Creatives can be uploaded in the Advertiser details screen by selecting the ‘New Creative’ button. At this time the platform supports Video VAST tags from reputable Ad Servers, First Party Videos, Ad Server Audio Tags, First Party Audio, Ad Server Banner Tags, First Party Banners, HTML5, and Native (Format A) creatives. If you do not have access to an ad server to create VAST tags, Pontiac Bidder offers hosting services at an additional charge via Kevel. This additional CPM fee is applied to the Line Item for each impression served and is a part of the total line and campaign budgets. Reach out through the Help Center or your account manager for more information.

To upload a Creative, go to the Advertisers tab and click on the name of the Advertiser under which you would like to upload the Creative. Select ‘New Creative’ and select the type of Creative that you will be uploading. A preview of the Creative should appear in the green ‘Preview’ box. Ensure that the Creative does not extend outside this preview box. Complete all relevant fields, then click ‘Save’.

Please note that Creatives can only be edited at the Advertiser Level. Please navigate to the Advertiser Level to modify your creatives.

For detailed documentation, see here: New Creative Tab

Please thoroughly review all Creative Policies before uploading Creative. All Creative units uploaded will be subject to the Pontiac Intelligence creative audit process as well as any additional SSP, publisher, media owner or other creative approval processes that may apply in the acquisition of ad space.

Pontiac Intelligence reserves the right to reject any creative unit at its discretion, and subsequently suspend the account without advanced warning. If your account is suspended, you will be notified in writing and an investigation will take place within three business days.  If at any point your ad tags are flagged as malicious, your account balance will be forfeited to Pontiac and will not be refundable.

In addition to Pontiac Intelligence’s content policies, certain sellers have additional policies that apply to buyers of those sellers’ inventory and certain data providers have additional policies that apply to buyers of those data providers’ data. Pontiac Intelligence clients wishing to purchase such inventory or data are responsible for understanding and adhering to any such additional policies. Pontiac shall have no liability or responsibility of any kind if a third-party declines to serve any Ads proposed by a Pontiac user, regardless of whether the ads meet the Pontiac Ad Standards or are approved by Pontiac, and users agree to indemnify and hold harmless Pontiac from any losses arising from a third-party’s decision not to serve a user’s ads. 

Creatives are managed on the Advertiser level. Navigate to the desired Advertiser and select the New Creative button to upload and configure creatives across video, display, audio, and native formats.

Getting Started

1. Click New Creative.
2. Select a Creative Type:

• Banner/Display:
  • Banner: Hosted
    • First Party Banner
  • Banner: 3rd Party
    • Ad Server Tag Banner
  • HTML5
• Native
• Audio
  • Audio: Hosted
    • First Party Audio
  • Audio: 3rd Party
    • Ad Server Tag Audio
• Video
  • Video: Hosted
    • First Party Videos. Pontiac hosting fee will be applied and VAST tag will be created using Kevel.
  • Video: 3rd Party
    • Ad Server Tag Video (VAST) tags from reputable Ad Servers

4. Enter a Creative Name.
5. Set the creative to Active or Inactive (default is Active).

Continue below for detailed setup instructions and examples for each creative type.

Video: 3rd Party

Upload Steps:

Start by clicking New Creative, then:

1. Select Creative Type: Ad Server Tag Video (VAST)
2. Name the creative.
3. Choose Active or Inactive. Creatives are automatically set to Active.
4. Select the creative’s duration. The default value is 30 seconds.
   • Supported Durations:
     • 5, 10, 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, and 90.
5. Select the creative’s weight. The default value is 1.
6. Enter the Video VAST Tag URL
   • VAST 2, 3, and 4 are currently accepted
7. Select how the creative’s sizes are uploaded:
   • Automatically Detect Sizes
     • All sizes detected from the VAST tag will populate the box.
   • Manually Set Sizes
     • Select sizes from the right hand side drop down menu.
8. Serve to all sizes with similar aspect ratio (recommended, enabled by default): When enabled, creatives run across more placements that support the same aspect ratios, increasing available inventory and campaign scale without distortion or cropping.
9. Preview the creative to ensure it is rendering correctly and there are no issues.
10. Click Save, which will send the creative to audit.

