Release 150

Release 150 is built around a job that used to need the advertiser’s own developer: measuring conversions on the advertiser’s own site. You generate a block of JavaScript from the campaign, the advertiser pastes it once, and every step of their funnel reports with a single line — no backend work, and nothing that depends on third-party cookies. Around it: video viewability on the players that were never reporting any, a reporting dimension that reconciles with the numbers your DSP partners send you, and a password-reset flow rebuilt end to end.

Three things to act on.

Old ad tags have stopped serving. If any publisher page still carries a JS Sync, JS Async, Iframe Sync, Iframe Async, API JS Sync or Lite tag, the URL it calls is switched off in this release and the slot goes blank — silently. Re-issue those tags as Universal JS before the upgrade; see Improvements.

Flash is gone platform-wide. Any creative still holding an SWF now needs a replacement file — see Improvements.

Password-reset links now work once and expire, and no email the platform sends contains a password any more.

New features

Measure conversions on the advertiser’s own site with one pasted block

Open a campaign’s Conversion actions card, pick an action, click Conversion tracking code and open the Snippet tab. The block comes out as plain HTML or as Google Tag Manager tags, with your ad-serving domain, the event names and any payouts already filled in. The advertiser pastes it once and writes one line wherever a visitor converts:

easq('track', 'purchase')

The block takes the click id out of the landing URL, stores it on the advertiser’s own domain and attaches it to that call — so a click that lands on lp.shop.example still converts at checkout.shop.example. Worth knowing before you hand it over:

• The landing URL has to carry the click id. Add the click id to landing page URLs on the same card does that for image and video creatives, the email-placement click and click-through placements. HTML, template, native and OpenRTB creatives still need $$CLICK_ID$$ placed by hand.
• An action counts once per click in this first version; a different action on the same click still counts, so a registration → lead → deposit funnel records three conversions.
• payout is the commission you charge, not the order value. It is read only where the campaign allows conversion pricing from the URL, and the new Max payout per conversion caps it. value, amount and sum are deliberately not accepted.
• On Safari the click id lasts about seven days of browsing without a visit to the advertiser’s site, not the full 400 days Chrome and Firefox keep. If late Safari conversions matter, a server-to-server postback survives it.

See Install the landing-page helper.

One snippet for a whole funnel

In the new interface the campaign’s Conversion actions card carries Actions | Funnels tabs, and Conversion tracking code opened on a funnel generates one tracking line per step, in the funnel’s own order. Pick the right ad-serving domain before you copy — a snippet built on the wrong domain posts to a host that holds none of the stored click ids. See Save a conversion funnel.

Video viewability on Google IMA and other Open Measurement players

From VAST 4.1 upward the response also carries the IAB AdVerifications block, so players built on Open Measurement — Google IMA among them — now measure the MRC criterion (50% on screen for two continuous seconds) and fire your Viewable, Repeated viewable, Not viewable and View undetermined trackers. Nothing is counted twice. Alongside it:

• VAST 2.0 through 4.3 are all served, each valid against its schema. In the new interface a placement offers one tag field with a version picker (default 4.2).
• A player’s error code is recorded on the placement’s troubleshooting log — see troubleshooting log tasks.
• The four non-standard wrapper settings (maximum execution time, sandbox, iterate, always hide controls) are removed.

See Video placements.

Group and filter reports by OpenRTB Publisher ID

OpenRTB Publisher ID is a group-by dimension and a filter on General and Advanced reports, so you can reconcile your numbers with what DSP partners report. Nothing needs backfilling — it is a property of the site. It arrives switched off: grant the Analytics Report Group/Filter By OpenRTB Publisher ID permission to the roles that need it. See Analytics dimensions.

Hand RTB work to your own team, without an admin login

DSP Partners, DSP Partners Analytics and DSP Creative Scan are now also an RTB tab in the account area, each behind its own permission in the new RTB Management group — so you can build an RTB-manager role without an admin account. All three arrive disabled. The SSP bidding optimization settings moved from Admin → Optimization Settings to a button on the DSP Partners page. See Configure DSP partners and Manage users, roles and permissions.

