Recently, we announced the availability of native ads for apps in DFP. Here, we’re going to introduce you to creating native creatives with the DFP API using the ads Java client library. A native creative consists of a set of assets (headline, image, etc.) which are sent to mobile apps for custom rendering in their own code (see our Android and iOS developer guides for details).

Native creatives are actually just another type of template-based creative. While the DFP UI abstracts this, in the API you create a native creative using a TemplateCreative with the system-defined native template ID. The creative template IDs available in your network can be retrieved by the getCreativeTemplatesByStatement method in the CreativeTemplateService. You can also view these IDs in the UI under Delivery > Creatives > Native ad formats (see the ID below each native ad format name in the table). The native app install template ID is 10004400.

    TemplateCreative nativeAppInstallCreative = new TemplateCreative();
    nativeAppInstallCreative.setCreativeTemplateId(10004400L);

Because native creatives do not have a predetermined size, you need to set a placeholder size of 1x1.

    Size size = new Size();
    size.setWidth(1);
    size.setHeight(1);
    size.setIsAspectRatio(false);
    nativeAppInstallCreative.setSize(size);

Finally, specify a name and destination URL; this example is for the Pie Noon app:

    nativeAppInstallCreative.setName("Pie Noon native ad");
    nativeAppInstallCreative.setDestinationUrl(
        "https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.fpl.pie_noon");

Settings specific to native creatives are set via template variables. An app install native creative requires the following unique template variable names to be set:

• Headline
• Body
• Image
• Price
• Appicon
• Calltoaction
• Starrating
• Store
• DeeplinkclickactionURL

Note that creative template variables are case sensitive and those of type AssetCreativeTemplateVariableValue (“Image” and “Appicon”) must have a unique filename.

You can find the full Java example on how to create native creatives in our GitHub repository here. All of our other ads client libraries have similar examples.

As always, if you have any questions, feel free to drop us a line on the DFP API forums or the Ads Developer Google+ page.

 - Vincent Tsao, DFP API Team

Last month, we announced the ability to create both custom and template creatives using the DFP API. Today we’ll show you can use these premium-only features to create richer creatives with custom HTML.

Custom or template

The difference between custom and template creatives is that custom creatives have their HTML snippet set within them, while template creatives are instantiated from system or user defined HTML snippets. Deciding which one to use depends on your network’s needs. If your network deals primarily with traffickers using the DFP UI, it may be beneficial for them to use creative templates in their workflow. The API could be used to retrieve these templates and report on them, but your traffickers would most likely want to create the creatives from templates in the UI.

However, if you are developing a platform in which traffickers spend most of their day, it may scale better to template the HTML yourself within your content management system (CMS) and use custom creatives for the advertisements. You could store custom HTML snippets and prompt the user for assets to insert. In essence, you would be creating your own templates, but without the overhead of template creatives.

Creating custom creatives

To create a custom creative, you first have to define your HTML snippet:

  String htmlSnippet = "<a href='%%CLICK_URL_UNESC%%%%DEST_URL%%'>"
      + "<img src='%%FILE:IMAGE_ASSET%%'/></a><br>Click for great deals!");
  CustomCreative customCreative = new CustomCreative();
      customCreative.setHtmlSnippet(htmlSnippet);

Notice here that the CLICK_URL_UNESC, DEST_URL, and FILE macros are used to customize the creative at serving time. CLICK_URL_UNESC will insert the clickthrough URL while DEST_URL inserts the URL that the ad points to. The FILE macro will reference any attached assets to the creative, in this case one named IMAGE_ASSET.

  // Set the custom creative image asset.
  CustomCreativeAsset customCreativeAsset = new CustomCreativeAsset();
  customCreativeAsset.setMacroName("IMAGE_ASSET");
  customCreativeAsset.setAssetByteArray(/* Byte array from image. */);
  customCreativeAsset.setFileName(
      String.format("image%s.jpg", System.currentTimeMillis()));
  customCreative.setCustomCreativeAssets(
      new CustomCreativeAsset[] {customCreativeAsset});

You would then call CreativeService.createCreative on customCreative to instantiate on the server. After creating the creative, you can then review it using the creative’s previewUrl attribute or the newly added getPreviewUrl method. When updating custom creatives, you don’t need to pass the asset byte array each time. Instead, you can leave it null with assetId set to what it was assigned to when created. The full example can be found on the Java client library page, as well as in our other libraries.

As a final note, custom creatives can be used for many other purposes beyond the simple image ad above. Including a SWF file as an asset, for example, is a common way of creating flash banner ads. You can even include a Google+ +1 button and customize the +1’s destination URL with the DEST_URL macro.

We have a few more posts lined up for the Discover DFP API v201111 series, but if there’s any other topics you’d like to see, please let us know on the forum.

- Adam Rogal, DFP API Team