First Party Video

Upload Steps:

Start by clicking New Creative, then:

1. Select Creative Type: First Party Video
2. Name the creative.
3. Choose Active or Inactive. Creatives are automatically set to Active.
4. Select the creative’s duration. The default value is 30 seconds.
   • Supported Durations:
     • 5, 10, 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, and 90.
5. Select the creative’s weight. The default value is 1.
6. Enter the click URL: This is where the video will take the viewer if clicked.
7. Select the Aspect Ratio: 16:9 is selected by default.
   • 16:9 is the most common aspect ratio for CTV video creatives. When selected, the uploaded creative will serve to standard sizes like 1920×1080 and 1280×720, along with additional sizes sharing the same aspect ratio.
   • All Supported Aspect Ratios:
     • 16:9: Best for CTV and most desktop/mobile video placements. Standard for long-form and streaming content.
     • 1:1: Square and common for feeds and mobile as it takes up more screen space than horizontal video.
     • 9:16: Ideal for mobile, full screen experiences and OLV placements.
     • 4:5: Common for mobile feeds.
8. Serve to all sizes with similar aspect ratio (recommended, enabled by default): When enabled, creatives run across more placements that support the same aspect ratios, increasing available inventory and campaign scale without distortion or cropping.
9. Click the Choose File button and upload the creative video file.
10. Preview the creative to ensure it is rendering correctly and there are no issues.
11. Click Save, which will send the creative to audit.

First Party Banner

Upload Steps:

Start by clicking New Creative, then:

1. Select Creative Type: First Party Banner
2. Name the creative.
3. Choose Active or Inactive. Creatives are automatically set to Active.
4. Select the creative’s weight. The default value is 1.
5. Enter the click URL: This is where the creative will take the viewer if clicked.
6. Select the Size: 300×250 is selected by default.
   • Common sizes: 300×250, 728×90, 160×600
   • Supported Banner Sizes:
     • 88×31, 120×24, 120×60, 120×90, 120×160, 120×240, 120×600, 125×60, 125×125, 160×600, 180×150, 180×500, 200×200, 250×250,250×300, 300×50, 300×60, 300×100, 300×200, 300×250, 300×300, 300×400, 300×600, 300×1050, 320×50, 320×100, 320×250, 320×320, 320×360, 320×400, 320×480, 336×280, 400×300, 414×125, 468×60, 468×80, 580×400, 600×315, 600×600, 640×480, 640×720, 728×90, 728×200, 728×300, 732×610, 750×750, 900×1600, 930×180, 960×1200, 960×1600, 970×90, 970×250, 980×120, 980×150, 980×300, 980×500, 980×600, 1024×768, 1080×1080, 1080×1920, 1200×600, 1200×628, 1200×675, 1200×1200, 1280×720, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
7. Click the Choose File button and upload the creative banner file.
8. Preview the creative to ensure it is rendering correctly and there are no issues.
9. Click Save, which will send the creative to audit.

First Party Audio

Upload Steps:

Start by clicking New Creative, then:

1. Select Creative Type: First Party Audio
2. Name the creative.
3. Choose Active or Inactive. Creatives are automatically set to Active.
4. Select the creative’s duration. The default value is 30 seconds.
   • Supported Durations:
     • 5, 10, 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, and 90.
5. Select the creative’s weight. The default value is 1.
6. Enter the click URL: This is where the creative will take the viewer if clicked.
7. Click the Choose File button and upload the creative audio file.
   • MP3 audio file
8. Preview the creative to ensure it is rendering correctly and there are no issues.
9. Click Save, which will send the creative to audit.