Cap how long a native ad request may take

Add tmax (milliseconds) to an /ads-api-native request and the ad server returns the creatives it selected within that budget instead of holding the call open. Fewer creatives than requested is a normal response. The clock starts when the request arrives, and a creative bought from a demand partner runs on that partner’s timeout, so a tight tmax can be overshot by one auction.

Improvements

• The retired ad tag flavours have stopped serving. /js/show_ads.js (or your network’s own name for it), /ads-sync.js, /ads-async.js, /ads-api-sync.js and the Lite tag’s /www/delivery/*.php endpoints are removed; a page still carrying one renders and counts nothing. Search your pages for show_ads.js and /www/delivery/ and re-issue each slot as Universal JS, Mount JS, Simple Iframe, Direct URL or the API request URL. Server-side JSP and PHP snippets keep working. /rest-api/placement/{key}/code.do refuses the retired types with a 400, and /rest-api/testpage/{id}/code.do is removed. See Retired code types.
• Flash creatives are gone. The Flash file, alternative image, Flash vars and external Flash URL fields, the Default SWF click tag preference and the Flash link API parameter are removed. A creative that held only an SWF shows an empty upload asking for a replacement — use an image or HTML5 creative. See Image creatives.
• No email contains a password, and a reset link works once. Links expire (60 minutes for a forgotten password, 72 hours for a new user’s link). One password policy applies everywhere a password is set: 8–64 characters, no common passwords, nothing resembling the username or email. Every password change emails the owner and signs out their other sessions. See Users and roles.
• A placement has one ad-serving domain. A single Domain on the Settings tab of Ad Tags & API builds every tag and URL, gated by the Set Ad-Serving Domain (Placement) permission. Over the API, placement create/update take servingDomain instead of ajaxCodeDomain. Where no domain is flagged as the default, the first one declared is now the default. See Invocation code types.
• Click-through tracking URLs live in the placement’s Ad Tags & API card (new interface), on a Show tracking URLs tab built on the placement’s own Domain and Protocol, with CSV export. See Click-through placements.
• The mobile SDK downloads and Installation Tracking are removed. Application and Native placements integrate through the API tab; a role without the API permission now sees an empty card there. See Application, email and click-through placements.
• Client-side piggybacks take the partner’s tag as written — a tag, a pixel URL, a .js URL or plain JavaScript — and run inside their own frame on the conversion page. See Piggyback pixels.
• A DSP partner is simply Active or not. Per-role partner assignment is gone; every active partner is offered on every OpenRTB banner. Deleting a partner says how many active banners it will deactivate.
• DSP partner tools: Export CSV on DSP Partners Analytics (admin page and RTB tab), a per-partner Gzip bid request switch, and gzipped bid responses accepted from every partner. See Configure DSP partners.
• Even pacing respects dayparting. The entity’s Time Range, Day of Week and Day and Time rules now define the time a budget is spread over. See Limits.
• The Conversion tracking code window is clearer. Postback (S2S) leads with the Click ID method; the per-action Sub ID method is marked legacy; att and payout are listed as optional parameters. See Get the pixel and S2S tracking code.
• The S2S tracking key names only the action — one URL is valid from every campaign the action runs in. Older keys keep working.
• Postbacks accept your tracker’s parameter names — clickid/cid/txid, action/event/goal, and payout — plus a new $$CLICK_ID$$ macro. See Macros.
• Every conversion endpoint says why it did not count. A reason code that keeps coming back is a fault to fix.
• New conversion actions default to a 7-day click and 1-day view window. Existing actions are unchanged. See Create and edit conversion actions.
• Rejecting duplicate postbacks is an opt-in per action (Reject duplicate conversions), deduplicated over the action’s own attribution window; a rejected repeat answers already-tracked.
• Max payout per conversion on the campaign caps a payout set from the tracking URL. See Campaigns.
• Mass banner upload takes MP4 video, uploads files as you pick them and keeps names you type. See Bulk operations on creatives.
• One period control for the whole dashboard (new interface), with comparison, hourly charts for a single day and a much faster statistics tree on large networks. See Dashboards.
• Analytics uses the same period picker in the new interface. See Run a report.
• Linking a creative to a placement follows the link permission everywhere, and the API names any id it could not link. See Shares and permissions.
• Notification and email templates get a code editor with Velocity highlighting and a macro palette that inserts at the cursor. See Notifications and mail.
• Minimum Margin is available over the pricing API. See Pricing.
• A separate white-label VAST AdSystem name, so your public website no longer has to appear in ad markup. See White-label branding.
• Conversion actions over the API work, and deleting one requires access to it.
• Template authors get the passback message documented behind a How to use button. See Templates.
• Two unused CTR-optimization settings are removed; the section is now CTR / I2C optimization. See Optimize ad rotation.
• The funnel editor lists and searches every conversion action, and the new interface has one date picker and clearer on/off contrast.

