Were you ever wanted to sell traffic using XML/JSON-feeds? Good news! Adserver.Online supports this feature, and in this article, we will explain how to send your traffic to 3rd-party XML/JSON-feeds.
If you would like to buy traffic using XML/JSON-feeds, please check out this article instead.
What is an XML/JSON-feed? Basically, it's a set of ads provided by a remote server in the form of an XML or JSON document. As soon as XML/JSON-feeds are ads by their nature, we decided to implement them as special ads, instead of creating a special section like "Feeds" on our panel. That's why XML/JSON-feeds on our platform are configured in a different manner compared to other popular ad servers.
Thus, to start sending traffic to XML/JSON-feed, you need to follow almost the same setup as you would need for displaying usual ads (e.g., banners).
Please note that XML/JSON-feeds are disabled by default. You should enable this feature in the Settings / Common menu.
Endpoints configuration
First, you need to create a new campaign.
Important that one campaign can have only one XML/JSON ad. If a campaign has some ads already, you cannot add a new XML/JSON ad to it.
Hence if you need to configure multiple endpoints, you must create several campaigns – one campaign per XML/JSON ad.
After that, you can create an XML/JSON ad and configure an endpoint.
You need to fill in a feed URL, specify its XML/JSON format, and adjust settings on an ad form.
Placeholders replacement
Usually, XML/JSON feed URL provided to you by the demand partner contains different placeholders, for example, ##USER_IP##. Since XML/JSON feeds don't follow any standards, different feed URLs may contain different placeholders for the same purpose.
To make the feed work, you must replace all 3rd party placeholders in the URL with our placeholders according to the documentation obtained from the demand partner.
All of our placeholders are located below the URL field. If you hover the cursor over a placeholder, you will see its description.
For example, some ad network provides you with this kind of a URL:
https://example.com/search?ip=##USER_IP##&user-agent=##UA##
If you insert it in the URL field as it is, it will not work!
If you don't replace THEIR placeholders with OURs with a matching description, your feeds won't be working properly. So in our example:
- ##USER_IP## needs to be replaced with {ip}
- ##UA## needs to be replaced with {ua}
Troubleshooting
Sometimes it's not easy to understand what's going wrong. The easiest way to find an issue is to use the zone's debugger.
To open the debugger, you should press the Debug button on the zone's view page.
You will get a page that explains what's going on inside an ad server during the ad request.
When it comes to XML/JSON feeds, you will see how our server forms a URL (replaces placeholders with values). Besides, you will see feed responses and errors if they occur.
Additionally, you may find useful information in a special report in the Reports / Remote requests menu.
NB: manuals/documentation from your partners are needed when you contact our support with questions about XML/JSON integration.
You will find some ad networks supporting XML/JSON-feeds in this list.
Sell traffic using XML/JSON – conclusion
And that's it. We've covered the most essential aspects of setting up XM/JSON-feeds. If you want to sell traffic using XML/JSON-feeds with Adserver.Online, just follow these instructions carefully, and it's unlikely you will encounter any problems.