Ad Server Tag Audio

Upload Steps:

Start by clicking New Creative, then:

1. Select Creative Type: Ad Server Tag Audio
2. Name the creative.
3. Choose Active or Inactive. Creatives are automatically set to Active.
4. Select the creative’s duration. The default value is 30 seconds.
   • Supported Durations:
     • 5, 10, 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, and 90.
5. Select the creative’s weight. The default value is 1.
6. Enter the Audio VAST tag URL: Vast versions 2, 3 and 4 are currently accepted.
7. Preview the creative to ensure it is rendering correctly and there are no issues.
8. Click Save, which will send the creative to audit.

Ad Server Tag Banner

Upload Steps:

Start by clicking New Creative, then:

1. Select Creative Type: Ad Server Tag Banner
2. Name the creative.
3. Choose Active or Inactive. Creatives are automatically set to Active.
4. Select the creative’s weight. The default value is 1.
5. Select the Size: 300×250 is selected by default.
   • Common sizes: 300×250, 728×90, 160×600
   • Supported Banner Sizes:
     • 88×31, 120×24, 120×60, 120×90, 120×160, 120×240, 120×600, 125×60, 125×125, 160×600, 180×150, 180×500, 200×200, 250×250,250×300, 300×50, 300×60, 300×100, 300×200, 300×250, 300×300, 300×400, 300×600, 300×1050, 320×50, 320×100, 320×250, 320×320, 320×360, 320×400, 320×480, 336×280, 400×300, 414×125, 468×60, 468×80, 580×400, 600×315, 600×600, 640×480, 640×720, 728×90, 728×200, 728×300, 732×610, 750×750, 900×1600, 930×180, 960×1200, 960×1600, 970×90, 970×250, 980×120, 980×150, 980×300, 980×500, 980×600, 1024×768, 1080×1080, 1080×1920, 1200×600, 1200×628, 1200×675, 1200×1200, 1280×720, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
6. Enter the Third-Party HTML Tag.
7. Preview the creative to ensure it is rendering correctly and there are no issues.
8. Click Save, which will send the creative to audit.

Native

Upload Steps:

Start by clicking New Creative, then:

1. Select Creative Type: Native
2. Name the creative.
3. Choose Active or Inactive. Creatives are automatically set to Active.
4. Native Creative Type: Format A is selected by default and currently the only supported version.
5. Enter Alternative Brand URL for Audit (if applicable): Applicable if you are using a Click URL to a site that does not represent your branding, such as Amazon, enter a URL that contains the same branding represented in your ad. The audit team will use this URL to validate the branding represented in the creative. This will not be used as the landing page for the creative.
6. Creative Specs: Expand this section to view the Native Format A requirements.
   • Title: 25 Character Maximum
   • Body: 140 Character Maximum
   • Icon: 1:1 aspect ratio, at least 50×50 pix, no more than 200×200
   • Image: width cant exceed 1200 and aspect ratio has to be 1:1, 4:3 or 1.91:1
   • Click URL: URL to the page you are driving to (matches “sponsored by” brand)
   • Sponsored By: 25 Character maximum (Brand of advertisement)
   • Format A placements excel on the following exchanges: Triplelift, Sharethrough, Microsoft
   • 200kb max file size, overage fees will apply for larger files
7. Enter the required fields: Title, Sponsored By, Click URL, Call to Action, and Body.
8. Upload the Icon.
9. Upload the Image.
10. Preview the creative to ensure it is rendering correctly and there are no issues.
11. Click Save, which will send the creative to audit.

