AdCP — Universal Macros

Universal macros enable buyers to include dynamic tracking data in their creatives without needing to know each publisher’s ad server implementation details. Macros are placeholders that get replaced with actual values at impression time.

Overview

When you provide creative assets to AdCP, you can include universal macro placeholders in:

Impression tracking URLs
Click tracking URLs
VAST tracking events
Landing page URLs

Example:

https://track.brand.com/imp?
  campaign={MEDIA_BUY_ID}&
  creative={CREATIVE_ID}&
  device={DEVICE_ID}&
  cb={CACHEBUSTER}

At impression time, this becomes:

https://track.brand.com/imp?
  campaign=mb_spring_2025&
  creative=cr_video_30s&
  device=ABC-123-DEF&
  cb=87654321

Available Macros by Format

Different creative formats support different macros. Use list_creative_formats to see which macros are available for each format.

Common Macros (All Formats)

Macro	Description	Example Value
`{MEDIA_BUY_ID}`	Your AdCP media buy identifier	`mb_spring_2025`
`{PACKAGE_ID}`	Your AdCP package identifier	`pkg_ctv_prime`
`{CREATIVE_ID}`	Your AdCP creative identifier	`cr_video_30s`
`{CACHEBUSTER}`	Random number to prevent caching	`87654321`
`{TIMESTAMP}`	Unix timestamp in milliseconds	`1704067200000`
`{CLICK_URL}`	Publisher’s click tracking URL	(auto-inserted by sales agent)

Privacy & Compliance Macros

Critical for regulatory compliance - Use these to respect user privacy choices in your creative logic.

Macro	Description	Example Value
`{GDPR}`	GDPR applicability flag	`1` (applies), `0` (doesn’t apply)
`{GDPR_CONSENT}`	IAB TCF 2.0 consent string	`CPc7TgPPc7TgPAGABC...`
`{US_PRIVACY}`	US Privacy (CCPA) string	`1YNN`
`{GPP_STRING}`	Global Privacy Platform consent string	`DBABMA~CPXxRfAPXxRfAAfKABENB-CgAAAAAAAAAAYgAAAAAAAA`
`{GPP_SID}`	GPP Section ID(s) indicating applicable sections	`7`, `7,8` (US National, US National + California)
`{IP_ADDRESS}`	User IP address (often masked for privacy)	`203.0.113.42`, `""` (when restricted)
`{LIMIT_AD_TRACKING}`	Limit Ad Tracking enabled	`1` (limited), `0` (allowed)

Privacy Warning: {IP_ADDRESS} is considered personal data under GDPR and many privacy regulations. This macro may return an empty string or masked/truncated IP depending on user privacy settings, publisher policies, and regional regulations. Use geo macros ({COUNTRY}, {REGION}, {CITY}) instead when possible.

Example - Privacy-aware tracking:

// In creative logic
if (GDPR == 1 && GDPR_CONSENT == '') {
  // No consent - don't load tracking pixels
} else {
  // Load tracking
}

Device & Environment Macros

Macro	Description	Example Value
`{DEVICE_TYPE}`	Device category	`mobile`, `tablet`, `desktop`, `ctv`, `dooh`
`{OS}`	Operating system	`iOS`, `Android`, `tvOS`, `Roku`
`{OS_VERSION}`	OS version	`17.2`, `14.0`
`{DEVICE_MAKE}`	Device manufacturer	`Apple`, `Samsung`, `Roku`
`{DEVICE_MODEL}`	Device model	`iPhone15,2`, `Roku Ultra`
`{USER_AGENT}`	Full user agent string	`Mozilla/5.0 ...`
`{APP_BUNDLE}`	App bundle ID (domain or numeric)	`com.publisher.app`, `123456789`
`{APP_NAME}`	Human-readable app name	`Publisher News App`

