The answers describe the current behaviour of the AdStart portal. The step-by-step process for small businesses — Self-service for small businesses.
Before you start
Why don't I see the campaign or button I need?
Check the active company in the top bar: campaigns, reports and contacts are shown within the selected company. Switching companies doesn't change your role. If a button is missing or inactive, also check your role, the record's state and whether the mandatory conditions are met (for example, the company is approved).
What roles does the portal have?
Portal roles — Owner, Admin, AdOps. Company roles: rights holder administrator, manager and validator; advertiser administrator, manager and viewer. One account can have different roles in different companies.
Campaigns
What should I prepare for a campaign?
An approved advertiser company, a unique campaign name, the brand, budget, dates, regions and audience, a channel package, a ready video creative, an IAB product category and, if needed, an https:// view-start tracker.
Is the draft saved?
Yes, the form saves the draft automatically about a second after changes — the time of the last save is shown above the form. Autosave doesn't replace the "Save without submitting" or "Publish" buttons.
What do empty filters mean?
An unselected genre, package, city or audience parameter means all available inventory, not an empty audience. Occupied territories are always excluded; territories with active or possible hostilities are added only if you choose them.
Can a campaign run for several months?
It can, but for now it goes into the order of its start month — the check shows a warning. Agree the accounting of next month's impressions and spend with your accountants.
Frequency and dayparts — in which time zone?
Frequency is the maximum number of impressions per user per day, week, month or the whole campaign. Dayparts (morning 06–10, day 10–16, prime 16–23, night 23–06) are applied in the ad network's time zone.
Is the price in the campaign an invoice?
No. The base CPM, modifiers, estimated impressions and spend are an estimate based on the portal's products. It isn't an invoice or a charge.
What happens after "Publish"?
For an advertiser, "Publish" means submitting for review by the portal team, not writing straight into Google Ad Manager. A portal role approves the campaign, returns it for rework with a comment or publishes it to GAM after all blocking checks: company approved, creative approved, documents in place, payment received.
Can a published campaign be edited?
Yes, with restrictions: there may be a cooldown between changes (the portal shows the earliest time); before saving, the portal reconciles the campaign with GAM. If the campaign was changed directly in GAM, automatic application of changes is frozen and the request waits for approval by a portal role.
Creatives
What are the video requirements?
For OTT: MP4, 1920×1080, 16:9, at least 25 fps, H.264, AAC stereo 192 kbit/s, 48 kHz, a whole number of seconds. Maximum 100 MB. Files above the configured threshold (30 MB by default) are optimized in the browser before upload — don't close the page until it finishes. Detailed requirements for server-side insertion — Ad creative requirements.
Do I have to upload the video every time?
No. An uploaded creative appears in the advertiser's creative registry — you can pick it in a new campaign. The creative name must be unique for the advertiser and brand.
Why the IAB category?
The product category defines on which channels and in which breaks the creative is allowed, and is needed for review. Pick the most accurate category. Content review of the creative (rights, music, documents) is the advertiser's responsibility; the rights holder or sales house approves the creative separately.
Reports
Why is the report empty?
A report is limited by your access: an advertiser sees only its own campaigns, a rights holder or OTT — the related inventory. Check the period, the active company, whether there are published campaigns and whether data has arrived from GAM.
How do basic reports differ from advanced ones?
Basic reports are built right under the form: a metric (impressions, reach, revenue), rows and columns for comparison, a period of up to three months. Advanced reports always create a file in the registry: more metrics and breakdowns (hour, device, region, city). The portal chooses the execution method itself — automatically, via an asynchronous GAM request or manually by the portal team.
What do the icons in the report registry mean?
✅ ready · ⏳ queued · ❌ error · 🤖 automatic · ✋ manual · 🚩 flagged as defective · 🔗 a shared result of another requester. An identical request isn't duplicated — the ready result is added to your registry as shared.
Why can't reach be counted for an arbitrary period?
Reach is unique viewers; it can't simply be summed by day. For an arbitrary period it's calculated by a separate advanced request.
Accounts and contacts
How does an account differ from a contact?
An account gives portal login, roles and access to companies. A contact is a record about a person in the company card; it may have no login. The contact form doesn't create an account: create the account first, then link it to the contact.
How do I temporarily revoke access?
Open the account, set the status to "Inactive" and save. Deleting isn't a way to revoke access temporarily: it deletes the account and frees the email, but doesn't delete the company or contacts. You can't delete or deactivate your own account.
Video proofs
What is a video proof?
A screen recording while the video airs on a specific channel of an OTT provider plus frame-by-frame shots — confirmation for the advertiser that the ad really ran. The registry shows one row per creative and chips for the providers where it had impressions. Recording on most providers needs a browser extension; screen-recording permission is kept for subsequent recordings in the same window.