Handling gaps appearing between ads
- Topics:
- Media Analytics
CREATED FOR:
- User
- Admin
- Developer
PROBLEM
In some ad tracking scenarios, you could encounter main:play calls occurring unexpectedly between the end of one ad and the start of the next ad. If the delay between the ad complete call and the next ad start call is greater than 250 milliseconds, the Media SDK will fall back to sending main:play calls. If this fallback to main:play occurs during a pre-roll ad break, the content start metric may be set early.
A gap between ads such as described above is interpreted by the Media SDK as main content, because there is no overlap there with any ad content. The Media SDK does not have any ad information set on it, and the player is in the playing state. If there is no Ad information, and the player state is playing, then the Media SDK credits the duration of the gap towards main content by default. It cannot credit playback duration toward null ad information.
IDENTIFICATION
While using Adobe Debug or a network packet sniffer such as Charles, if you see the following Heartbeat calls in this order during a pre-roll ad break:
-
Session Start:
s:event:type=start&s:asset:type=main -
Ad Start:
s:event:type=start&s:asset:type=ad -
Ad Play:
s:event:type=play&s:asset:type=ad -
Ad Complete:
s:event:type=complete&s:asset:type=ad -
Main Content Play:
s:event:type=play&s:asset:type=main(unexpected) -
Ad Start:
s:event:type=start&s:asset:type=ad -
Ad Play:
s:event:type=play&s:asset:type=ad -
Ad Complete:
s:event:type=complete&s:asset:type=ad -
Main Content Play:
s:event:type=play&s:asset:type=main(expected)
RESOLUTION
Delay triggering the Ad Complete call.
Handle the gap from within the player by calling trackEvent:AdComplete late for the first ad, followed immediately by trackEvent:AdStart for the second ad. The app should hold off on calling the AdComplete event after the first ad finishes. Make sure you call trackEvent:AdComplete for the last ad in the ad break. If the player can identify that the current ad asset is the final one in the ad break, call trackEvent:AdComplete immediately. This resolution will result in less than 1 second of additional ad time spent being attributed to the preceding ad unit.
On ad break start, including pre-roll:
-
Create the
adBreakobject instance for the ad break; for example,adBreakObject. -
Call
trackEvent(MediaHeartbeat.Event.AdBreakStart, adBreakObject);.
On every ad asset start:
-
Call
trackEvent(MediaHeartbeat.Event.AdComplete);
NOTECall this only if the previous ad wasn’t complete. Consider a Boolean value to maintain an “isinAd” state for the previous ad. -
Create the ad object instance for the ad asset: for example,
adObject. -
Populate the ad metadata,
adCustomMetadata. -
Call
trackEvent(MediaHeartbeat.Event.AdStart, adObject, adCustomMetadata);. -
Call
trackPlay()if this is the first ad in a pre-roll ad break.
On every ad asset complete:
-
Do not make a call
NOTEIf the application knows it is the last ad in the ad break, calltrackEvent:AdCompletehere and skip settingtrackEvent:AdCompletein thetrackEvent:AdBreakComplete
On ad skip:
- Call
trackEvent(MediaHeartbeat.Event.AdSkip);.
On ad break complete:
-
Call
trackEvent(MediaHeartbeat.Event.AdComplete);NOTEIf this step is already performed above as part of the lasttrackEvent:AdCompletecall then this can be skipped. -
Call
trackEvent(MediaHeartbeat.Event.AdBreakComplete);.