Geographic Macros

Macro	Description	Example Value
`{COUNTRY}`	ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code	`US`, `GB`, `CA`, `FR`, `JP`, `AU`
`{REGION}`	State/province/region code	`NY`, `CA` (US states), `ON` (Canada), `IDF` (France), `NSW` (Australia)
`{CITY}`	City name	`New York`, `London`, `Tokyo`, `Sydney`
`{ZIP}`	Postal code	`10001` (US), `SW1A 1AA` (UK), `75001` (France), `100-0001` (Japan)
`{DMA}`	Nielsen DMA code (US TV markets)	`501` (New York), `803` (Los Angeles)
`{LAT}`	Latitude	`40.7128`, `51.5074`, `35.6762`
`{LONG}`	Longitude	`-74.0060`, `-0.1278`, `139.6503`

Identity Macros

Macro	Description	Example Value
`{DEVICE_ID}`	Mobile advertising ID (IDFA/AAID)	`ABC-123-DEF-456`
`{DEVICE_ID_TYPE}`	Type of device ID	`idfa`, `aaid`

Web Context Macros

For web-based inventory:

Macro	Description	Example Value
`{DOMAIN}`	Domain where ad is shown	`nytimes.com`
`{PAGE_URL}`	Full page URL (encoded)	`https%3A%2F%2F...`
`{REFERRER}`	HTTP referrer URL	`https://google.com`
`{KEYWORDS}`	Page keywords (comma-separated)	`business,finance,tech`

Placement & Position Macros

Macro	Description	Example Value
`{PLACEMENT_ID}`	Global Placement ID (IAB standard)	`12345678`
`{FOLD_POSITION}`	Position relative to fold (display)	`above_fold`, `below_fold`
`{AD_WIDTH}`	Ad slot width	`300`, `728`
`{AD_HEIGHT}`	Ad slot height	`250`, `90`

Video Content Macros

For video formats with content context:

Macro	Description	Example Value
`{VIDEO_ID}`	Content video identifier	`vid_12345`
`{VIDEO_TITLE}`	Content video title	`Breaking News Story`
`{VIDEO_DURATION}`	Content duration in seconds	`600`
`{VIDEO_CATEGORY}`	IAB content category	`IAB1` (Arts & Entertainment)
`{CONTENT_GENRE}`	Content genre	`news`, `sports`, `comedy`
`{CONTENT_RATING}`	Content rating	`G`, `PG`, `TV-14`
`{PLAYER_WIDTH}`	Video player width	`1920`
`{PLAYER_HEIGHT}`	Video player height	`1080`

Video Ad Pod Macros

For video ads in commercial breaks:

Macro	Description	Example Value
`{POD_POSITION}`	Position within ad break	`1`, `2`, `3`
`{POD_SIZE}`	Total ads in this break	`3`
`{AD_BREAK_ID}`	Unique ad break identifier	`break_mid_1`

Note: Video formats also support all IAB VAST 4.x macros like [CACHEBUSTING], [TIMESTAMP], [DOMAIN], [IFA], etc. These work natively in VAST XML.

Audio Content Macros

For audio formats with content context:

Macro	Description	Example Value
`{STATION_ID}`	Radio station or podcast identifier	`WXYZ-FM`, `pod_12345`
`{COLLECTION_NAME}`	Program or collection name	`Morning Drive`, `Tech Talk Daily`
`{INSTALLMENT_ID}`	Podcast episode identifier	`ep_2025_01_15`
`{AUDIO_DURATION}`	Content duration in seconds	`3600`

TMP Exposure Tracking

Macro	Description	Example Value
`{TMPX}`	TMP exposure token (HPKE-encrypted)	`k1.dG1weC1leGFtcGxl...`

The {TMPX} macro carries an encrypted exposure token from the Identity Match response. It contains the user’s resolved identity tokens encrypted via HPKE, enabling the buyer’s impression pixel to log per-user exposures for real-time frequency capping. Publishers substitute {TMPX} into tracking URLs exactly like other macros. The token is opaque — publishers MUST NOT parse, log, or make decisions based on its value. See TMPX Exposure Tokens for the encryption format and key management.