Example Preview:

HTML5

Upload Steps:

Start by clicking New Creative, then:

1. Select Creative Type: Html5
2. Name the creative.
3. Choose Active or Inactive. Creatives are automatically set to Active.
4. Select the Size: 300×250 is selected by default.
   • Common sizes: 300×250, 728×90, 160×600
   • Supported Sizes:
     • 88×31, 120×24, 120×60, 120×90, 120×160, 120×240, 120×600, 125×60, 125×125, 160×600, 180×150, 180×500, 200×200, 250×250,250×300, 300×50, 300×60, 300×100, 300×200, 300×250, 300×300, 300×400, 300×600, 300×1050, 320×50, 320×100, 320×250, 320×320, 320×360, 320×400, 320×480, 336×280, 400×300, 414×125, 468×60, 468×80, 580×400, 600×315, 600×600, 640×480, 640×720, 728×90, 728×200, 728×300, 732×610, 750×750, 900×1600, 930×180, 960×1200, 960×1600, 970×90, 970×250, 980×120, 980×150, 980×300, 980×500, 980×600, 1024×768, 1080×1080, 1080×1920, 1200×600, 1200×628, 1200×675, 1200×1200, 1280×720, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
5. Enter the click URL: This is where the creative will take the viewer if clicked.
6. Enter Alternative Brand URL for Audit (if applicable): Applicable if you are using a Click URL to a site that does not represent your branding, such as Amazon, enter a URL that contains the same branding represented in your ad. The audit team will use this URL to validate the branding represented in the creative. This will not be used as the landing page for the creative.
7. Creative Specs: Expand this section to view the html5 requirements.
   • Hosted HTML5 (Gif):
   • URL to the page you are driving to
   • Upload the entire zip file
   • Cannot animate after the 3rd rotation, and cannot exceed 30 seconds
   • 150kb max file size, overage fees will apply for larger files
   • Sufficient branding
8. Click Choose File to upload the zip file.
   • The zip file must contain an index.html file which much reside in the root of the zip file and not in a subfolder. Index.html should be complete and valid HTML document and not an HTML fragment. All external resources must be secure (https).

9. Preview the creative to ensure it is rendering correctly and there are no issues.

10. Click Save, which will send the creative to audit.

1×1 third party trackers can be added to creatives in Pontiac on upload or in the edit creative screen. In the creative window, open the Tracker tab and click Add New Tracker to enter the third-party tracking URL.

Pontiac supports the following tracker types:

• Impressions
• Start
• First Quartile
• Second Quartile
• Third Quartile
• Completion

Additional Information:

• Banner ads support impression trackers only.
• Video and audio ads support all tracker types.
• Third-party click trackers should be configured in your ad server as the creative’s click URL.
• Please refer to the Pontiac Macros here: Creative Macros which can be used to pass additional information when the tracker fires.
• Pontiac macros must be implemented using the exact macro format within the tracker URL to pass data correctly. Incorrect formatting will result in missing data.
• For additional assistance, please reach out to your account manager or the Help Center.

Using Trackers for Audience Building:

In addition to measurement, trackers can be used to support audience creation.

By adding a Pontiac pixel img as a tracker to a creative, you can capture exposed users and automatically build a custom audience based on IP data when the tracker fires.

Follow the following setups:

1. Create a pixel and check the Create Custom Audience feature and set days to live.

2. Add the Pixel URL Img to your desired creative (CTV, Display, Audio, etc.) to the trackers tab as an impression tracker.

3. Check that the audience has started collecting records in the Audience tab > Custom section. If there are records proceed to the next step. If not, ensure that the campaign has been live long enough to collect data.

4. On the Campaign or Line level associate the custom audience.

This enables workflows such as:

• Building audiences from users exposed to ads
• Applying those audiences to future campaigns
• Retargeting across different media types (e.g., video, display, audio)

This approach allows you to extend campaign impact across channels and scale retargeting strategies.

The Specs tab displays technical details for supported creative types, including creative size, bit rates, MIME type, aspect ratio, and duration where applicable.

Creative types without a Specs tab

The following creative types do not have a Specs tab because their details are available in the main creative dialog window:

• Banner: Hosted
• Banner: 3rd Party
• HTML5
• Native

Video: 3rd Party

• Size
• Bit Rate (Video and Audio Combined)
• Mime
• Aspect Ratio

Video: Hosted

• Size
• Bit Rate (Video)
• Audio Bit Rate
• Mime
• Aspect Ratio

Audio: 3rd Party

• Bit Rate (Audio)
• Mime
• Duration

On the Flights tab, choose to have the Creative Always On or Active for a specific Flight.

