TV is changing in profound ways. We’re headed for a world in which all TV will be streamed, on-demand and personalized. As time spent on streaming platforms increase, the opportunity to monetize content via ads will grow. The Roku Ad Framework (RAF) is a library, built from the ground-up, to provide a better ad experience for users, publishers and advertisers. RAF integrates advanced video ad functionality directly into the SDK, so developers and publishers can focus on monetizing their audience. Review the RAF developer docs here
Important note: The Roku Ad Framework is required for all ad-supported channels.
Here are the key benefits and features that RAF offers ad-supported Roku channels:
The main goal of RAF is to provide a consistent ad experience across all Roku channels. Regardless of how ads are served in the channel, RAF is the core library to serve video ads on the platform. RAF is designed to benefit all parties in the ad ecosystem:
- For viewers: RAF offers a consistent user experience that drives engagement and audience interest – where publishers can serve ads both through Roku or other advertising solutions.
- For developers: RAF is universal and works with any VAST-compliant ad server. It’s easy to integrate, updates seamlessly, and saves time and cost.
- For publishers: RAF offers advanced functionalities such as interactive ad units and support for Nielsen DAR that enhances the value of their inventory to advertisers. **Note: **Roku is the first Connected TV platform to support Nielsen DAR.
- For advertisers: RAF enables campaigns to target on specific audience segments and enables measurement of those campaigns – capabilities common to other desktop and mobile platforms but still nascent on Connected TV.
- IAB VAST 2.0/3/0 processing
- IAB VMAP playlist management
- Support for preferred ad servers such as FreeWheel (SmartXML) and DFP
- Native support for Roku’s privacy friendly ID (“RIDA”) to enable advanced targeting and frequency capping
- Direct Integration with Nielsen’s Digital Ad Ratings (DAR) product
- Interactive ad capabilities via Innovid and Brightline components
- Rendering of all ads in a uniform and consistent manner
- Client-side macros for key variables like content ID, genre, device ID
- Key vendor partnerships are automatically pushed to the partner channel - No need to integrate and maintain multiple SDKs
To date, many publishers have successfully integrated the Roku Ad Framework into their channels. You can serve ads using your own ad server, or if you’d like us to sell and serve ads to your audience, please reach out to us at [email protected] and explore our site at roku.com/advertising
- Roku Ad Framework Docs: link
- Sample apps that utilize the framework can be downloaded: Sample Channels (SDKDocs)