Create a Support Ticket

Step 1: Navigate to the Help Center

1. In the top right corner, ensure you are in the Admin tab.
2. Click on the Help Center tab.
3. Click the Start New Conversation button to open the support ticket form.
   • Here you will be able to submit a support ticket and the Pontiac team will efficiently and happily assist you with a variety of issues and questions.

Step 2: Fill Out the New Conversation Form

The following fields will appear:

• Title: Provide a brief summary of the issue or request.
• User: Your user name which will be auto-filled.
• Date: The date of submission which will be auto-filled.
• Urgency: Indicate how critical the issue is. Select Normal or Uber Important.
• Status: Current status of the ticket. This is set to Open by default. Once the issue is resolved you or a Pontiac team member will change the status to Resolved to close out the ticket.
• What can we help with?: Select the category that best matches your issue:
  • Product Support: Questions or issues related to the platform’s functionality.
  • Creative Issues: Problems related to creative (incorrect category, upload issue, macro questions, etc.).
  • Audience Onboarding: Requests or questions about importing or targeting audience segments (Liveramp or Transunion account set up, lookalike audience questions, creating custom pixel audiences, etc.)
  • Reporting: Questions or issues with analytics, metrics, or data exports.
  • Billing: Questions related to margin, invoicing, spend, or payment issues.
  • API: Issues or questions about API access, endpoints, or integrations.
  • White Label Issues: Problems specific to branded or custom instances of the platform.
  • Platform Suggestions: Requests for feature enhancements, improvements, or general feedback.
• Message: Provide a detailed description of the issue or question. To help the Pontiac team respond as quickly as possible, include all relevant IDs and/or Names where applicable. Examples include: User ID, the Advertiser ID and Name, Campaign ID and Name, Line ID and Name, Creative ID or Name, Pixel ID or Name, etc. The more specific information you provide, the faster and more accurately the support team can address your request.
• Additional Recipients: Email addresses of anyone who should receive update notifications for this conversation. Important: All responses must be made through the Help Center ticketing interface, not via the email notification, to ensure your updates are properly logged and tracked.
• Attachments: Upload screenshots or videos to support your ticket. This is especially useful for bug-related issues, as visual evidence can help the support team diagnose and resolve problems more quickly.

Step 3: Submit or Save

• Click Save to submit the ticket to the Pontiac team.
• Click Cancel if you do not want to submit.

The Pontiac team will review your ticket and provide assistance as quickly as possible.

Bid Metrics

Bid metrics are displayed on both the Campaign details and the Line details to provide insight into the bid funnel, real time delivery and any issues that may need to be addressed.

• Eligible Requests: Bid requests or impressions that meet the targeting criteria for the Line or Campaign. This considers parameters in the ‘Targeting’ section – deals, geo, inventory targeting lists etc. If you are not seeing any eligible requests, your targeting may not be feasible if there are no impressions that meet all of the selected criteria. See the below section on troubleshooting delivery for more information.
• Bids: Bids placed on eligible impressions. If your Line or Campaign has eligible impressions, but is not bidding there may be additional requirements blocking the bids from being placed. See the below section on troubleshooting delivery for more information.
• Imps: Bids won, the number of confirmed impressions served by the Line or Campaign in the selected time frame.
• Confirmed Spend: Confirmed dollars spent by the Line or Campaign in the selected time frame.

Troubleshoot Feature

On the Line level in the Performance tab, below the Bid Data section, there is the Troubleshoot section that runs a series of checks to help identify delivery blockers related to creatives, targeting, deals, bidding, and auction performance.

