Implementing Long-Form Video with Prebid: A Practical Guide for Publishers

Monetizing long-form video presents both lucrative opportunities and operational complexities for digital publishers. Unlike short video ads, long-form video relies on ad pods—blocks of multiple ads—demanding more granular control and technical rigor. For teams managing Prebid or header bidding setups, getting ad pod configuration right is critical to maximizing yield, maintaining user experience, and meeting advertiser requirements.

This guide walks through the process of setting up Prebid.js for long-form video, explains key parameters, shows how to integrate with ad servers, and highlights where publisher teams most often encounter challenges.

Understanding Long-Form Video in Prebid

Long-form video refers to content sessions that are much longer than short clips—think TV episodes, full movies, or live sports streams. Monetizing these with programmatic ads means serving ad pods: sequences of multiple ads, often grouped together at natural breaks (like before a show or during halftime).

Prebid.js supports ad pod monetization by allowing publishers to control how many ads appear, their order, their duration, and even separation of competing advertisers within a pod.

The Role of Ad Pods

Ad pods group multiple ads together, just like traditional TV commercial breaks. Publishers must set pod duration, number of slots, and competitive separation rules to avoid back-to-back ads from the same industry. For example, a sports publisher might run five 30-second ads during a halftime break, ensuring no two car brands appear in sequence.

Setting Up Prebid.js for Long-Form Video

Configuring Prebid.js for long-form video isn’t as simple as turning on a switch. It requires careful selection of modules, bidders, and parameters to match your monetization strategy and video player setup.

Selecting and Downloading Modules

When building the Prebid.js library, include at least one video bidder adapter, the FreeWheel ad server module, and the Category Translation module. Integrate the Prebid Server adapter if using a server-side approach. Missing a core module can break your setup or limit demand.

Defining Ad Units and Key Parameters

Your ad unit configuration must set the video context to ‘adpod’. Required parameters:
– playerSize: e.g., [640, 480]
– adPodDurationSec: total pod duration (e.g., 300 seconds)
– durationRangeSec: allowed ad durations (e.g., [15, 30])

Optional fields include metadata like series/episode names, season/episode number, and content length. This extra detail can improve targeting and reporting, especially for CTV or broadcaster-style content.

Ensuring Competitive Separation

To avoid back-to-back competitors in a pod, enable Prebid’s brandCategoryExclusion. For example, add:

pbjs.setConfig({ adpod: { brandCategoryExclusion: true }});

This is vital for publisher brand safety and can also be required by direct advertisers.

Integrating with Your Ad Server: Focus on FreeWheel

A properly configured ad server ensures smooth delivery of long-form video ads. FreeWheel is a common choice among publishers, serving as the final arbiter for ad pod assembly and delivery. Prebid video demand is passed into FreeWheel via creative wrappers, enabling accurate forecasting, trafficking, and competitive separation enforcement.

Key Considerations with FreeWheel

– Creatives must be properly wrapped to allow tracking and fallback.
– Ad ops must coordinate Prebid’s competitive separation settings with FreeWheel’s own settings—conflicts can cause misdelivery or errors.
– Regularly test fill and discrepancy rates to ensure Prebid and FreeWheel communication is working as intended.

Advanced Monetization Controls: Deals and Prioritization

Prebid’s deal support features allow publishers to prioritize video PMP (Private Marketplace) deals over open auction demand—critical for guaranteeing premium delivery or meeting advertiser commitments. This is especially important in TV-like environments where deal guarantees are key.

Deal Tier Configuration

Use the prioritizeDeals and dealTier configuration options to favor specific deals by bidder, setting minimum tiers or prefixes to sort bids. For example:

pbjs.setConfig({ adpod: { prioritizeDeals: true, dealTier: { ‘appnexus’: { prefix: ‘tier’, minDealTier: 5 }}}});

This flexibility lets publishers enforce complex sales strategies programmatically.

Practical Example of Bid Selection

Suppose a publisher wants to ensure that high-value deal bids win in certain pods, even if their CPM is similar to open market bids. By setting deal tier thresholds, only deals above a minimum value are prioritized for certain pods or shows, supporting both revenue goals and direct-sold commitments.

What this means for publishers

Mastering Prebid’s long-form video features gives publishers unprecedented control over both yield and viewer experience. With granular ad pod settings and server-side integrations, publishers can optimize fill rates, enforce strict competitive separation, and maximize revenue from direct deals and programmatic demand alike. Operational coordination between ad ops and dev teams is crucial—especially when navigating edge cases like mismatches between Prebid configurations and ad server rules. Missing a required parameter or misaligning deal priorities can mean lost revenue or broken ad breaks.

Practical takeaway

Long-form video monetization through Prebid is both powerful and complex: success depends on careful technical setup and close cross-team collaboration. Begin by auditing your player and ad server stack to ensure compatibility. When configuring ad units, always be explicit with pod duration, slot count, and content metadata, and validate that all demand partners are correctly included in your Prebid build.

Regularly monitor ad delivery, paying close attention to competitor separation and deal prioritization in reporting. This will help you spot misconfigurations before they impact fill rates or direct advertiser relationships. As your video inventory grows, revisit both Prebid and ad server settings periodically—incremental improvements here can quickly translate into sustainable revenue and better control for your business.