How to make styled native in-feed ads

In-feed ads are ads that appear to look like one of the items listed on a page, AKA a feed. You can make it look like the teaser to a blog post or a description of a product or service. This way, you can make it blend in with the rest of the content. You can use native templates to create in-feed ad items that are tailored to your needs.

A sample in-feed ad

This feature requires the Enhanced Ads add-on. For more information on adding add-ons to your subscription, read How to change your subscription.

In this guide, we're going to create a simple in-feed ad using a styled native ad template. This type of native template has only the HTML code. You must add the necessary JavaScript code and style element directly to your website to display the ad properly.

If you'd rather have all the necessary code (HTML, JavaScript and CSS) in the template, you should make your in-feed ad using a custom native ad template instead. For more information on the differences between custom native ads and styled native ads, read About native ad templates.

You will learn:

  1. How to create a template for a styled in-feed ad. You can customize the sample code to fit your needs.
  2. How to create a styled in-feed ad item once you have a styled in-feed template.
Templates for custom native ad items are not compatible with styled native ad items, and vice-versa.

How to create a styled in-feed ad template

This custom template will require the user to provide the URL to where the image creative is hosted when creating the in-feed ad item. There are also text fields for the header and the body text that need to be filled.

  1. Click Native Ad Templates in the left navigation menu to go to the Templates section.
  2. Click Add Native Ad Template in the Native Ad Templates table. The New Native Template window will appear.
  3. Click Styled. The New Native Ad Template page will appear.

Selecting a native template type

  1. Name the template, then add an image URL variable and two text variables (one for the header and one for the body text). In our sample code, we called these variables ImageURL, Main Heading, and Body, respectively.
For templates that have multiple variables such as this one, you can drag the icon on the far left of each variable field up or down to reorder your variables.

Creating an in-feed ad styled native template in AdButler

You can save variables and use them in other templates. After adding a variable, click on the three dots at the far right of the variable fields then click Save Variable as Template. To use a saved variable, click Add Saved Variable while creating a native template.
  1. Enter the code in the HTML Template (Styled) field, then click Save Changes.

Here's the code we used in our example:

<div class="in-feed-container">
    <div class="in-feed-image-container">
        <a href="[TRACKING_LINK]">
            <img src="[%ImageURL%]" class="in-feed-image">
        </a>
    </div>
    <div class="in-feed-info">
        <h2>
            <a href="[TRACKING_LINK]">
                [%Main Heading%]
            </a>
        </h2>
        <p>
            [%Body%]
        </p>
    </div>
    <div class="in-feed-close-button-container">
        <span class="in-feed-close-button">×</span>
    </div>
</div>

You can now use this template to create a styled in-feed ad item.

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How to create a styled in-feed ad item

Styled native ad items can be assigned only to Native zones, with or without custom rendering enabled.
  1. Go to the section of the relevant zone (Your AdButler > Publishers > Your Publisher > Your Zone) or campaign (Your AdButler > Advertisers > Your Advertiser > Your Campaign).
  2. Click Add Ad Item in the Ad Items table. The Add Ad Item window will appear.
  3. Click Native (Styled). The New Ad Item page will appear.

Creating a native (styled) ad item

  1. Select your in-feed styled native ad template in the Template dropdown menu.
  2. Fill in the rest of the fields as needed, including the image URL and text fields. If you entered a destination URL, you can test it by clicking Open Destination URL to the right of the field.
  3. Click Save Ad Item.

Creating a styled in-feed ad item in AdButler

At this point, you have finished setting up the ad item on the AdButler interface. You must now add the JavaScript and style element needed to display this ad properly directly to your website. Here's the sample code that we used in our example. You must replace the zone tags and zone class in the code with your own zone tags and zone class.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
    <head>
        <style>
            .in-feed-container {
                position: relative;
                float: left;
                width: 604px;
                border: 1px solid #ececec;
                padding: 12px;
            }

            .in-feed-image-container {
                width: 220px;
                height: 180px;
                float: left;
            }

            .in-feed-image {
                height: 100%;
                width: 100%;
                object-fit: cover;
            }

            .in-feed-info {
                width: 360px;
                height: 141px;
                float: left;
                margin-left: 20px;
            }

            .native-container h2, .native-container h2 a {
                color: #383838;
                text-decoration: none;
                margin-top: 0;
                margin-bottom: 10px;
                line-height: 1.4em;
            }

            .in-feed-close-button-container {
                position: absolute;
                top: 2px;
                right: 2px;
                cursor: pointer;
            }

            .in-feed-close-button {
                width: 18px;
                display: inline-block;
                text-align: center;
                color: #ffffff;
                border-radius: 18px;
                background: #000000;
                user-select: none;
            }
        </style>
    </head>
    <body>
        <div class="ad-item-container">
            <!-- To Edit 1: Replace Zone Tags below here with your own -->
            <script type="text/javascript">if (!window.AdButler){(function(){var s = document.createElement("script"); s.async = true; s.type = "text/javascript"; s.src = 'https://servedbyadbutler.com/app.js'; var n = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]; n.parentNode.insertBefore(s, n);}());}</script>
            <div class="plc104298"></div>
            <script type="text/javascript">
                var AdButler = AdButler || {}; AdButler.ads = AdButler.ads || [];
                var abkw = window.abkw || '';
                var plc104298 = window.plc104298 || 0;
                (function(){
                    var divs = document.querySelectorAll(".plc104298:not([id])");
                    var div = divs[divs.length-1];
                    div.id = "placement_104298_"+plc104298;
                    AdButler.ads.push({handler: function(opt){ AdButler.register(######, ######, [0,0], 'placement_104298_'+opt.place, opt); }, opt: { place: plc104298++, keywords: abkw, domain: 'servedbyadbutler.com', click: 'CLICK_MACRO_PLACEHOLDER' }});
                })();</script>
            <!-- Replace Zone Tags above here with your own -->
        </div>

        <!-- Below script makes the close button function -->
        <script>
            AdButler.ads.push(function () {
                // To Edit 2: Update this class with your zone's class
                var zoneClass = 'plc104298';
                var wrapper = document.querySelector('.' + zoneClass);
                wrapper.addEventListener(AdButler.EVENTS.LOAD, function (e) {
                    var closeButton = document.querySelector('.' + zoneClass + ' .in-feed-close-button');
                    closeButton.addEventListener('click', function () {
                        document.querySelector('.' + zoneClass + ' .in-feed-container').style.display = 'none';
                    })
                });
            });
        </script>
    </body>
</html>

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