AXE Integration (Legacy)

Macro	Description	Example Value
`{AXEM}`	AXE contextual metadata (encoded blob)	`eyJjb250ZXh0IjoiLi4uIn0=`

The {AXEM} macro is from the legacy AXE integration. In TMP, this is replaced by:

Structured creative assets move to the creative_manifest field on the Offer.
Per-user exposure tracking uses the {TMPX} macro from Identity Match.

Catalog Item Macros

For catalog-driven creatives (carousels, dynamic product ads, job boards, store locators). These macros resolve to the identifier of the specific catalog item being rendered at serve time — the same identifiers used in conversion event content_ids via the content_id_type field.

Macro	Description	Example Value
`{CATALOG_ID}`	Buyer-defined catalog identifier	`gmc-primary`, `job-feed`
`{SKU}`	Product SKU identifier	`SKU-12345`
`{GTIN}`	Global Trade Item Number	`00013000006040`
`{OFFERING_ID}`	AdCP offering identifier	`summer-sale`
`{JOB_ID}`	Job posting identifier	`vacancy-amsterdam-chef-42`
`{HOTEL_ID}`	Hotel property identifier	`grand-amsterdam`
`{FLIGHT_ID}`	Flight route identifier	`AMS-BCN-2025-06`
`{VEHICLE_ID}`	Vehicle listing identifier	`VIN-1234`
`{LISTING_ID}`	Real estate listing identifier	`prop-amsterdam-01`
`{STORE_ID}`	Store location identifier	`amsterdam-flagship`
`{PROGRAM_ID}`	Education program identifier	`mba-2025`
`{DESTINATION_ID}`	Travel destination identifier	`barcelona`

Use the macro that matches your catalog’s content_id_type. For example, a product catalog with content_id_type: "gtin" uses {GTIN} in tracker URLs; a job catalog uses {JOB_ID}.

Substitution safety (catalog-item macros)

Catalog-item macros are the one macro class where the value originates in buyer-controlled data (the catalog feed) and expands at impression time into publisher-controlled contexts (impression tracker URLs, click tracker URLs, VAST tracking-event URLs, AND landing / clickthrough URLs — the full set of URL substitution targets above). That flow is attacker-adjacent: a catalog value containing &, #, ?, CR/LF, a stray URL fragment, or a Unicode bidi override can break out of the URL context, inject a Host-header via CRLF, or spoof audit-log rendering if substituted raw. The following rules apply to all catalog-item macros listed above ({CATALOG_ID}, {SKU}, {GTIN}, {OFFERING_ID}, {JOB_ID}, {HOTEL_ID}, {FLIGHT_ID}, {VEHICLE_ID}, {LISTING_ID}, {STORE_ID}, {PROGRAM_ID}, {DESTINATION_ID}):

