DFP Setup Tool for Prebid

An automated DFP line item generator for Prebid.js

Overview

When setting up Prebid, your ad ops team often has to create hundreds of line items in Doubleclick.

This tool automates setup for new header bidding partners. You define the advertiser, placements, and Prebid settings; then, it creates an order with one line item per price level, attaches creatives, and sets placement and Prebid key-value targeting.

While this tool covers typical use cases, it might not fit your needs. Check out the limitations before you dive in.

Getting Started

Creating Google Credentials

You will need credentials to access your DFP account programmatically. This summarizes steps from DFP docs and the DFP Python libary auth guide.

1. If you haven't yet, sign up for a DFP account.
2. Create Google developer credentials
   • Go to the Google Developers Console Credentials page.
   • On the Credentials page, select Create credentials, then select Service account key.
   • Select New service account, and select P12 key type.
   • Click Create to download a file containing a .p12 private key. Take note of the password (probably Google's default, "notasecret").
3. Enable API access to DFP
   • Sign into your DFP account. You must have admin rights.
   • Select the Admin tab.
   • Ensure that API access is enabled.
   • Click the Add a service account user button.
   • Use the service account email for the Google developer credentials you created above.
   • Click on the Save button. A message should appear, confirming the addition of your service account.

Setting Up

1. Clone this repository.
2. Run pip install -r requirements.txt.
3. Convert the PKCS12 key format to PEM
   • Rename the Google credentials key you previously downloaded ([something].p12) to key.p12 and move it to the root of this repository
   • Run openssl pkcs12 -in key.p12 -nodes -nocerts > key.pem. Enter your password.
   • Delete key.p12.
4. Make a copy of googleads.example.yaml and name it googleads.yaml.
5. In googleads.yaml, set the required fields:
   • application_name is the name of the application you used to get your Google developer credentials
   • network_code is your DFP network number; e.g., for https://www.google.com/dfp/12398712#delivery, the network code is 12398712.
   • service_account_email is the account email for the Google developer credentials

Verifying Setup

Let's try it out! From the top level directory, run

python -m dfp.get_orders

and you should see all of the orders in your DFP account.

Creating Line Items

Modify the following settings in settings.py:

Setting	Description	Type
DFP_ORDER_NAME	What you want to call your new DFP order	string
DFP_USER_EMAIL_ADDRESS	The email of the DFP user who will be the trafficker for the created order	string
DFP_ADVERTISER_NAME	The name of the DFP advertiser for the created order	string
DFP_TARGETED_PLACEMENT_NAMES	The names of DFP placements the line items should target	array of strings
DFP_PLACEMENT_SIZES	The creative sizes for the targeted placements	array of objects (e.g., [{'width': '728', 'height': '90'}])
PREBID_BIDDER_CODE	The value of hb_bidder for this partner	string
PREBID_PRICE_BUCKETS	The price granularity; used to set hb_pb for each line item	object

Then, from the root of the repository, run:

python -m tasks.add_new_prebid_partner

You should be all set! Review your order, line items, and creatives to make sure they are correct. Then, approve the order in DFP.

Note: DFP might show a "Needs creatives" warning on the order for ~15 minutes after order creation. Typically, the warning is incorrect and will disappear on its own.

Additional Settings

In most cases, you won't need to modify these settings.

Setting	Description	Default
DFP_CREATE_ADVERTISER_IF_DOES_NOT_EXIST	Whether we should create the advertiser with DFP_ADVERTISER_NAME in DFP if it does not exist	False
DFP_USE_EXISTING_ORDER_IF_EXISTS	Whether we should modify an existing order if one already exists with name DFP_ORDER_NAME	False
DFP_NUM_CREATIVES_PER_LINE_ITEM	The number of duplicate creatives to attach to each line item. Due to DFP limitations, this should be equal to or greater than the number of ad units you serve on a given page.	the length of setting DFP_TARGETED_PLACEMENT_NAMES
DFP_CURRENCY_CODE	The currency to use in line items.	'USD'

Limitations

• Currently, the names of the bidder code targeting key (hb_bidder) and price bucket targeting key (hb_pb) are not customizable. The hb_bidder targeting key is currently required (see #18)
• This tool does not support additional line item targeting beyond placement, hb_bidder, and hb_pb values. Placement targeting is currently required (see #16), and targeting by ad unit isn't supported (see #17)
• The price bucketing setting PREBID_PRICE_BUCKETS only allows for uniform bucketing. For example, you can create $0.01 buckets from $0 - $20, but you cannot specify $0.01 buckets from $0 - $5 and $0.50 buckets from $5 - $20. Using entirely $0.01 buckets will still work for the custom buckets—you'll just have more line items than you need.
• This tool does not modify existing orders or line items, it only creates them. If you need to make a change to an order, it's easiest to archive the existing order and recreate it.

Please consider contributing to make the tool more flexible.