Online ads are the way to increase your revenue these days, which is why it is important to make sure that you are setting video ads properly and are fixing all the errors that can be affecting your earnings.
VAST (Video Ad Serving Template) error codes are one of the most common reasons why ads are not working properly on videos. Not only that, but these errors are capable of disrupting user experience and can heavily play a huge role in affecting your revenue.
What Is VAST?
Video Ad Serving Template (VAST) is a specification defined and released by the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) that sets standards for communication requirements between ad services and video players so ads could be presented.
A Complete List Of All The VAST Code Errors
Here is a complete list of vast errors that you might encounter:
| Error Code | Meaning Of Code | Possibility Of Fatality |
| 100 | XML Parsing Error |
Yes |
| 101 | VAST Schema Validation Error | Yes |
| 102 | VAST Version Of Response Is Not Supported | Yes |
| 200 | Trafficking Error | Possible |
| 201 | Video Player Is Expecting Different Linearity | Possible |
| 202 | Video Player Is Expecting Different Duration | Possible |
| 203 | Video Player Is Expecting Different Size | Possible |
| 300 | General Wrapper Error | Yes |
| 301 | Timeout Of VAST URI | Yes |
| 302 | Wrapper Limit Reached | Yes |
| 303 | Empty VAST Response | Yes |
| 400 | General Linear Error | Yes |
| 401 | Unable To Find Media File Form URI | Yes |
| 402 | Timeout Of Media File URI | Yes |
| 405 | Problem Displaying Media File | Yes |
| 500 | General Non Linear Ads Error | Yes |
| 501 | Failure To Display Non-Linear Ad Because Of Dimension Problems | Yes |
| 502 | Unable To Find NonLinearAds And NonLinear Resource | Yes |
| 503 | Cannot Find NonLinearresource With Supported Type | Yes |
| 600 | General Companion Ads Error | Possible |
| 601 | Unable To Display Companion Because Creative Display Does Not Fit With The Companion Display Area | Possible |
| 602 | Unable To Display Required Companion | Possible |
| 603 | Unable To Fetch CompanionAds Or Companion Resource | Possible |
| 604 | Cannot Find Companion Resource With Supported Type | Possible |
| 900 | Undefined Error | Yes |
| 907 | General VPAID Error | Yes |
Request and Response
In order for the ad to play in a video player, the video player will be sending a request to a VAST (Video Ad Serving Template) ad server.
The ad server would then respond with a VAST data structure that will be declaring the following parameters:
- The ad media that should be played in the video
- How the ad media should be played in the video
- What should be tracked as the ad is being played
- The companion ad that will be shown along with the main ad
Why Do Video Error Codes Pop-Up?
Basically, VAST error codes show up to help you understand what went wrong and what you could do to fix-up those errors.
Common VAST Code Errors And How To Fix Them
Below, we are going to list down some of the most common vast error wiki and how to fix them.
-
Error Code 100
Reason: This error pops up because of an invalid XML code or in case a redirect URL fails to resolve.
Fix: You would need to verify that the VAST XML is correctly formatted and it has all the necessary elements and attributes in it.
-
Error Code 301
Reason:
- The most common reason for this type of error is because of heavy latency or bad network connection.
- This error shows up to show that a URI within the VAST or VPAID creative has timed out. Usually, this happens because of errors on requests or because of invalid URI and unreachable URI. In some cases, securitivy exceptions that are related with HTTP or HTTPS can also cause this error.
Fix:
- The first thing that you would need to do is check out the URI that is within the VAST creative to make sure that it is valid or is reachable.
- After that, check out the timeout limit of your player to make sure that it is within the limit.
- Also, you should also make sure that VAST URI is HTTPS. In case it is not, that could be the cause of errors on HTTP websites.
-
Error Code 302
Reason:
- The error code 302 is automatically displayed when the wrapper limit has been exceeded. This happens because the video player of the ad has a pre-defined wrapper limit and when that limit is reached, the error code 302 happens.
- The second reason is that there are too many wrapper responses that have been received, however, there is no online response.
- The third reason can be the existence of empty VAST responses or daisy changing.
Fix:
- The fix for this is to start working with their publisher or SSP so the wrapper limit of the player could be increased.
- You can also check if VAST redirects are not redirecting to another network.
-
Error 402
Reason:
- This Vastvideo error implies that the file you have is too big or is not compatible with the platform that you want it to play on.
- This error happens when the ad creative is taking longer time to load when compared to the current timeout setting.
Fix:
- The fix for this one is to increase the request timeout.
- Optimize the website of the publisher to increase the loading speed.
- Set a bitrate and size restrictions on ad creatives.
Terms You Need To Understand
VAST
VAST is a type of script that enables video players and advertisement services to run revenue generating ads on videos. This type of script gives publishers control over what type of ad they want to serve, how long the advertisement should be played for, if the ad is skippable along with many other things.
VPAID
Video Player Ad Interface, betterly known as VPAID, allows the interaction between video advertisement units and video advertisement players. With VPAID, advertisers are capable of showing interactive or rich media ads to the users. VAST does not allow such things.
VAST Tags
VAST Tags are similar to 3rd-party advertising tags. VAST Tags are the codes that allow the serving of video ads.