Bug fixes

• One conversion action key everywhere — grids show the action’s own key; over the API key is the action key and pixelKey the campaign-specific one.
• Conversions arriving more than about nine and a half hours after the click are kept for the full attribution window. Expect more conversions on actions with windows longer than a day.
• The conversion pixel no longer counts a repeat it cannot mark in the visitor’s cookie.
• A returning visitor can convert again after a new click.
• Clicks on CPC DSP creatives can be counted — turn on the new per-partner Wrap click-through. See DSP partners.
• A “Day and Time” rule naming several days targets all of them. See Add targeting.
• Even pacing no longer stutters on the hour, stalls after a budget change, or front-loads a flight that starts mid-day.
• The Billing tab follows share-based visibility for what it shows and what it lets you change. See Finances and billing.
• Admin pages and role/user administration check permissions on the server, matching the sidebar; switching into another user’s account requires access to that user’s role. See Users and roles.
• The Placements and Banners pickers mask names consistently with what you may view.
• Minimum margin applies to inventory priced at zero, and the Banners Probability preview applies it.
• Invisible characters pasted into creative fields are cleaned on save.
• Large result sets no longer cause an internal error on some pages and API calls.
• A malformed conversion key returns the 1×1 image, not a server error.
• A conversion key is checked against the action it names; regenerate any hand-assembled postback URL that stops counting.
• The new interface shows the right site’s or placement’s revenue-share rows.
• A resized creative and placement offer each other for linking immediately.
• The placement Domain selector appears on every placement type, and saving a tag setting confirms with a toast.
• The pricing endpoints’ API documentation describes each endpoint’s own fields, and the reference matches the code. See the API reference.
• The click id reaches video and click-through landing pages.
• White-label installs show their own branding in the new interface, and a replaced logo or favicon takes effect.
• Saved pre-targeting rules show in the new interface.
• A “Remember me” session no longer returns a blank page after a timeout.
• DSP analytics returns the dates you asked for.
• Country Code sits beside Country in the analytics grid, and metrics land under their sections.
• Report tabs stay when you leave Analytics and come back.
• The banner page loads for video and native creatives, and uploads appear without a reload.
• Site edit reports a refused save instead of saying it was saved.
• White-label native ads use a neutral default advertiser name.
• The Create placement page shows all its fields and the Labels field on networks that require labels.
• Ads render on publisher pages that run RequireJS.
• An edit page no longer goes blank over a permission-hidden field.
• The Ad tags & API parameter table shows the placement key used by ?key=.
• Admin edit pages open the record you clicked.

Under the hood

Platform upgrades and performance work. Two help pages were added for common support questions — Google (GPT) passback tags and the native ad API reference.

Related

• What’s new in Epom Ad Server
• Release 151
• Release 149
• Install the landing-page helper
• Get the pixel and S2S tracking code
• Create and edit conversion actions
• Save a conversion funnel
• Campaigns
• Bulk operations on creatives
• Video placements
• Invocation code types — including what to re-issue a retired tag as
• Application, email and click-through placements
• Dashboards
• Analytics dimensions reference
• Pricing
• Limits
• Users and roles