New and existing creatives can be added to one or multiple line items based on line item settings you've chosen. This article explains how to add them and explores item settings that affect them.
Once you added creatives to your network, you can upload or associate them to line items. You can do so from the creative library or from directly within a line item.
- Ad Exchange line items: Use multi-size creative and pricing
- Video and audio line items: Use video and audio creatives.
On this page
- Line item settings
- Add new creatives to a line item
- Add existing creatives to a line item
- Override creative settings
- Troubleshoot missing creatives
Line items settings
The creatives you can upload or associate to a line item depend on the line item settings you've chosen.
Some line item settings that affect which creatives you can add are:
- Ad type
- Expected creatives—a series of settings that include:
If you're not familiar with these settings, review About line items.
Add new creatives to a line item
You can also add a new creative while you're creating or editing a line item.
To add a new creative to a line item:
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Sign in to Google Ad Manager.
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Click Delivery, then Orders.
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In the table, click the order where you'd like to add the creative. (You cannot add creatives to canceled or completed orders.)
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In the table, click the line item where you'd like to add the creative. You can also create a new line item if needed.
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Click the Creatives tab.
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Click Add creative, then New creative, then Add creative, then Existing creative and select a size.
You can upload creatives to any ad unit size in this list.
Note: The inventory sizes, labels, and targeting for creatives you're uploading must match those of the line item. Additionally, you must check "AMP-only" if uploading AMPHTML creatives with no standard HTML equivalent.
From this point, follow the steps for the type of creative you want to add. You can also bulk upload creatives of certain types. Learn more about adding creatives.
Add existing creatives to a line item
Creatives once uploaded to the library can be shared across Ad Manager for the same advertiser. Shared settings make creative management easier across multiple line item associations, but you can also override click-through URL and start and end dates for individual line item associations.
To add an existing creative to a new line item:
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Create a line item and click Save.
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Click the Creatives tab.
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Click Existing creative.
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Browse or search for the creative you want to reuse.
The results are automatically filtered to display only creatives that are the same size as the line item. If you don't get any results, then you might not have any creatives that have the same size as the line item.
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Select the checkbox next to the creative you want to associate with the line item.
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Click Save.
The new association is added to the line item's list of creatives.
After you assign the creative to the line item, you'll be able to:
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See cumulative delivery statistics for the line item with that creative.
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Review all of the line items assigned to the creative.
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Override the fields associated with each line item.
If you have multiple line items within an order that share the same creative size or creative sets, you can add creatives or creative sets to them in bulk.
To add a creative to more than one line item in an order:
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Sign in to Google Ad Manager.
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Click Delivery, then Orders.
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In the table, click the order that contains the line items.
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In the table, select the checkboxes next to the line items.
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Click Add existing creative and choose a size or set.
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Click on Orders, Creative types, or Creatives to find the existing creatives that you want to add.
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Select the checkbox next to each creative you want to add.
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Click Save.
Override creative settings
Creatives inherit size, start and end dates, and click-through URL from their line item. However, you can override these settings for creatives, both individually or in bulk.
Override settings for individual creatives
- Navigate to the details page of line item where you want to remove or switch creative-level targeting.
- Click the Creatives tab of the line item.
- Click the name of the creative from the list of creatives to navigate to its details.
- Click Override and update the settings you need to.
- Click Save.
- Navigate to the details page of line item where you want to remove or switch creative-level targeting.
- Click the Creatives tab of the line item.
- Check the boxes next to the creatives you want to bulk edit, click Edit
- Check the boxes to override the start and end times for the selected creatives. If you don't check the boxes for start and end time, the creatives will use the associated line item's start and end time.
- (Optional) Check the box to override the click-through URL for the selected creatives. If you don't check this box, the creatives will use the associated line item's click-through URL.
- Click Save.
Troubleshoot missing creatives
The "Needs Creatives" error message
You receive the "Needs Creatives" message if Ad Manager foresees ad requests for which the line item is eligible, while all of its assigned creatives are not:
- The number of creatives and their size must align with the creative count and sizes specified under "Expected creatives". Additionally, labels applied to the line item must also align with labels applied to creatives.
- The size specified under "Expected creatives" should align with the size of the creative uploaded. This applies to master and companion creatives as well as native templates.
- Creative level targeting should be within creative placeholder's settings.
- Labels need to match placeholder labels. You can apply labels to creatives but they must match labels defined in frequency capping.
- We recommend adding at least one default creative without any label to be sure there's always one creative able to serve. If not, the error may occur with the line item not serving because the creative frequency cap is restricting the serving.
- Programmatic Direct creatives are typically hosted by the buyer. Follow these guidelines if you're using publisher-hosted creatives.
The "Missing creative" warning on programmatic deals
When you review advertiser-hosted creatives on a Programmatic Guaranteed or Preferred Deal line item, verify the following behaviors:
- Policy review timing: After a buyer uploads creatives in their demand-side platform, Google Ad Manager takes 4 to 6 hours to complete policy review and display the active creatives under "Creative review".
- Partially blocked creative sets: If a buyer uploads multiple creatives for the same size (for example, three
160x600creatives) and blocks one of those creatives on the buy side, Google Ad Manager displays a "Missing creative" warning for that size even though the remaining creatives continue to serve. - Creative size mismatches: For deals with Display & Video 360, the creative dimensions uploaded by the buyer must match the sizes listed under "Expected creatives" on the line item.
To check or update expected creative sizes:
- Sign in to Google Ad Manager.
- Navigate to Delivery, then Orders.
- Select the programmatic order and open the line item.
- In the "Expected creatives" section, confirm that the listed sizes match the active creative sizes uploaded by the buyer, or remove unused sizes from the proposal line item.
- Click Save.
