, publisher, admin]
keywords: [copy tag, copy ad tag, quick action, preview, preview link, shareable preview, page mockup, ad container, preview IP, demo page]
ui_path: "Account → Publishers → site → zone → placement → Ad tags & API"
---

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/llms.txt. Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. Append .md to any documentation page URL to get its markdown version.

# Copy and preview an ad tag

Two shortcuts around the placement's **Ad tags & API** card: the **Copy ad tag** quick action
puts a placement's default tag on the clipboard straight from a grid, and the **Preview** page
shows the tag serving — in a resizable container or a page mockup — and gives you a link you can
send to people who have no login. Choosing a tag type and setting it up are on
[Ad tags, invocation codes and the API](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/inventory/ad-tags-and-api.md).

## Who this is for

Publishers and network managers who hand out tags and check them before they go live, and
anyone who needs to show a placement to a site owner or an advertiser.

## Prerequisites

- A saved placement of a type that self-renders: Site, Non-standard, Mobile Site, Video or Email
  (Native, Application and Click-through placements have neither the quick action nor Preview).
- For a preview: the placement, its zone and its site switched on, and at least one tag type
  your role may generate for it.

## Steps

1. To copy a tag without opening the editor, click the **Copy ad tag** icon at the end of the
   placement's row in the **Grids** view — see [Copy-tag quick action](#copy-tag-quick-action).
   To copy a particular tag type, open the card and copy from its tab instead.
2. To see the tag serve, click **Preview** in the placement editor's header, or the eye icon next
   to the placement's name in the placements grid — see [Preview](#preview).
3. Adjust the **Container** and **Request** controls, then click **Copy** to put a shareable
   link on the clipboard, or **Open** to open it.

## Copy-tag quick action

In the **Grids** view (a display preference in **Preferences**), placement rows end in a **Copy ad tag**
icon — in a zone's placements grid, which is what opening a zone gives you there, and in the
all-placements grid. One click puts the placement's default tag on the clipboard without opening the
editor, and a **Copied** toast confirms it.

![Copy ad tag icon at the end of each taggable placement row in the zone's placements grid](https://epom.com/docs-images/ad-server/ad-tags-and-api/copy-tag-action.webp)

Only placement types that have a tag get the icon — Site, Non-standard, Mobile Site, Video and
Email. Native, Application and Click-through rows have none. The **tree** shows the same icon on a
placement row and in its hover card, but only for placements the tree draws as active (with recent
traffic); a quiet placement has none there, so use the grid or the card.

When the default resolves to a type with no snippet, the action toasts **"This placement type has
no ad tag"** — informational, not an error.

> **Corner case:** the quick action and the card do **not** pick the default the same way. The card
> opens on the first tab your permissions leave standing; the quick action resolves its type on the
> server by walking the code types in their own fixed order — Simple Iframe, Video Player, **API**,
> Direct URL, Email, Universal JS, Mount JS — and taking the first one your role may use. So it gives
> you Simple Iframe or Direct URL before Universal JS wherever your role holds them, and on a Mobile
> Site placement with the API permission it resolves to API, for which no snippet exists, so the
> action reports "no ad tag" on a placement whose card visibly has tabs. Open the card and copy from
> the tab you want.

## Preview

The header **Preview** button opens the standalone preview page in a new tab; the placements grid
has the same page behind the eye icon next to a placement's name. The button depends on the
placement **type**, not on your role: Site, Non-standard, Mobile Site, Video and Email placements
have it; Native, Application and Click-through placements do not (nothing self-renders).

![Placement preview page rendering a leaderboard banner inside an article page mockup](https://epom.com/docs-images/ad-server/ad-tags-and-api/preview-page.webp)

The page shows the placement's title with a **Copy** and an **Open** button, the dotted **Ad
Container**, and a panel of controls in two groups:

- **Container** (applies live, no reload): size chips for the common ad sizes, **Container
  width** and **Container height**, **Top** and **Left** offsets (disabled while a page mockup is
  on, because the mockup decides where the ad sits), and **Page mockup** — five CSS page shapes
  (Article, Video site, Gallery, Live stream, News portal) plus *Off*, which wrap the live ad
  container in a plausible page so you can judge the ad in context. The old free-text *Background
  image URL* field is gone; it survives only as a query parameter on links shared before it was
  removed, and while one is present the mockup picker is disabled.
- **Request** (press **Apply** to re-request the ad; choosing another type applies at once): **Invocation
  code type**, **IP** (serve as if from that address — handy for geo targeting checks; its
  placeholder is your own address), **Channel**, and **Custom parameters** as name / value rows
  with **Add** and a delete button per row. The group is offered only when the placement has at least
  one tag type the preview can render for you.

The type list is limited to what your role may generate and, for Universal JS, to networks that have
an ad-serving domain. When there is none, the page opens with **Not Supported** inside the container
and no Request group. A placement, zone or site that is switched off cannot be previewed: the page
says *Preview is not currently available for deactivated placement/zone/site*.

**Copy** puts a link with the current settings on the clipboard (applying any pending Request edits
first) and **Open** opens it. The link opens a bare view — only the ad on its stage or mockup, no
controls — and **works for people who are not logged in**: it carries a token that authorises that
placement's preview, so you can send it to a site owner or an advertiser. There is no URL text field to copy
it out of.

> **Corner case:** the token is signed and **expires after 30 days**. A link older than that, or one made
> before release 152, opens nothing; copy a fresh one from the preview page. A placement's token opens
> only that placement, not a creative that happens to share its id.

## Corner cases and gotchas

The corner cases of the quick action and of the preview link are in their sections above. One
more:

> **Corner case:** on a **demo account**, on a network that has a demo page configured, the Preview
> button appears for *every* placement type. Site, Native and Video placements open that demo page with
> the placement's own tag attached; any other type opens the standard preview.

## Per-role notes

- **Every role** — the quick action and the Preview button depend on the placement **type**, not
  on the role; the tag the quick action copies and the **Invocation code type** list on the
  preview page are limited to the tag types your role may generate.
- **Demo account** — see the demo-page corner case above.

Exact grants: see [User roles](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/admin/users-and-roles.md).

## Related

- [Ad tags, invocation codes and the API](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/inventory/ad-tags-and-api.md)
- [API tab, VAST tags and the JavaScript API](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/inventory/ad-tags-api-and-vast.md)
- [Ad tag FAQ](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/inventory/ad-tags-faq.md)
- [Tags and preview troubleshooting](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/troubleshooting/tags-and-preview.md)
- [Create a placement](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/inventory/placements-create.md)