--- title: "Sell pre-roll video in your player" description: "Recipe for VAST video monetization — a video placement with skip and pod settings, the tag URL your player loads, video demand with companions, event tracking and fill measurement." type: "howto" audience: [network-manager] keywords: [video monetization, pre-roll, VAST, VPAID, VMAP, ad pod, skip button, video player, companions, fill rate] ui_path: "Account → Publishers → site → zone → placement (Video)" --- 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. # Sell pre-roll video in your player You run a video player on your site or app and want to sell the pre-roll (or a pod of ads before content). In Epom that is one **Video placement** whose tag URL your player loads; everything else — skip rules, pods, demand, tracking — hangs off it. ## Who this is for Publishers integrating a player and network managers running video demand. ## Prerequisites - A player that accepts a VAST ad-tag URL (for VPAID or VMAP: a player supporting those specs). Any IAB-VAST-compatible player works — you configure the player with one URL. - A [site and zone](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/inventory.md) to own the placement. - Video demand: your own video creatives, third-party VAST tags, or [programmatic partners](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/use-cases/programmatic-dsp-demand.md) that bid on video. ## Steps 1. **Create the placement.** On the zone, choose **Add new placement… → Video Placement**, name it and save ([details](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/inventory/placements-create.md)). 2. **Set the viewer experience** in the **VAST configuration** block of Basic info: ![VAST configuration with skip button and pod settings](https://epom.com/docs-images/ad-server/video-preroll-monetization/video-skip-pods.webp) - **Show skip ad button** + **Show after (seconds)** — skippable pre-roll (0–60 s); - **Return (ads in pod)** — leave at 1 for a single pre-roll; raise it (up to 20) to return an ad pod, and cap the total with **Max. pod duration (sec)**; - **Default ad title** — fallback title for creatives that carry none. For VMAP responses, set **Max pre-rolls** in the **VMAP configuration** block. Full field reference: [Video placements](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/inventory/placement-video.md). 3. **Declare player capabilities for programmatic** in the **RTB configuration** block of Basic info — **Playback method**, **API framework**, **Min. ad duration (sec)**, **Max. ad duration (sec)** and **Skip min (sec)**. These are bid-request signals for DSP demand; set them honestly or partners bid with creatives your player can't run. No role has the block out of the box; ask your network manager (or, as a network manager, your network administrator) to switch it on. 4. **Save**, then copy the tag from the **VAST tags** tab of the **Ad tags & API** card. If your network has several ad-serving domains, pick the **Domain** first on the card's **Settings** tab (the picker is hidden on roles not allowed to pick a domain). Choose the spec your player asks for in the **VAST version** picker (**4.2** by default), then copy the **VAST tag**, **VPAID tag** or **VMAP tag** URL and paste it into your player's ad-tag setting. Leave the version at 4.2 unless your player demands otherwise: 4.1 and up is what lets the ad be [viewability-measured](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/concepts/viewability-and-open-measurement.md), and VPAID and VMAP do not follow the picker. ![VAST tag field with its version picker, plus the VPAID and VMAP tag URLs](https://epom.com/docs-images/ad-server/video-preroll-monetization/video-tag-urls.webp) 5. **Add demand.** On the advertiser side, create video banners — uploaded or hosted video files, a third-party VAST/VPAID tag, a VPAID framework creative, or the multi-file Advanced Local Videos — and link them to the placement ([video banner types](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/advertising/banner-video.md)). Add **Companion ads** on the banner if a display creative should render next to the player during playback. 6. **Wire up tracking** on the placement's **VAST tracking** card (needs **Manage Placement's VAST Events**): ![VAST tracking card with the quartile and completion events ticked and a progress point being added](https://epom.com/docs-images/ad-server/video-preroll-monetization/video-tracking-events.webp) - enable the **playback events** you want recorded (quartiles, completion, skip, mute/pause, viewability); - add **progress points** that fire a [conversion action](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/conversions/conversion-actions.md) at a custom playback time, entered as `HH:mm:ss` — e.g. "watched 15 seconds" as a billable/reportable event; - add **third-party pixels** for an external verification vendor on impression, click or any VAST event. 7. **Measure fill.** Run a **General** report grouped by **Placement**, with **Time granularity** set to **Day**, and the **Requests** and **Impressions** columns — fill rate is impressions ÷ requests. Progress-point conversions appear as conversion columns filtered by their action ([running reports](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/analytics/run-report.md)). If requests arrive but impressions stay near zero, walk [Ads are not serving](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/troubleshooting/ad-not-serving.md). ## Corner cases and gotchas > **Corner case — a tag below VAST 4.1 cannot be viewability-measured.** In the new interface the > version picker defaults to 4.2, so a freshly copied tag is fine; but a tag pasted into your > player earlier, or copied from the classic placement page (which offers only fixed VAST 3.0 / > 4.0 / VPAID / VMAP rows and has no picker), carries no viewability at all. Re-copy it at 4.2 — > which fixes it provided your player implements Open Measurement, since the version alone is only > half the requirement. See > [Video viewability and Open Measurement](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/concepts/viewability-and-open-measurement.md). > **Corner case — RTB constraints do not filter your directly-linked banners.** A directly > linked 60-second creative still serves even when *Max. ad duration* says 30. The RTB block > constrains programmatic bids only; police direct demand yourself when linking. > **Corner case — the whole video block saves with the Basic info Save button.** There is no > separate save inside the VAST/VMAP/RTB sections; edit pods and navigate away, and the > changes are gone (the unsaved-draft banner offers to restore them on return). > **Note — pods need a pod-aware player.** Setting *Return (ads in pod)* above 1 changes the > response into a multi-ad pod. Verify your player actually plays pods before raising it — a > player without pod support typically plays only the first ad, and you will under-deliver > versus what reports suggest was returned. ## Per-role notes - **Publisher:** the video placement and its VAST tag are yours. - **Network manager:** the RTB configuration on the placement has to be switched on for your role by your network administrator. Video demand is built on the advertiser side. - **Can view share:** settings are read-only, but the tag URL still copies. - **Demo account:** **Preview** on a video placement opens the live demo page with the placement's VAST tag. ## Related - [Video placements](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/inventory/placement-video.md) - [Video banners](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/advertising/banner-video.md) - [Ad tags, invocation codes and the API](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/inventory/ad-tags-and-api.md) - [Conversion actions](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/guides/conversions/conversion-actions.md) - [Fill inventory with programmatic DSP demand](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/use-cases/programmatic-dsp-demand.md) - [Monetize a website with display ads](https://epom.com/ad-server/docs/use-cases/monetize-website-display.md)