Flight dates can be applied on each creative to easily schedule and facilitate creative swaps on a Line or Campaign. For example, if you have a new creative for each week of a Campaign, you can associate all of the creatives to the Campaign, and set flight dates accordingly so that you do not have to edit the Campaign and swap creatives each week. The creative will only be eligible to serve during the date intervals selected unless the creative is set to ‘Always On’, in which case it will be eligible to serve whenever it is assigned to a Line or creative with current flight dates.

In the creative upload or edit window, under the ‘Flights’ tab, you can change the creative dates setting to ‘Flights’ then configure the dates when you would like the creative to serve. To add multiple flights, select the ‘Add Flight’ button.

To remove a flight, click the red circle next to the selected dates. If a creative is switched from ‘Flights’ to ‘Always On’, all existing flights will be removed.

Pontiac Intelligence reserves the right to reject any Creative unit at its discretion, and subsequently suspend the account without advanced warning. If your account is suspended, you will be notified in writing and an investigation will take place within three business days. Audit results can only be changed by resolving the issue that caused a Creative to be rejected or flagged as sensitive.

Audit Status

Creative audit results will be displayed under ‘Audit Status’ next to the name of the Creative, in the ‘Creatives’ section of the Advertiser, Campaign or Line. Audit status will be indicated by a symbol; a yellow triangle for ‘pending’ audit, a green check box for ‘approved’, a green triangle for ‘marked as sensitive’ and a red box for ‘rejected’. Hover over this symbol to view additional information about the audit status.

At the Advertiser, Campaign, and Line levels, the Creatives table displays all creatives associated with that level, along with their current audit status.

When a creative is rejected, users can hover over the Audit Status to view the rejection reason. This allows users to quickly understand why the creative did not pass audit.

In the Creative audit process, all ad units uploaded to the Pontiac platform will be assigned an IAB category and a brand using the Advertiser’s web domain or click URL if applicable. Both parameters are used by the publishers in the bid request to control the types of ads.

The IAB category assigned to your creative can be found by clicking on the creative name to open the creative details window. This field is displayed below the creative in the ‘Creative Category’ field:

These categories come from the Open RTB Specs, that can be found here in table 5.1 ‘Content Categories’: Open RTB Specs v2.5

If you believe the incorrect IAB category has been assigned to your creative, create a ticket in the Help Center for assistance.

Creatives that are flagged as ‘Sensitive’ will display a green triangle in the ‘Audit status’ column. Hover over this symbol to review the sensitive category the creative was assigned to. You can also see the category and sensitive attributes by opening the creative window. These are also displayed under the preview of the creative:

Permitted Sensitive Categories by Deals

Sensitive creatives will only be allowed to run on the platform through deals that explicitly accept content in the specified sensitive category. In the ‘Deals’ section of the ‘Inventory tab’ there is a column that lists sensitive categories that are accepted on each deal.

For inquiries regarding inventory that may be available for a sensitive category search here or reach out to our team through the Help Center.

List of Allowed Sensitive Categories

The following sensitive categories are allowed on the Pontiac platform, but ads will be restricted to deals, exchanges, and publishers or venues that have explicitly approved this content. Pontiac makes no guarantee that inventory will be available for any of the following categories or that creatives will be approved by SSP or publisher partners. As a platform user, it is your sole responsibility to ensure compliance with all applicable local and national laws, restrictions, or regulations, including licensing and/or registration and targeting requirements in each market where the content is serving.

• Political
• Gambling
• Religion
• Pharma
• Liquor
• Beer & Wine
• Cannabis
• CBD
• Tobacco
• Firearms & Weapons
• Lawyer Advertising

Political

Political advertisements require additional actions as prompted within the platform. When creating an Advertiser ensure that for the Politicial Content field: Yes, I am running ads related to an election, ballot initiative, or political candidate in the United States is selected and the following information is filled out.