Normalize to Unicode NFC before encoding. Prior to percent-encoding, catalog-item values that are not already in Unicode Normalization Form C (NFC) MUST be normalized to NFC per Unicode Standard Annex #15. Sellers and buyers MAY send catalog values in any normalization form at sync_catalogs ingest (the catalog is stored as-supplied); the normalization to NFC is a step in the substitution pipeline immediately before percent-encoding, not a catalog-ingest requirement. Without this step, two implementations that both satisfy the unreserved-whitelist rule below produce different bytes for the same visual string — café (NFC: U+00E9) and cafe\u0301 (NFD: U+0065 + combining U+0301) encode to caf%C3%A9 vs e%CC%81 respectively. NFC matches web-platform convention (WHATWG URL, HTML5 DOM, W3C Character Model). NFKC / NFKD are not acceptable substitutes — their compatibility folding silently mutates fullwidth/halfwidth variants and other visually-distinct glyphs that legitimately appear in Japanese/Korean retailer catalogs.
Percent-encode every octet that is not in the RFC 3986 unreserved set. Sales agents MUST percent-encode the NFC-normalized catalog-item value such that only RFC 3986 unreserved characters (ALPHA / DIGIT / "-" / "." / "_" / "~") remain unescaped before substituting it into a URL context (query string, path segment, or fragment). Non-ASCII octets MUST be percent-encoded after UTF-8 encoding per RFC 3986 §2.5. This is the encodeURIComponent-equivalent contract: reserved characters (: / ? # [ ] @ ! $ & ' ( ) * + , ; =) are escaped as one would expect, but so are CR (%0D), LF (%0A), space (%20), C0/C1 control characters, and Unicode bidi overrides — the broader enumeration closes CRLF-injection and bidi-spoofing vectors that a reserved-only rule would leave open. Encoding is applied exactly once at substitution time; downstream VAST players and ad servers firing the URL verbatim is the expected contract — they do not and MUST NOT re-decode before firing.
Nested macro expansion is prohibited. A catalog-item value that itself contains text matching AdCP’s {MACRO_NAME} syntax MUST NOT be re-expanded. Sales agents perform AdCP macro substitution in one pass: source placeholders are replaced with literal values, and those literal values are not re-scanned. A {JOB_ID} value of vacancy-{DEVICE_ID}-42 produces the literal string vacancy-%7BDEVICE_ID%7D-42 (after percent-encoding of the braces) in the emitted URL, not a second-round expansion. This rule binds AdCP’s {...} syntax only; catalog-item values containing downstream ad-server macro syntaxes (%%...%%, ${...}, [...], {{...}}) remain the sales agent’s responsibility to neutralize when targeting an ad server that would interpret them — percent-encoding per the rule above typically suffices, since %, $, [, ], and { all land outside the unreserved set.
Scope is URL contexts only. These rules apply when a catalog-item macro is substituted into a URL context. When a catalog-item macro is substituted into an HTML-attribute context (for example, a banner template’s href or data-* attribute rendered server-side), percent-encoding per this section does not by itself prevent attribute-context breakout; the renderer MUST additionally apply HTML-attribute escaping — the two encodings are layered, not alternatives, because the value must survive both the URL parser and the HTML attribute parser. AdCP’s normative contract bounds to the URL-context case; publisher-side HTML-attribute handling is out of scope for this spec.

Non-catalog macros ({MEDIA_BUY_ID}, {PACKAGE_ID}, {CREATIVE_ID}, {GEO}, {COUNTRY}, {DEVICE_TYPE}, etc.) are populated from publisher- or ad-server-mediated state, not from buyer-supplied feed data. Their encoding contract is governed by the ad-server integration (OpenRTB, VAST), which percent-encodes by convention. Some macros in this class derive from attacker-spoofable inputs ({USER_AGENT}, {REFERRER}, {PAGE_URL}, {DOMAIN}, {APP_BUNDLE} come from request headers or page metadata); the OpenRTB / ad-server encoding convention is the control today. This spec’s normative MUST deliberately scopes to the buyer-controlled catalog-item class — a narrower, verifiable contract than a universal canonicalization rule. Conformance fixture. Reference test vectors pinning the encoding behavior — reserved-character breakout, nested-expansion literal preservation, CRLF injection, non-ASCII — are tracked at static/test-vectors/catalog-macro-substitution.json. Sales agents SHOULD validate their substitution code against these vectors before shipping.

Creative Variant Macros

Macro	Description	Example Value
`{CREATIVE_VARIANT_ID}`	Seller-assigned creative variant identifier	`variant_a`, `v2_mobile`

Note: Publisher-specific custom macros may be defined in individual creative format specifications as extra supported macros.

