Set up programmatic ads in your feeds

Set up programmatic ads in your Business Account so external demand fills ad slots in feeds and embedded players automatically.

Programmatic ads fill the ad slots in your social experience in real time from external demand sources, such as SSPs and ad exchanges. There's no manual campaign management or trafficking: once you save your setup, Genuin fills each slot automatically. Programmatic ads are part of Monetize, and Genuin Ad Server explains where the demand comes from.

You control programmatic ads with monetization presets in your Business Account. A preset sets where ads run, how often they appear, which ad types fill a slot, and on which platforms. Learn more about every preset setting in Create and manage monetization presets.

Programmatic ads run alongside paid partnerships and premium access. Paid partnerships bring direct revenue, and programmatic ads bring automated revenue. Learn more about paid partnerships in Create a paid partnership.

Choose a preset and where it runs

1. In your Business Account, go to Settings > Ad Configuration. Programmatic ads are controlled here, through Monetization Presets.

1. Choose a default preset, or create a custom preset for full control.

1. Select the placements and embeds where ads run: community feeds, group feeds, brand feeds, and embedded players.

Programmatic ads appear only where a preset covers the placement or embed. The Home, Latest, and Popular feeds use the Global preset.

A placement or embed belongs to one preset at a time. If you select one that's already in another preset, Business Account asks you to confirm the reassignment.

Confirm & Apply keeps your selection, and the move happens when you save the preset. Cancel clears the items you selected.

The default presets balance revenue and the viewing experience in different ways:

Two more default presets sit in the same list:

Global has no placements or embeds, and it's active by default. It turns inactive when In-Feed, In-Stream, and Partnered Takeover are all off.

You can edit all of Global's ad settings, but not its name or description, and you can't duplicate it.

The ad settings of Premium, Balanced, Conservative, and Aggressive are read-only, and you can't delete these presets. You can still change their placements and embeds, and Save turns on once you change an assignment.

To copy a preset, click its Duplicate icon. The copy appears at the bottom of the list right away, named Preset plus the next free number. Placements and embeds aren't copied.

Who can change presets

Users without access can't open the Ad Configuration page, even from a direct link.

Turn on in-feed ads

In-feed ads appear between items in a feed.

1. Select In-Feed Configuration to turn on ads between feed items.
2. Choose a Start Slot to set the position of the first ad in the feed.
3. Choose a Repeat Frequency to set the spacing between ads.
4. Under Ad Events, choose whether ads show in card view and full screen, or in full screen only.

Learn how these two settings turn into ad positions in How the Genuin SDK places ads in a feed.

Start Slot and Repeat Frequency are dropdowns with values from 1 to 10, and both default to 2. Ad Events defaults to Show ads in card view & in full screen.

Set ad types and priority

1. Under Ad Types & Priority, select the ad types you want: Partnered Post and Video Ads. House (Fallback Content) is always on.
2. Check the order. Partnered Post always comes first and House (Fallback Content) always comes last. Genuin tries the highest-priority type first, and lower types serve as fallbacks.

Video ads, in-feed and in-stream, earn the highest CPM of these types.

Partnered Post must be on for posts from your paid partnerships to show in the feed.

Video Ads fill a slot only when the preset's ad server supports them, even with the switch on.

Partnered Takeover

Every preset has a Partnered Takeover section, and its switch is on by default. Takeovers from your paid partnerships show only while it's on.

While it's on, a takeover overrides all other ad types in the Feed Preview. A smaller Video Feed Preview for Partnered Takeover appears below the switch.

Turn on in-stream ads

In-stream ads play inside videos and are a high revenue driver.

1. Select In-Stream Ads to turn on ads inside videos.
2. Choose a Start Content Video to set the first video that triggers ads.
3. Choose a Repeat Frequency to set how often in-stream ads play.
4. Choose the ad types: Pre-roll, Mid-roll, or Post-roll.

We recommend Pre-roll with Mid-roll because that pair earns the most revenue. Avoid turning on all three types unless necessary, because that overloads viewers with ads.

In-stream ads are on in a new preset. Start Content Video and Repeat Frequency take values from 1 to 10, default to 2, and count content cards only.

Business Account doesn't show separate pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll switches. The selected demand source decides the ad types, and pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll ads play automatically.

Each roll type plays only when the preset's ad server supports it, even with its switch on.

Set up fallback content

1. House (Fallback Content) is always on, so ad slots fall back to house content when programmatic demand has no fill.
2. (Optional) Select Monetize fallback with In-Stream Ads to keep earning revenue while fallback content plays.

Learn how to choose the posts that serve as fallback in Mark and manage house ads.

Choose where ads run

1. Under Select environment to show ads, choose Global to run ads on all platforms, or Custom settings to pick specific platforms: Web, iOS, Android, or Mobile Web. By default, ads run on Global.

With custom settings, each platform gets its own tab with independent settings. Switching between Global and custom settings, either way, asks you to confirm.

Going from custom settings back to Global resets the platform tabs. The Web tab's settings then apply to every platform.

Choose ad servers

A preset lists the ad servers set up in Demand Settings, under Settings > Ad Configuration, plus Header Bidding as a single option. The individual Header Bidding servers aren't listed.

Your default ad server is preselected on a new preset. You can remove it once you select another ad server.

Set ad experience controls

1. Select Mute on Start to start ads muted, which suits autoplay.
2. Select Duration to show viewers how long the ad lasts.
3. Set Ad Aspect Ratio to match the player, for a consistent experience.

In-feed and in-stream ads each have their own Ad Aspect Ratio, Mute on Start, and Duration controls. In a new preset, Mute on Start is on for in-feed ads and off for in-stream ads.

Duration starts off for both. Ad Aspect Ratio starts at Allow all aspect ratios; choose Match video player ratio to match the player.

Preview and save

1. Use Feed Preview to see where ads appear in the feed.
2. Check the spacing and density of the ads.
3. Click Save.

Feed Preview shows a live 15-card preview. Choose Content, In-Feed, or In-Stream to change what it previews.

A custom preset needs a Preset Name of 3 to 50 characters, with no leading or trailing spaces, that no other preset uses. Preset Description is optional, up to 200 characters, with no trailing spaces.

Save stays disabled until you make a change and every field is valid. After you save, a success toast appears, and the breadcrumb changes from New Preset to the preset's name.

A saved preset becomes active, and a new one appears at the bottom of the list. Cancel, or leaving with unsaved changes, shows an Unsaved Changes warning first.

Your programmatic ads go live and start earning revenue automatically. To see what they earn, see Track programmatic ad performance.

How Genuin fills an ad slot

Genuin fills each slot in real time:

You control how often ads appear with Start Slot and Repeat Frequency.

Example setups

Performance targets

Limitations

• No campaign-level targeting: Programmatic ads don't support campaign-level targeting or manual control of individual campaigns.
• Demand-driven revenue: Revenue comes from the demand available for each slot, so it rises and falls with that demand.

See also

• Genuin Ad Server
• Create and manage monetization presets
• Track programmatic ad performance
• How the Genuin SDK places ads in a feed
• Mark and manage house ads