Cannabis

Index Exchange has the following cannabis specific creative guidelines. Cannabis ads are required to meet the following standards to be eligible to participate on the exchange. Their specialized quality control team will review all cannabis ads against these standards, and will reject any advertisements that contain prohibited content.

Cannabis-related advertisements are prohibited from containing the following content:

• Depictions or promotion of underage consumption of cannabis
• False, misleading or deceptive content
• Medical claims;
• Depictions or promotion of excessive consumption
• A design, representation, picture or illustration that is obscene or indecent

Applicable laws, rules, and regulations may vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Each Advertiser is responsible for ensuring compliance with the laws, rules and regulations of the jurisdictions in which it chooses to serve cannabis-related advertisements.

Lawyer Advertising

This sensitive category is blocked by Paramount and NBC.

All Political Creatives must run under an Advertiser with the ‘Political’ box checked and the disclosure form completed. If the disclosure form has not been filled out and a creative is marked as political in the audit, the Advertiser and all associated Campaigns will be disabled until the required information has been entered.

Pontiac Intelligence permits political advertising on the Bidder platform (advertising relating to elections, ballot initiatives, or political candidates) in the United States, but requires that such advertising comply with applicable law. We also require that you certify certain information about the ads and the political organization that purchased them for certain political advertising on the state or local level, as legally required.

All necessary information must be entered directly into the Pontiac platform when creating the Advertiser. The platform will guide you through a series of questions. The below exemplifies the nature of the information that must be provided, but is subject to change. Failure to supply all applicable information into the platform could prevent your ads from serving.

Political creatives will only be allowed to run on the platform through deals that explicitly accept political content. Depending on the Partner or Publishers, there may also be additional creative approval processes in order to run on these deals.

This information can be found in the ‘Deals’ section of the Inventory Tab. Deals that allow political content will have ‘Political’ listed in the ‘Permitted Sensitive Categories’. If additional publisher approvals are required, this will be noted in the ‘Publisher Approval Required’ field. To request publisher approval for a deal, reach out through the Help Center.

The following content is prohibited across all Pontiac products. Any ad unit flagged under one of these categories will be blocked from serving on the platform and may result in account suspension or forfeiture.

• Profanity, Hate Speech or Defamatory Language
• Graphic or excessive violence
• Pornography, Nudity, Obscenities, or other ‘Adult’ Content
• Inappropriate content (at our discretion)
• Sale of, or instructions for creating, guns, bombs, ammunition, or weapons
• Discussing or promoting sale of federally illegal drugs, including marijuana, illegal pharmaceuticals, and other schedule 1 drugs.
• Malware, privacy and security violations
• Broken Ads or blank creative
• Enabling or Permitting Piracy
• Charging for government forms and services
• Misappropriation of Copyright, Trademark, Trade Secret, or Patent
• Executes or Downloads Files without User Interactions
• Causing degradation of site performance (ex: excessive animation, weight)
• Illegal Material or Content
• Misleading or sensationalized messaging, content, or images
• Pop ups or any ad or landing pages that spawn them.
• Content that intends to, or does, induce user action through misleading appearance or behavior, including, but not limited to, creatives that mimic video players, functional buttons, errors or warnings about viruses, missing codecs, and corrupt disks.
• Displaying fake errors to induce user action, or messaging that implies knowledge of a user’s computer or operating system.
• Creatives must not rotate brands or advertisers.
• The landing page must match brand of the advertisement.
• The landing page must contain a privacy policy.

All creatives uploaded to the CTV platform, and advertiser landing pages when applicable, are subject to the Pontiac audit process. This process may take up to 1 business day and Pontiac reserves the right to deny any creative, even if they are compliant with listed standards and policies. Any ads deemed malicious or inappropriate at Pontiac’s discretion will result in your account being suspended.