Checks

• Auction Win Validation: Confirms the line is winning impressions
  • Pass: The line is successfully winning auctions.
  • Fail: The line is not winning impressions. If recently launched and targeting Index inventory, there may be a review period of up to 24 hours.
• Bid Price vs Deal Floor Validation: Ensures bids meet deal floor requirements
  • Pass: Bid price meets or exceeds the floor price requirements for targeted deal(s).
    Fail: The line is not bidding because bid price is below deal floor. Deal {deal_name} ({deal_id}): Deal Floor {floor_price}, Current Bid {bid_price}
  • Note that even if this test passes, you may need to increase bids to win more auctions.
• Creative Active Status: Ensures at least one creative is active
  • Pass: At least one creative associated with the line is active and eligible to receive bid requests.
  • Fail: The line is not showing eligible requests because there are no active creatives associated.
• Creative Approval Status: Ensures at least one creative is approved
  • Pass: At least one creative associated with this line is approved and eligible to receive bid requests.
  • Fail: The line is not showing eligible requests because the creative(s): {creative_ids} are not approved.
• Creative Duration Compatibility: Validates duration support for video/audio creatives
  • Pass: At least one creative duration(s) is supported by the targeted deal(s).
  • Fail: The line is not showing eligible requests because creative durations are not supported by the targeted deal(s).
• Creative Size Compatibility: Validates creative size against deal requirements
  • Pass: At least one creative size is supported by the targeted deal(s).
  • Fail: The line is not showing eligible requests because creative sizes are not supported by the targeted deal(s).
• Creative Sensitive Category Compatibility: Validates category compatibility
  • Pass: Creative sensitive category is compatible with at least one targeted deal.
  • Fail: The line is not showing eligible requests because the creative(s): {creative_ids} must target a deal that allows for the creative’s sensitive category. If a creative has a sensitive category, it is not eligible to run on the open exchange.
• Deal Bid Request Availability: Confirms targeted deals are sending requests
  • Pass: Targeted deal(s) are actively sending bid requests and eligible inventory is available.
  • Fail: The line is not showing eligible requests because the deal(s): {deal_ids} are not sending bid requests.
• Deal Device Type Compatibility: Validates device targeting matches deal traffic
  • Pass: At least one targeted device type is compatible with device types observed in the targeted deal(s).
  • Fail: The line is not showing eligible requests because the deal(s): {deal_ids} do not support the targeted device types.
• Deal Exchange Compatibility: Ensures exchange alignment with deals
  • Pass: At least one targeted exchange aligns with exchanges serving the targeted deal(s).
  • Fail: The line is not showing eligible requests because the deal(s): {deal_ids} and targeted exchanges are not aligned.
• Deal Media Type Compatibility: Confirms creative type matches deal media type
  • Pass: At least one creative type is compatible with the targeted deal(s).
  • Fail: The line is not showing eligible requests because the deal(s): {deal_ids} have media types that do not match the associated creatives.
• Deal Publisher Approval Status: Verifies publisher approval requirements
  • Pass: At least one targeted deal has satisfied publisher approval requirements and is eligible for bidding.
  • Fail: The line is not showing eligible requests because the deal(s): {deal_ids} require publisher approval.
• Deal Required Field Presence: Ensures required fields are present in requests
  • Pass: At least one targeted deal is passing the required field(s) in bid requests and is eligible for delivery.
  • Fail: The line is not showing eligible requests because the deal(s): {deal_ids} do not pass the required field(s) in bid requests. Deal {deal_id}: Missing {field_name}
• Deal Targeting Intersection: Ensures campaign and line deal targeting overlap
  • Pass: Campaign and line deal targeting settings intersect.
  • Fail: Campaign and line deal targeting parameters have no intersection. Ensures that when targeting is applied to both levels that they match or have an intersection.
• Device Targeting Intersection: Confirms device targeting alignment
  • Pass: Campaign and line device targeting settings intersect.
  • Fail: Campaign and line device targeting parameters have no intersection. Ensures that when targeting is applied to both levels that they match or have an intersection.
• Exchange Targeting Intersection: Confirms exchange targeting alignment
  • Pass: Campaign and line exchange targeting settings intersect.
  • Fail: Campaign and line exchange targeting parameters have no intersection. Ensure that when targeting is applied to both levels that they match or have an intersection.
• Geo Targeting Intersection: Confirms geo targeting overlap
  • Pass: Campaign and line geo targeting settings intersect.
  • Fail: Campaign and line geo targeting parameters have no intersection. Ensure that when targeting is applied to both levels that they match or have an intersection.
• Microsoft Creative Audit Approval: Validates Microsoft exchange approval (if applicable)
  • Pass: At least one creative is approved for the Microsoft exchange and eligible to receive bid requests.
  • Fail: The line is not showing eligible requests because the creative(s): {creative_ids} are not approved for Microsoft.

Additional Notes

• If no deals are targeted (open exchange), all deal-related checks pass with: No deals targeted; check not applicable for open exchange.

Inventory Availability

The Line Performance tab now includes an Inventory Availability section. This section appears near the top of the Performance tab, under the pacing bars, and allows users to run and review Inventory Availability reports directly from the Line.

Select Run Report to generate a new Inventory Availability report for the line.

The report is generated using the line’s current configuration, including:

• Inventory type
• Creative type
• Advertiser
• Campaign
• Line
• Effective targeting (Intersection of the Campaign and Line)
• Audiences (only Line level)
  • If audiences are applied to the Campaign level, users can manually add an additional group and then run the report, but it will not be automatically included.
  • See Boolean Logic for more details on any and all logic for targeting between groups.

