How to correct common LiveTag errors
What is a LiveTag Error Alert?
A LiveTag Error Alert occurs when the LiveIntent Platform notices an error in an email newsletter send. These errors may occur at two points: 1) during the tag activation process, and 2) once the tags are live.
Please note that it’s essential to correct these errors to avoid losing revenue and experience ad serving issues, as these errors drastically impact performance on the LiveIntent Platform.
Next steps after receiving an error
You will either receive an error from:
- LiveIntent Activation (for activation errors) or
- Your LiveIntent Account Team (for different error alerts that may be a result of the newsletter send)
Please Note: While all of the LiveTag errors will be listed under each Section ID, this does not mean that every ad slot is experiencing this error. Rather, these errors exist within the Template level and must be sought out and corrected. |
When you receive the LiveTag Error Alert email from LiveIntent Activation, it will contain a copy of the impacted newsletter as an attachment. To view:
- Open the attachment
- Right click on attachment and select “View Page Source” option
- The Page Source will show the HTML code that makes up the newsletter
- Within the HTML, you can view and identify each of the errors present in the “Alert” send
Some common LiveTag errors and the necessary remedial steps are below.
Section defined in the template is NOT present in the newsletter
This is perhaps the most common error, as well as one of the most easily fixed. This error is a Template specific error and occurs when one or more of the ad slots created in our Platform were not found in the newsletter.
How to fix the issue:
Place the missing ad slot tags into the newsletter to easily rectify this.
If you are unsure of which Section ID is missing, search for this is by using the “Find” function within the “View Page Source” portion, and type in the respective Section IDs to see which are present in the newsletter coding and which are not.
From there, it is a simple matter to insert the missing LiveTag. If you do not wish to include the LiveTag, you may set the ad slots that have not been included as “Inactive” within the LiveIntent Platform.
You can do this by:
- Selecting the appropriate ad slot
- Clicking the “edit” button
- Setting the ad slot from “Active” to “Inactive”
Width/height does not match
This error has to do with discrepancies between the width and height of the ad unit created in the LiveIntent Platform and the HTML block within the newsletter. More specifically, it means that the width and height listed within the newsletter coding does not match the size of the LiveTag ad slots, thus triggering this error.
How to fix the issue:
Change the listed width or height within the HTML code. Next to each LiveTag there will be a sequence listing the border, width, and height of the ad slot within the newsletter.
The easiest way to search for this is to utilize the “Find” function within the “View Page Source” portion by typing in the different Section IDs present within the newsletter and noting whether or not the respective size present within the code is congruent with that of the ad slot.
See example below:
For a 300×250 LiveTag, an error might occur if the HTML coding reads: width=“325” height=“272” Whereas it should instead read: width=“300” height=“250” |
Duplicate Ad Slot
This error often occurs when publishers utilize the same LiveTag for multiple ad slots. So, instead of placing a unique LiveTag for each of the ad slots, the same ad slot was used multiple times. This is a problem because only one auction happens on behalf of all ad slots that are duplicated within the template.
How to fix the issue: Replace the duplicate LiveTag with the unique LiveTag so that bidding may occur within each individual ad slot as opposed to the newsletter as a whole.
When fixed, each ad unit will have an individual auction and allow for greater revenue, as multiple advertisers are able to bid and win as opposed to only one.
Email mismatch
In each LiveTag the user ID parameter is passed several times within the tag. This error occurs as a result of inconsistent values within the various LiveTags of an email newsletter. This means that the user ID parameters (“e=”, “m=”, “sh=” or, “u=”) are not consistent throughout all tags. This means that the LiveTags exhibit more than one of the user ID parameters throughout the newsletter as opposed to being uniform. Two common mistakes are the passing of an MD5 with an “e=” parameter and the rest of the template passing the email address within the “e=” parameter or if the emails or MD5 hashes do not all match within each of the LiveTags.
How to fix the issue:
Review the various LiveTags to see if the user ID parameters match. If the ID parameters do not match, replace the outlier with one consistent throughout.
Repeating placement ID
A repeating placement ID error occurs when the “p” value used in the LiveTags has been used in a previous email send. They must be unique for each mailing send and an error will trigger if the publisher has used the same placement ID within the previous 15 days. Publishers should never repeat placement IDs because it will lead to decreased revenue, as old ads will serve as opposed to starting a new auction.
How to fix the issue:
Ensure that a new/unique placement ID is being used in the email send in order to generate the most revenue.
Work with your ESP to correct this error and reach out to your LiveIntent Account Team if you need any further help!
Placement ID mismatch
While “p” values must be unique per send, this is an error that occurs in reference to a particular send. A placement ID mismatch error occurs when the “p” values used throughout the LiveTags in an email send are not consistent across all tags. This means that the “p” values differ either in one or more of the tags. A uniform “p” value is required in order to ensure that the ads decision and click through correctly.
How to fix the issue:
Review each of the “p” values throughout your LiveTags (“p=”) and ensure that they match. Once this is done, the ads will both decision and click through correctly, thus leading to increased performance.
Work with your ESP to correct this error and reach out to your LiveIntent Account Team if you need any further help!