Third-party ad tags
Introduction
All ad tags must adhere to Ad specifications for Apple News and be MRAID compliant. Check with your creative vendor if you encounter any issues.
Third-party ad tags should only be used for creative rendering on Apple News. Any use beyond the display of advertising, such as the the creation or operation of an ad network is strictly prohibited and is subject to review by Apple and may be removed at its sole discretion. You’re responsible for any fees charged for third-party ad serving.
Third-party macros embedded within ad or VAST tags aren’t supported. Macros are included by Google when using standard creative workflows. See summary chart below. If you’re unsure about macros, contact your tag vendor to verify that your tag doesn’t contain macros.
Supported ad formats
- Standard banner
- Double banner
- Large banner
- Medium rectangle banner (MREC)
- IAB 300x250 banner
- IAB 320x50 banner
- IAB 320x320 banner
- IAB 300x600 banner
- IAB 728x90 banner
- IAB 970x250 banner
- Pre-roll video and outstream video ads can utilize third-party VAST tags on iOS 11.3 and later
- Interstitial banner
Interstitial banner ads on Apple News don’t have a standard close button to exit out of the ad experience. Users can exit out of the interstitial ad on the Apple News app by swiping left or right to the next article.
Supported third-party ad tag vendors
| Provider | VAST | Display | Publisher selling agent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dianomi | ☑️ | ☑️ | ☑️ |
| Celtra | ☑️ | ☑️ | |
| Flashtalking | ☑️ | ||
| Innovid | ☑️ | ||
| Sizmex | ☑️ | ||
| Teads | ☑️ | ||
| Transmit.Live | ☑️ | ||
| Unruly | ☑️ | ||
| Bozai | ☑️ | ||
| Google Campaign Manager | ☑️ | ||
| Polar | ☑️ | ||
| ResponsiveAds | ☑️ | ||
| RevContent | ☑️ | ☑️ |
Fourth-party tracking tags aren’t supported.
The Apple News ad platform supports VAST requests and will properly extract the media file URLs and tracking pixel URLs. This list of media URLs will be cached for each tag to improve performance. Tracking URLs aren’t cached.
Additional considerations when utilizing VAST tags for Apple News:
- Only linear ad and skippable linear ad are supported.
- Companion ads, overlay (non-linear) ads, and ad pods aren’t supported.
- Only VAST 2.0 and 3.0 are supported.
- VPAID isn’t supported currently.
- On Apple News, only progressive loading is supported for VAST tags.
- The use of VAST tags is only supported for devices running iOS 11.3 and later.
VAST tracking events
The following VAST tracking events are supported by the Apple News app:
| Event | Action When Fired |
|---|---|
| creativeView | The first few video frames are loaded. |
| start | The video ad starts to play. |
| firstQuartile | The video reaches 25 percent of time played. |
| midpoint | The video reaches 50 percent of time played. |
| thirdQuartile | The video reaches 75 percent time played. |
| complete | The video completes. |
| mute | The user taps to mute sound. |
| unmute | The user taps to unmute sound. |
| pause | The user taps to pause playback. |
| resume | The user taps to unpause playback. |
| fullscreen | The user taps to enter fullscreen mode. |
| exitFullscreen | The user taps to exit fullscreen mode. |
| skip | The user taps to skip the ad. |
| progress | When playback reaches the seconds of duration specified in the event. |
MRAID implementation
Apple News Advertising SDK implements a subset of MRAID 1.0 as a standard mraid.js that can be called by the ad. All tags must be MRAID compliant. Supported methods and events include:
| Supported MRAID 1.0 Methods | Supported MRAID 1.0 Events |
|---|---|
| addEventListener | error |
| close | ready |
| expand (two part only) | stateChange |
| getExpandProperties | viewableChange |
| getPlacementType | |
| getState | |
| getVersion | |
| isViewable | |
| Open | |
| removeEventListener | |
| setExpandProperties | |
| createCalendarEvent |
Third-party ad checklist
The following is a checklist of key items to remember when utilizing third-party ad tags.
- Absolute URLs only
- Apple IPs (17.*) Allow Listed or not blocked
- No iframes
- SSL compliant
- All clicks using MRAID.open() or <a href>
- Less than 100 requests per impression
- All ads are to spec in portrait and landscape mode
- Apple News compliant interstitial ads (placementType = inline)
- Expandable ads (No custom close, Two-part expand)