Setting up a Roadblock in DFP Small Business:

The common problem:

I have an advertiser whose ads are supposed to be roadblocked. However, DFP's roadblocks are not real roadblocks. When the first ad serves on the page is from the roadblocked campaign I get the roadblock but at least 10% of the time only the 2nd or 3rd ad displays.

If this were my only advertiser and an exclusive campaign set to run 100% of the time then I would get roadblocks 100% of the time. The problem is it's not exclusive so often the ads serve but not as a roadblock. Is there anyway to get around this?

There is a way to get around this issue, follow the steps below to be able to setup and run your roadblocks that actually display together 100% of the time in DFP Small business.

1. Setup a custom criteria called Roadblock. Make it a free form type.

i. To do this, click the "Inventory" tab at the top left.



ii. Click on the "Custom Targeting" link in the top left menu.



iii. Click on the "New Key" button found under the "Custom Targeting" title.



iiii. Fill in the required fields on the form. Enter the name as "Roadblock" and set the radio button to "Users will enter targeting values when creating line items or checking inventory".



This is also known as free-form targeting and will allow you to enter any value when setting up your custom criteria. This comes in handy if you need to be running multiple roadblocks at one time.

2.Setup your order as normal.

3. Setup your first line item. In this example we will be roadblocking two 728x90's and a 300x250. One 728x90 displays at the top of the page the other at the very bottom. The 300x250 displays in the middle of the page.



i. When setting up your line items determine which unit displays in the top most position on the page.

ii. Configure your first line item: Setup only the top most ad unit in this line item. In this case it would be a 728x90. Populate the settings information for your line item with your relevant data. Eg.Type, Start and End Date, Quantity, Rate, Discount, etc.

*Important Targeting Notes*
Make sure to have this line item targeted to a placement that only contains the top most ad units. In this case I made a placement that only contained the topmost 728x90 on all the sites/pages I want the roadblock to display on. This ensures this line item will always display first on the page. (For information on creating placements and adding ad units to them see Adding Ad Units to Placements)

All of the line items for your roadblock should use the same priority, whether it be house, standard, network, etc., just make sure they are the same. Also, the tricky part of this setup is determining your impression goals. As an example lets say that the advertiser has requested 100,000 leaderboards and 50,000 bigboxes. Since we have two leaderboards running, we must distribute that amount amongst all the line items containing 728x90's. So the first line item with the single 728x90 will get 50,000 impressions and the second line item with the second 728x90 will receive the other 50,000 impressions. Finally, the third 300x250 will receive 50,000 impressions. This impression breakout is only meant as an example and will of course change dependent upon what was sold.

iii. Once you have all of your settings configured. Click on the "Save and..." button at the bottom right of the page. Select "Upload Creatives" from the drop down.



iiii. You will need to setup the ad as a third party creative as you need to add an extra snippet of code to enable the roadblock. Select "Third Party" as the ad type you want to setup.



If you are using third party tags, drop them into the html field and add any macros as necessary, save the creative and proceed to step 4.

If you are using an 'image' type creative (gif, animated gif, jpeg) you can upload the file as you would a normal image creative. To do this return to the "Upload Creative" screen and select "Image" as the type of creative you want to upload.



Upload your creative as usual filling in all required fields. Then deativate the creative immediately. To do this simply check the box next to the creative you want to deactivate and then click the deactivate button.



You would then right click on the image of the deactivated creative and select "View Image Info".



Then copy the location of the image, it will start with something like:

https://tpc.googlesyndication.com/pageadimg/imgad?id=



Next you will set up a new third party creative. using a basic "a href" and "img src" statement as follows:

<a href="http://www.test.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://tpc.googlesyndication.com/pageadimg/imgad?id=" /></a>

4. Once you have your tag setup and have tested that the image displays and clicks through properly go back into the creative and edit it. This is where you ad in the extra code that will enable the roadblock:

<script type="text/javascript">
GA_googleAddAttr("roadblock", "TEST");
</script>

In the above where you see "TEST" is where you would set the flag for the current roadblock your setting up. You could use the advertiser name or whatever you want really. I am using TEST as an example here. As I mentioned earlier having this setup as a free-form variable allows you to run multiple roadblocks at the same time if need be without the fear of them running into one another. You could set them up as "Advertiser_1" and "Advertiser_2" as an example. Paste the code snippet above your third party ad tag as seen in the example below.



Be sure to save the creative again after making these changes.

Now you want to setup the second and third line items for your roadblock which will be the other creatives you want to display. In this case, that is a 300x250 and a 728x90. The setup will be pretty much the same as above except that instead of entering the extra code snippet you would set a custom criteria up as roadblock is "TEST" when configuring the settings for each line item. To do this simply setup your line item as normal until you come to the "Add Targeting" portion. Target this line item to your run of site placement. This will mean that these line items will only display when this custom criteria is present. Next select the "Custom Criteria" tab on the left of the "Add Targeting" box.



Then select the "Custom Criteria" you setup earlier called "roadblock".



Now enter the value you want to use for this "Custom Criteria", for example Advertiser_1.



It should appear to the right with the rest of your targeting as "roadblock is Advertiser_1" in this case. You have now completed setting up the custom criteria.

Click on save at the bottom right and select "Upload Creatives" and upload the creatives as normal without adding in any extra code snippets.

Due to the way we added the code snippet to the first line item this custom criteria will only be present when the first line item displays and because of the way we targeted it to only the uppermost ad units it will always display at the top of the page. This means it will always display first and force the other two adds to always display afterwards.

You should now have a roadblock that will be a true roadblock 100% of the time.