Interactive Media Ads (IMA) Plugin - WEB

This article walks you through a quick setup of the IMA Plugin in the Kaltura Management Console (KMC), and then covers some Additional Settings that you may wish to explore.

About Ads

Advertisements acquired through the IMA Plugin are client-side ads. These are obtained from an ad server, then incorporated into playback by the Player.

The main characteristics of these ads are: 

1. Ads may be skippable.
2. Ads may be clickable.
3. Ads may be either linear (the ad break is inserted into playback), or non-linear (the ad is shown over or beside the playing content).

IMA Quick Setup

This section walks you through incorporating client-side ads into your Player using the KMC. In the KMC, you will enable the plugin inside the Player, configure the plugin, and copy the generated code into your project.

1. Log into the KMC.
2. Under Studio, select Kaltura Player Studio.
   The Player List displays.
   
3. Click on the desired player. In our example, the Player is named Marketing Event Player.
   Alternatively, you may create a new player. See The Kaltura Player Getting Started Guide for information on creating a player. 
4. Select the Integration tab. "Integrations" is denoted by a grouping of shapes icon.
   The Integrations area displays.
   
5. Under MONETIZATION, click to enable IMA. Additional functionality displays.
   
6. In the Ad tag URL, type a URL for the advertising tag of the ad to be displayed.
7. Click Save to save changes.
8. Navigate back to the Content tab on the KMC home page.
   
9. Click the three horizontal dots icon to the right of the content you wish to monetize, then choose Share & Embed.
   
10. Select the player you just configured for the IMA plugin from the Select Player dropdown menu at the top of the page.
    
11. Under the Embed Code text box, click Copy to copy the Embed Code.
    
    You can now paste the embed code directly into your project.

Additional Settings

Additional Settings for the IMA Plugin can be configured within KMC. You can do this at the same time that you populate the Ad Tag URL field (see Step 6, above).  

Some of these settings are built-in and easily configurable within the KMC (Built-in Settings); other settings must be added manually within the KMC (Custom Settings).

Built-in Settings

1. In the Loading Timeout field, type the timeout for loading ads (in milliseconds). If an ad cannot be loaded within this timeframe, the video will be loaded automatically.
2. In HTML Companions, for each companion ad, specify the container Div ID and expected ad width/height.
   Click [X] to delete a Div ID; click [add] to add a Div ID.
3. In Size Criteria, select the size criteria to apply to ads - Select Exact Match, Select Near Match, or Ignore Size.
   • Select Exact Match (default) – Only companion that match the size of the companion ad slot exactly will be selected.
   • Select Near Match – Any companion that is close to the size of the companion ad slot can be selected.
   • Ignore Size – Size can be ignored when selecting companions.
4. In ad markers on the timeline, choose whether to place markers on the timeline indicating advertisement cues.
5. In the Marker Color field, choose or type the RGB color of the marker. 
6. In the Marker Width field, type the width of the marker in pixels.

Custom Settings

Some custom settings do not appear within the KMC but can be added manually. See Kaltura IMA Plugin and the Google IMA Developers Guide for information on advanced configuration settings. You may also use Ad Tag Suite Inspector to double check your ad tag. For more advanced settings, see IMA Config Object.