The Certification Test is the final test before running a test campaign in the production environment. This test is set up entirely by Vistar to test real-world campaign scenarios.
Reminder: This is an overall summary of what a Certification Test could look like. The testing process may vary depending on your integration type with Vistar. Refer to your statement of work (SOW) or contact Vistar if you have any specific questions regarding the test.
Requirements
- This test occurs over three to five consecutive days.
- It is recommended to use at least ten real devices (actual screens in the field).
- At least ten venues are used to run a test campaign. Note that Vistar set up your venues in your account to validate they work.
- Multiple campaigns must run with creatives targeting your test devices. Day part targeting is applied to confirm that targeting rules are respected by the integration. Note that Vistar sets up and activates the test campaigns for you.
The following checklist outlines what we are monitoring after the test campaigns are launched in your staging environment.
Integration Health Requirements
| Test Activity | Description | Expectation |
| Send ad requests | The ad request must send required information to the ad server. | See Ad Serving API to see which fields are required in the ad request. |
| All venues requesting | All test venues are requesting ads from the ad server. | 100% of agreed upon venues are sending requests. |
| Request frequency |
Send a frequency of ad requests in line with real-world volume. For example: The playlist structure is one spot dedicated to Vistar every five minutes. Vistar should only receive 12 ad requests per hour. |
Actual should be +/- 10% of the expected ad request volume. |
| Expirations | All leased ads that cannot be played should be expired. | Less than 10% of leased ads are expired. |
| Spend rate |
The percentage of leased ads for which you send a PoP. Spent ads / Leased ads |
More than 90% of leased ads are spent. |
| Onscreen behavior | The devices must be monitored for accurate behavior. | No skipping, no black screens, and so on. |
| Daypart targeting | The selected hours of the day that a screen is targeted for ads. | No spots delivered outside of day part targeting of selected time frames. For example, 2PM - 5PM and 8PM - 9PM. |
After the test, Vistar provides you with a report card to let you know the health of your integration. Vistar walks you through the report card to show you potential areas of improvement or to answer any questions you may have.
Note: The report card may not be applicable for Ayuda, Broadsign, and Cortex integrations.
If the test failed, changes must be made to the integration and then the test must be repeated. If the test passed, you can proceed to the Production Test.