Usage Examples

Video Creative with Tracking

{
  "creative_id": "cr_video_30s",
  "format_id": {
    "agent_url": "https://creative.adcontextprotocol.org",
    "id": "video_30s_vast"
  },
  "assets": {
    "vast_xml": {
      "asset_type": "vast",
      "delivery_type": "inline",
      "content": "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>\n<VAST version=\"4.2\">\n  <Ad>\n    <InLine>\n      <Impression><![CDATA[https://track.brand.com/imp?buy={MEDIA_BUY_ID}&pkg={PACKAGE_ID}&cre={CREATIVE_ID}&device={DEVICE_ID}&domain={DOMAIN}&cb=[CACHEBUSTING]]]></Impression>\n      <Creatives>\n        <Creative>\n          <Linear>\n            <Duration>00:00:30</Duration>\n            <TrackingEvents>\n              <Tracking event=\"firstQuartile\"><![CDATA[https://track.brand.com/q1?buy={MEDIA_BUY_ID}&cb=[CACHEBUSTING]]]></Tracking>\n              <Tracking event=\"complete\"><![CDATA[https://track.brand.com/complete?buy={MEDIA_BUY_ID}&cb=[CACHEBUSTING]]]></Tracking>\n            </TrackingEvents>\n            <VideoClicks>\n              <ClickThrough><![CDATA[https://brand.com/spring?campaign={MEDIA_BUY_ID}]]></ClickThrough>\n            </VideoClicks>\n            <MediaFiles>\n              <MediaFile delivery=\"progressive\" type=\"video/mp4\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\">\n                <![CDATA[https://cdn.brand.com/videos/spring_30s.mp4]]>\n              </MediaFile>\n            </MediaFiles>\n          </Linear>\n        </Creative>\n      </Creatives>\n    </InLine>\n  </Ad>\n</VAST>",
      "vast_version": "4.2"
    }
  }
}

Key Points:

Mix AdCP macros ({MEDIA_BUY_ID}) with VAST macros ([CACHEBUSTING])
AdCP macros use {CURLY_BRACES}
VAST macros use [SQUARE_BRACKETS]
Both work together seamlessly

Display Creative with Tracking

{
  "creative_id": "cr_banner_300x250",
  "format_id": {
    "agent_url": "https://creative.adcontextprotocol.org",
    "id": "display_banner_300x250"
  },
  "assets": {
    "banner_image": {
      "url": "https://cdn.brand.com/banners/spring_300x250.jpg",
      "width": 300,
      "height": 250
    },
    "impression_pixel": {
      "url": "https://track.brand.com/imp?buy={MEDIA_BUY_ID}&pkg={PACKAGE_ID}&cre={CREATIVE_ID}&device={DEVICE_ID}&domain={DOMAIN}&cb={CACHEBUSTER}"
    },
    "landing_url": {
      "url": "https://brand.com/spring?campaign={MEDIA_BUY_ID}"
    }
  }
}

Audio Creative with Tracking

{
  "creative_id": "cr_audio_30s",
  "format_id": {
    "agent_url": "https://creative.adcontextprotocol.org",
    "id": "audio_streaming_30s"
  },
  "assets": {
    "audio_file": {
      "url": "https://cdn.brand.com/audio/spring_30s.mp3",
      "duration_ms": 30000
    },
    "impression_tracker": {
      "url": "https://track.brand.com/imp?buy={MEDIA_BUY_ID}&pkg={PACKAGE_ID}&station={STATION_ID}&show={COLLECTION_NAME}&cb={CACHEBUSTER}"
    }
  }
}

Catalog-Driven Creative with Item Tracking

{
  "creative_id": "cr_product_carousel",
  "format_id": {
    "agent_url": "https://creative.retailer.com/adcp",
    "id": "product_carousel"
  },
  "catalogs": [{
    "catalog_id": "gmc-primary",
    "type": "product",
    "content_id_type": "gtin",
    "tags": ["summer"]
  }],
  "assets": {
    "impression_pixel": {
      "url": "https://track.brand.com/imp?buy={MEDIA_BUY_ID}&catalog={CATALOG_ID}&item={GTIN}&cb={CACHEBUSTER}",
      "url_type": "tracker_pixel"
    },
    "click_tracker": {
      "url": "https://track.brand.com/click?buy={MEDIA_BUY_ID}&catalog={CATALOG_ID}&item={GTIN}",
      "url_type": "tracker_pixel"
    }
  }
}

Key point: {GTIN} resolves to the specific product’s GTIN at serve time. For a carousel showing 5 products, each product impression/click fires with that product’s identifier — enabling per-item attribution.