After a report is submitted, it appears in the Inventory Availability report table for that line.

The table includes:

• Report Status: Shows whether the report is processing, complete, or has an issue
• Report ID
• Report Name: Generated using the line name and date. When users click on the name, they are taken to the full report.
• Date Submitted

Reports are ordered by Date Submitted, with the newest reports shown first.

Results

Once the Report has finished processing, click on the Report Name to see the results. See the documentation here for a deep dive into Inventory Availability Reports: Inventory Availability Tool

Additional Manual Checks and Considerations

1. Are there any eligible requests? If no, here are some steps to troubleshoot the lack of eligible requests:
   • Check the creative audit status on your ads, this can be seen in the Advertiser screen next to the creative ID.
     • If the status is ‘pending’ (yellow caution symbol) there cannot be eligible requests until your ads are audited by the Pontiac audit team. Keep in mind that the audit process may take up to one business day.
     • If your creative is rejected, it will not be able to serve on the Pontiac platform. Review our creative acceptance policy for more information on prohibited content.
   • Run an Inventory Availability Report with the selected targeting parameters applied. If there are no estimated daily impressions available or the estimate is very low, your targeting may be too restrictive and should be expanded to find eligible impressions that meet your requirements.
   • Ensure that your Line’s Inventory Type: Web, In-App, Or Combined is aligned with your Media Type: Audio, Display, OLV, Streaming/CTV, Device Type: PC, Phone, Tablet, Connected TV, Connected Device, Set Top Box, and Creative Type: Display, Native, HTML5, Audio, Video.
   • Check your Campaign and Line set ups to verify that there are no conflicting targeting parameters. For example, if the Campaign was set to target the state of Florida and the Line set to target the state of Alabama, the Line would not be able to serve. An impression must meet the targeting criteria of both the Line and Campaign to be eligible.
   • Check sample logs on the Deal for publisher b-cats and any specific creative requirements such as duration, bitrate, etc. Verify that your creative meets all platform and publisher specs. For more information and guidance on this, refer to the Publisher Specs & Approval Process.
   • If your Inventory Type is set to App, you should not target any Contextual AI segments. Contextual AI is only available when the Inventory Type is set to Web or Combined because it works by analyzing text heavy content of web pages to determine the context of the ad placement. Since mobile apps do not have web page content for the AI to analyze, Contextual AI cannot classify them, and targeting these segments on App inventory will result in no eligible bids.
   • If you have content level targeting lists applied, check the Deal sample logs to verify that these values are correctly formatted and in the correct field. Values in these lists will need to be exact matches to the values in the bid request (except for capitalization).
   • If you have ‘Require X’ applied on content level fields (require network, require channel, etc), check the deal sample logs for the deals targeted to see if they are passing values in these fields. If they are not populating these fields, you will need to select other deals that pass this info, or remove this setting from targets.
   • Check the Deals table in the ‘Inventory’ tab for the ‘last served’ date on the Deals being used. If this date is not current, it is possible the Deal has expired, but has not yet been removed from the system. Reach out via the Help Center for assistance with this Deal.
   • Check the Deal’s sample logs of the Deal being targeted in the ‘Inventory’ tab to ensure that the correct creative sizes, duration, bitrate, deal bid floor, etc. are all aligned with the setup.
2. If there are eligible requests, are there bids being placed? If no, here are some steps to troubleshoot the lack of bids:
   • Check the Deals table for ‘publisher approval’ required column. If the Deal requires approval, you will need to submit a request via the Help Center to start the approval process for that deal. Once your creative is approved, this will appear below the creative preview in the section ‘Approved for: ‘ with the publisher name. You can find more info on this here: Creative Audit
   • Check for ‘sensitive categories allowed’ on the targeted Deals if your creative has been flagged as sensitive. These creatives will only be eligible to run on deals that have explicitly been marked this category as accepted. You can find more information on this here: Sensitive Creatives
   • Reach out through the Help Center for further technical assistance if you try the above recommendations and are still not seeing bids on eligible impressions.
   • Ensure that you are bids are set up correctly.
     • When using Basic Bids, ensure that the Bid Price is higher than the Deal(s) that you are targeting. If targeting multiple Deals on one Line, use Advance Bid Controls to set a bid for each Deal independently. In order to be eligible to bid on every Deal that is appended to your Line, you must set your Max Bid Price higher than the floor of the most expensive deal to bid on all Deals. Otherwise, you will only bid on deals with inventory that is at or below your Max Bid Price.
3. If there are bids being placed, are there impressions being won? If no, here are some steps to troubleshoot the lack of wins:
   • Remove bid at floor price – if you are bidding higher than the floor but have this feature enabled, you will only be bidding at the floor and may be missing out on impressions that could’ve been winning with your max bid.
   • If you do not have ‘bid at price floor’ applied, you may still want to test incremental increases in the bid to see if more impressions can be won at a higher price point and kick start delivery.
   • The publishers targeted may have additional specs or creative requirements that are blocking your creatives from serving. In most cases the specs can be found on the publishers website. The sample logs on the CTV landscape report also provide insight into requirements such as bit rates, video protocol (vast version) & more.
   • Reach out out through the Help Center for further technical assistance if you have tried the above recommendations and are still unable to see impressions won.
4. If there are impressions being won, but the Line or Campaign is not meeting expectations for delivery, the following are suggestions to increase scale/pacing:
   • Increase the Budget Multiplier
   • Apply ‘ASAP’ in the Pacing section
   • Increase Frequency Caps
   • A low win rate is most likely due to the bid on the Line, test incremental increases to see how this affects Line delivery.
   • Run an Inventory Availability Report with the selected targeting parameters applied. If there are no estimated daily impressions available or the estimate is very low, your targeting may need to be expanded to allow the Line to serve. Can you add additional inventory, expand the geo or audience size, etc.? The Inventory Availability Report will also provide insight into the bid floors across the inventory within a deal, geo, etc.

