Companion Ads: What are they and how do I use them?

Companion ads in Dovetail Inventory are ads that run across two separate ad zones as a pair. You will never hear one part of a companion ad without hearing its companion (haha, get it?) later in the episode.

For example, an ad for a movie trailer might preview a trailer in a preroll ad zone and advise the listener to “stay tuned after the show for the full trailer,” which would then play during the postroll ad zone. This type of setup is a companion ad between preroll & postroll, though you could have a companion ad across any two different ad zones.

To create a companion ad within a flight:

Step 1: Create a flight and fill in flight & impression information.

Step 2: Select the Companions Toggle.

Step 3: Add the two zones you’d like the companion ads to play across.

Step 4: Add the respective new or existing creative elements, and determine their “weight” (i.e the proportion at which that particular creative element should be delivered; more detailed explanation below).

Step 5: Create or update your flight by selecting the blue button in the top right corner.

Things to keep in mind:

Weight (as referenced relative to a creative in Dovetail Inventory)

The proportion at which each creative on the flight should be delivered. The value is proportional to the weight of the other creatives, and it may be helpful to think of them in terms of percentages

However, two creatives that both have a weight set at 100 will be split evenly.

Examples:

You have two creatives on a flight. The first has a weight of 50 and the second has a weight of 50. The creatives will be split 50/50 between downloads.
You have two creatives on the flight. The first has a weight of 2 and the second has a weight of 1. The first creative will run on every 2 out of 3 downloads, or 66% of downloads. The second creative will be selected to run a third of the time.
You have three creatives on the flight. The first has a weight of 2 and the second has a weight of 1. And the third has a weight of 1. The first creative will run half the time, and the latter two will each run a fourth of the time.