Macro Availability by Inventory Type

Not all macros are available in all inventory types. Check format specifications to see which macros are supported. Important: The columns below represent format types (Display, Video, etc.) which can run in different environments (app vs web). For example:

Display ads in mobile apps have DEVICE_ID (✅*), but display ads on web do not
The ✅* notation means “available in-app contexts only”
Format type + inventory environment determine actual macro availability

Macro Category	Display	Video	Audio	Native	CTV/OTT	DOOH	Mobile App	Mobile Web	Desktop Web
Common	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
`{MEDIA_BUY_ID}`	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
`{PACKAGE_ID}`	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
`{CREATIVE_ID}`	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
`{CACHEBUSTER}`	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
`{TIMESTAMP}`	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Privacy
`{GDPR}`	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
`{GDPR_CONSENT}`	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
`{US_PRIVACY}`	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
`{GPP_STRING}`	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
`{GPP_SID}`	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
`{IP_ADDRESS}`	✅‡	✅‡	✅‡	✅‡	✅‡	❌	✅‡	✅‡	✅‡
`{LIMIT_AD_TRACKING}`	✅*	✅*	✅*	✅*	✅	❌	✅	❌	❌
Identity
`{DEVICE_ID}`	✅*	✅*	✅*	✅*	✅	❌	✅	❌	❌
`{DEVICE_ID_TYPE}`	✅*	✅*	✅*	✅*	✅	❌	✅	❌	❌
Geographic
`{COUNTRY}`	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
`{REGION}`	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
`{CITY}`	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
`{ZIP}`	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
`{DMA}`	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
`{LAT}/{LONG}`	✅†	❌	❌	✅†	❌	✅	✅†	❌	❌
Device
`{DEVICE_TYPE}`	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
`{OS}`	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
`{OS_VERSION}`	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
`{APP_BUNDLE}`	✅*	✅*	✅*	✅*	✅	❌	✅	❌	❌
`{USER_AGENT}`	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌	❌	✅	✅
Web Context
`{DOMAIN}`	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌	✅	✅
`{PAGE_URL}`	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌	✅	✅
`{REFERRER}`	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌	✅	✅
`{KEYWORDS}`	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌	✅	✅
Placement
`{PLACEMENT_ID}`	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
`{FOLD_POSITION}`	✅	❌	❌	✅	❌	❌	✅	✅	✅
Video Content
`{VIDEO_ID}`	❌	✅	❌	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌
`{VIDEO_CATEGORY}`	❌	✅	❌	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌
`{CONTENT_GENRE}`	❌	✅	✅	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌
Video Ad Pods
`{POD_POSITION}`	❌	✅	❌	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌
`{POD_SIZE}`	❌	✅	❌	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌
`{AD_BREAK_ID}`	❌	✅	❌	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌
Audio Content
`{STATION_ID}`	❌	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌
`{COLLECTION_NAME}`	❌	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌
TMP Exposure
`{TMPX}`	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅§	✅	✅	✅

Legend:

✅ = Available
❌ = Not available
✅* = In-app only (not mobile web)
✅† = When location permission granted
✅‡ = Often restricted due to privacy regulations (may return empty or masked value)
✅§ = DOOH uses play-log-based reporting rather than pixel URLs

Important Notes:

