In 2008 e-planning developed a new type of tag that represents an innovation in the market. This tag introduces the following advantages:
- It loads all spaces of one page using only one call:: ads are loaded faster.
- The response sent by e-planning is lighter:: less than 1KB average for a 15 - space page.
- Ads load parallelly with the page: : the browser doesn't wait for the ads to load to resume loading the page.
This tag is applicable to web sites with one or more spaces in a page tagged with e-planning as main ad server. In these cases, the AJAX tag is the recommended option by e-planning.
How it works
Ajax tags transfer the logic of how to visualize each ad in the browser. e-planning stops returning the HTML or Javascript code to only return the ad information: its format, size, options, id, etc. The browser, through the library developed by e-planning (epl-41.js) uses this information to insert each ad inside the page. The library that contains all the logic is a static file that can be cached by browsers and proxy servers. In general, once a user downloads the library, it is unnecessary to download it again to surf in other pages of the site.
On the other hand, all requests to e-planning, not only the library download but also the download of ads, are carried out within dynamic iframes.
This implies that requests are asynchronic with the download of the page, or in other words, the browser doesn't have to wait for e-planning to reply in order to continue with the download of the page. In practice, the pages will download more quickly than when using other tag types.
Additional advantages
More than one ad by space
Until now with any e-planning tag only one ad could be shown at a time by space. At most two could be shown: an ad inside the page and another over the page (pop, layer, etc). With AJAX tags it is possible to show more than one ad in the same space. For example: If a place of the page shows 4 text ads, instead of using 4 spaces, only one can be used in order to show the 4 ads in the same space at the same time.
Customization of the way the banners are shown
Through Javascript functions it is possible to define that, for example, all ads are to be shown inside a box titled "Ads". This tag allows the implementation of custom functions which are used to place an ad inside a page instead of using the standard e-planning function. Other examples of its use are: to have an ad shown twice in the same page (at the top and at the bottom) by using just one impression; increase or decrease the size of the ads according to the user's preferencies.
Considerations
Even though AJAX tags are mostly the best option, some of their characteristics must be taken into consideration when deciding their implementation:
Preview or Takeover types
Due to the asynchronous download, the Preview or Takeover types lose their possibility of showing before the page is downloaded. Generally, when using AJAX tags, these types are shown a second after the page has started to download. Therefore the user might see the top of the page before the ad that covers it appears which in some cases this is not a problem. If it's not necessary to download before the Preview or Takeover ad shows, a Javascript tag must be used for this ad which will block the download of the page while downloading the ad.
Modification of the HTML code of the ad
In certain types, e-planning allows, when uploading an ad, to modify the HTML code that will be used to show it. This is used to insert requests to tracking urls or to send variables to a flash ad. Since in AJAX tags it is not possible to modify the HTML code of the ad, e-planning has implemented the option to send additional variables to Flash through Flash Vars and to indicate the amount of tracking urls per type. Any ad modification not supported by e-planning, will be done through a función customizada, as explained above. However, this function will apply to all ads of the same type and not to a specific ad as it was done by modifying the HTML code of the ad.
Modification when counting impressions
e-planning follows the reference guides of IAB about the counting of impressions and clicks. However, when using Ajax tags that load all ads at one request, e-planning will count the impression of all ads when responding to the request.
Depending on where the e-planning tag is pasted, impressions of e.g., ads at the bottom of the page, will be counted even though the browser hasn't downloaded the entire page. This leads to an increase of the amount of the impressions. Although this is within the IAB specifications, every site has to take this into account when implementing AJAX tags.
It should be notice that in Rich Media ads served by e-planning, the counting is made in the first frame of the Flash ad or when the video starts (in video ads), so in this case, the consideration does not apply.
Limitation of names in zones and spaces
In order to use AJAX tags, the name of the zones and spaces created in e-planning must contain only letters (from A to Z) and numbers from (0 to 9). If it contains names with spaces or other characters (e.g.: Header 468 , Header- 468-60 ) Ajax tags will not be able to be used for zones or spaces.
Usage of custom ad ID
In previous tags, the custom ID variable was available for some types when two or more ads in the same page had to communicate between them. In AJAX tags this is not available because its implementation is more direct and easier. If you are migrating the tags of your sites from V3 to V4, you will have to consider this in order to use custom ID of ads.
Implementation
AJAX tags can be obtained from the zone label by clicking on the HTML code of a zone. Then, on the screen where the code is shown, select type "multiple AJAX V4". If this type is not available and you are sure that the name of the zone doesn't contain invalid characters, contact our technical support department for tag activation.
Frequent questions about AJAX tags
Can AJAX tags show third party ad server tags?
Yes, as long as they are fix-size ads (gif ads, flash, text, etc). As many ad server tags in the market use the document.write statement to write the content in a page and this statement is incompatible with AJAX tags, e-planning creates a specific size Iframe to show a third party ad server tag. e-planning downloads the third party ad server tag within the Iframe, therefore that tag can neither expand outside the Iframe nor show over the page ads. To sum up, it is possible to use fix-size ads such as gif, flash, text or any other type.
Can Google ad sense tags be shown?
Yes, as long as they are text, gif or flash ads that don't expand their size. i.e.: the ad size doesn't change.
Could e-planning ad magic Rich Media ads be used?
Yes, since early 2009 most e-planning ad magic types can be used with AJAX tags. Only Split layers and Layers with scroll, types are still not supported. They will be implemented in the following months. Moreover, Preview and TakeOver type considerations described above must be taken into account.
Are there any e-planning clients currently using these tags?
Yes, many of our clients have already migrated to AJAX tags, noticing important improvements regarding speed in the download of their pages.
Can AJAX tags increase the traffic of a site?
Yes, since AJAX tags allow pages and ads to download more quickly, an increase in the traffic of the site and in the impressions of the ads can been seen. The more ads a page has, the higher the difference.
Are AJAX tags useful for an agency that sends tags to sites?
e-planning recommends sites to use AJAX tags when e-planning is the first ad server. For an agency that sends tags to sites, AJAX tags are not an important advantage. Although they can be used, we recommend to use Spaces tags based on Dynamic Iframes.
Can AJAX tags be used in a Network?
If the sites belonging to the network are continually tagged by e-planning, they can be used. Otherwise, check the previous question about agencies.