Targeting settings in Pontiac can be applied at either the Campaign level and/or the Line level. Understanding how these interact is key to ensuring your impressions remain eligible.

The Intersection Rule

• Campaign level targeting acts as a global filter for all line items under that campaign.
• Line level targeting applies only to the specific line.
• When targeting is applied at both levels, the effective targeting is the intersection of the two:
  • Effective Targeting = Campaign Targeting ∩ Line Targeting
• This means an impression must satisfy all conditions applied at both levels in order to be eligible.
  

Best Practices

• Use campaign level targeting when the parameter applies universally to all lines (e.g., every line must serve only in the US).
• Use line level targeting when the parameter is unique to a strategy (e.g., one line targets ZIPs in California, another in New York).
• Apply settings at one level only whenever possible, unless the intent is to explicitly restrict eligible inventory via intersection.

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 your creative has been assigned an incorrect IAB category, please submit a ticket through the Help Center. Be sure to include the Advertiser Name and ID associated with the creative in question so we can assist you promptly.

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. If your Creative is rejected, a red box will appear here. Hover over this symbol to view additional information about the audit status. Pontiac Intelligence is unable to change the audit results of Xandr/AppNexus & RiskIQ. 

Audit results can only be changed by resolving the issue that caused the Creative to be rejected. If you think your Creative was rejected incorrectly, reach out to the Pontiac Team through the Help Center.

• Rejected, Does not display properly: First check to see if there is a preview of the Creative in the green preview box in Pontiac and verify that the Creative fits in the designated area. If it does not fit correctly in the box you may have chosen the incorrect Creative size. You can edit the size then select ‘Save’. The Creative will be sent to audit and this process may take up to one business day to complete.
• Rejected, Fails to render: If you are using an ad server tag, verify that the code you uploaded in Pontiac renders on your end. Check with your ad server that the tag is active and available. Email your Account Manager or reach out through the Help Center for additional help.
• Rejected, Creative brand does not match Creative landing page: The brand displayed in the ad should match the brand of the website that the ad is driving users to. In order for this Creative to be accepted, you must change the brand displayed in the Creative, or change the Click URL to drive to this brand’s website. If you are driving to a third-party marketplace or other page that does not depict your branding, such as Amazon, check the ‘Use Alternative Mobile Click Url’ and 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. Once you have edited the Creative details, ‘Save’ and close the Creative upload window. The Creative will be sent to audit and this process may take up to one business day to complete
• Rejected, Creative does not click through properly: Your Creative will be rejected if the Creative is clicked and does not open a landing page, if the Creative is clicked and a landing page opens, but no content loads or if the Creative is clicked and a landing page loads, but an error keeps any content from being displayed. In any of these cases you must either update the landing page and then click ‘Reaudit’ or change the Click URL for the Creative and click ‘save’. The Creative will be sent to audit and this process may take up to one business day to complete.
• Rejected, Malicious: Your account will be suspended, you will be notified in writing and an investigation will take place within three business days. Pontiac clients who upload ads deemed malicious will lose access to the platform and forfeit deposited funds.

Coming soon!