Instructions for Flash Ads
Every Flash ad needs BOTH of the following in order to function properly on our
publishers' sites:
- A clickable button or graphic. This is required to give people a means to
respond to your ad when they click on it. Most advertisers make the button transparent
and have it cover the entire ad.
- A clickTAG. This is required in order for us to record that someone
clicked on the ad and then redirect them to the appropriate landing page on your
Web site.
Please follow the special instructions below to set your ad up properly. These instructions
will only work in Flash MX 2004 and later. (If you have an older version of Flash, you'll
need to upgrade before submitting your Flash ad.)
The following instructions are for making your entire Flash ad movie clickable using Flash MX 2004. You may have to
consult the online help for the exact steps to accomplish what is described below if you are using a different
version of Flash.
- Open your Flash ad movie and add a new layer at the top of all the other layers in your Flash movie.
Make sure the timeline for your new layer extends the entire length of your movie.
- Go to Insert >> New Symbol.
- In the Symbol Properties dialog box, enter a name for the new graphic
symbol and choose Graphic as the Behavior option. Draw a box the size of your ad movie and
fill it with any color you please.
- Place your graphic symbol onto the layer you created and make sure it covers your entire movie.
- In the Edit Movie mode, select your graphic symbol instance. Then go to the Properties panel
and choose Color: and select Alpha from the dropdown list. Then change the percentage that appears to 0%.
- Choose Window >> Development Panels >> Behaviors
to open the Behaviors panel. Then choose Window >> Development Panels >> Actions to open the Actions panel.
- Make sure the graphic symbol instance created in step 4 is selected. Then go to the Behaviors panel, click the
Add Behavior button and choose Web >> Go To Web Page.
- In the Go to URL dialog box that appears, type the URL of your ad landing page and choose
"_blank" in the open in field.
- After doing that, you'll notice your Actions panel will update to look like the following except that your landing page
will be there instead of lakequincy.com:
- In the blank line under the on(release) { line, copy and paste the
following parameters into the Actions Parameters pane:
if (_root.clickTAG.substr(0,5) == "http:") {
getURL(_root.clickTAG, "_blank");
}
else {
- After the //End Behavior line, copy and paste the
following curly brace into the Actions Parameters pane:
}
After completing steps 10 & 11, your Actions dialog should look like:
(the areas with the red line around them show what you should have pasted)
How this works:
We will dynamically assign a URL for tracking purposes to your Flash file using
the clickTAG you set up. We will embed your Flash file using the HTML <object>
syntax, and will pass our dynamic click tracking URL into your Flash file using
the clickTAG parameter. For example:
someflashad.swf?clickTAG=http://a.lakequincy.com/click?123
When a user clicks on the Flash movie, they will be redirected to our click tracking
URL, which will record the click and redirect the user to the landing page you have
specified for this advertisement.
Testing Your SWF File
If you're unsure whether your Flash ad works correctly and supports the clickTAG parameter, you can
follow these simple steps to test it:
- TESTING THE LANDING PAGE LINK:
In Flash, with your ad movie open, go to Control >> Test Movie. Click anywhere
on your ad and your Web browser should open to your landing page.
- TESTING THE clickTAG LINK:
Close out of Flash and locate the SWF file in your file system or on your web server.
- Open the SWF file using Internet Explorer (or another Flash-enabled browser). Verify
that you see the movie in the browser, and that your address bar shows the file
name, ending with .swf.
- Add the following to the Address Bar, after .swf: "?clickTAG=http://lakequincy.com/".
- Press Enter - the page should reload with the movie just as before.
- Mouse over the movie and click on it. You should be redirected to http://lakequincy.com/
(in a new window if the _blank target was specified as in the above instructions).
Troubleshooting
- If you find yourself at another URL, the most likely reason is that this Flash movie
has that URL hard coded into it. We will not be able to track clicks using this
movie.
- If clicking on the movie does nothing, the Flash movie most likely does not have
a clickable button or graphic embedded in it. We will not be able to use this movie as-is since
no one will be able to click on it to reach your destination URL.
