Gaming campaign operations

Run a gaming campaign from a single approved record: what may serve, who can change it, and what counts as delivery. Clear creative and placement approvals before launch, compare delivery against that record during the campaign, and reconcile changes and shortfalls at close.

Set up the handover

Give the advertiser, buyer and seller a dated campaign record. For each line, identify the game or app, placement, device, Australian eligibility rule, dates, approved creative version, buying basis, reporting fields and decision owner. Mark unidentified inventory as unknown.

A game title alone does not identify an ad surface. For campaigns involving online gambling services, confirm the service’s eligibility status under the Interactive Gambling Act before launch. Record the eligibility decision and the owner who confirmed it.

Separate committed delivery from a forecast. Record the agreement’s counting rule, quantity, eligible inventory and substitution terms for each commitment. For forecast delivery, check the agreement to see whether any remedy applies.

Name the reporting system and owner in the handover. An ad server can select creative, log impressions, and produce the delivery and billing record used to reconcile a campaign. State whether the buyer-side record, seller-side record or both will be used, and how differences will be handled under the agreed counting rule.

Delivery reconciliation: committed vs forecast

Key regulatory references for Australian gaming campaigns

Clear the launch gates

Confirm who hosts and submits the creative, who approves its rendered player view, and who checks serving readiness. For platform-specific setup, obtain and follow the current instructions for the proposed buy, and record the responsible owner and completion evidence.

Where Google Ad Manager publisher-managed creatives are in scope, use its Publisher-managed creatives help page as a platform reference and record the owner and completion evidence. This does not replace the campaign’s rendered-view and serving-readiness checks.

Check the final asset against the booked placement, device, size and destination. Save its file or build identifier with the approval decision. A requested revision creates a new version for review. Also confirm the effective line-item and creative setup: approval of artwork alone does not establish that it can serve.

Monitor delivery and changes

At an agreed interval, compare campaign reporting for the agreed fields with the approved record. Review the platform’s inventory-transparency information. Keep unidentified inventory separate; platform documentation alone does not establish a gap in any particular campaign. Decide in advance whether the available identification is sufficient for the booking.

Google Ad Manager’s Review a line item's delivery progress is a named reference for checking line-item progress; Display & Video 360’s Inventory transparency is a reference for reviewing inventory information. Record which system and report supplied each comparison, along with its reporting period and fields.

Set the review cadence and escalation owner before launch, including who requests an updated forecast when a material shortfall appears. Compare delivery pace with the remaining obligation and eligible supply. A line behind a simple elapsed-time measure may still have enough future inventory; one that looks on pace may still face a supply constraint.

Keep a dated change log with the affected lines, reason, proposed replacement, approval and effective time. The log may not capture every publisher-side game update or conversation. Reapprove a change that affects a material audience, player experience or reporting condition.

Close on comparable terms

Preserve the approved plan, change log, original and corrected reports, and any agreed remedy. Reconcile delivery under the agreement’s counting rule, showing replacement inventory separately. Keep the ad server’s delivery and billing record with the campaign reports used for reconciliation.

Keep impressions, viewable impressions, reward events and business outcomes under their own definitions. For each format, agree in advance which event is counted, how it is reported, and whether those counts are comparable with other formats in the package. The IAB, IAB Tech Lab and Media Rating Council’s Intrinsic In-Game Advertising Measurement Guidelines 2.0 are a named reference for documenting intrinsic in-game measurement.

Close with a documented decision to accept delivery, seek a correction or agreed remedy, or hold acceptance because essential placement or count evidence is missing. Assess campaign outcomes in the final review after the delivery record is clear.