Privacy macros ({LIMIT_AD_TRACKING}, {DEVICE_ID}) may return empty values based on user privacy settings
Geographic macros accuracy varies by publisher’s data capabilities
{PLACEMENT_ID} refers to the IAB Global Placement ID standard

How Macros Work

1. Discovery

Query list_creative_formats to see which macros each format supports:

{
  "format_id": {
    "agent_url": "https://creative.adcontextprotocol.org",
    "id": "video_30s_vast"
  },
  "type": "video",
  "supported_macros": [
    {
      "macro": "{MEDIA_BUY_ID}",
      "category": "identity",
      "description": "AdCP media buy identifier",
      "required": false,
      "privacy_sensitive": false,
      "example_value": "mb_spring_2025"
    },
    {
      "macro": "{DEVICE_ID}",
      "category": "identity",
      "description": "Mobile advertising ID (IDFA/AAID)",
      "required": false,
      "privacy_sensitive": true,
      "example_value": "ABC-123-DEF-456"
    },
    {
      "macro": "{GDPR}",
      "category": "privacy",
      "description": "GDPR applicability flag",
      "required": true,
      "privacy_sensitive": false,
      "example_value": "1"
    }
  ],
  "vast_macros_supported": true
}

2. Include Macros in Creatives

Add macro placeholders in your tracking URLs using {MACRO_NAME} syntax:

https://track.brand.com/imp?campaign={MEDIA_BUY_ID}&device={DEVICE_ID}

3. Sales Agent Processing

When you create a media buy via create_media_buy, the sales agent:

Replaces AdCP ID macros with your actual IDs:
- {MEDIA_BUY_ID} → mb_spring_2025
- {PACKAGE_ID} → pkg_ctv_prime
- {CREATIVE_ID} → cr_video_30s
Translates platform macros to their ad server’s syntax:
- {CACHEBUSTER} → %%CACHEBUSTER%% (GAM) or {{timestamp}} (Kevel)
- {DEVICE_ID} → %%ADVERTISING_IDENTIFIER_PLAIN%% (GAM)
- {DOMAIN} → %%SITE%% (GAM)
Inserts click trackers automatically into clickable elements
Leaves VAST macros unchanged (for video formats)

4. Impression Time

The publisher’s ad server replaces remaining macros with actual values:

https://track.brand.com/imp?
  campaign=mb_spring_2025&
  device=ABC-123-DEF-456&
  cb=87654321

Best Practices

Use Macros Consistently

Include the same core set of macros across all your creatives:

?buy={MEDIA_BUY_ID}&pkg={PACKAGE_ID}&cre={CREATIVE_ID}&cb={CACHEBUSTER}

This makes your tracking data consistent and easier to analyze.

Check Format Support

Always query list_creative_formats to see which macros are available. Not all formats support all macros.

Combine VAST and AdCP Macros

For video, use both systems together:

VAST macros [CACHEBUSTING], [TIMESTAMP] - for standard video tracking
AdCP macros {MEDIA_BUY_ID}, {DEVICE_ID} - for your campaign tracking

Privacy Compliance

Critical: Always respect user privacy choices in your creative logic. For campaigns serving in the EU:

// Check consent before loading tracking
if (GDPR == 1) {
  if (GDPR_CONSENT && GDPR_CONSENT != '') {
    // User has consented - load tracking pixels
    loadTracking();
  } else {
    // No consent - skip tracking
    console.log('Tracking skipped - no GDPR consent');
  }
} else {
  // GDPR doesn't apply - load tracking
  loadTracking();
}

US Privacy / CCPA Compliance

For US traffic:

// Check US Privacy string
if (US_PRIVACY == '1YYN') {
  // User has opted out - don't sell personal info
  skipPersonalizedTracking();
} else {
  // Load normal tracking
  loadTracking();
}

Device-Level Privacy

Respect Limit Ad Tracking settings:

// Check if device ID is available
if (LIMIT_AD_TRACKING == 1 || DEVICE_ID == '' || DEVICE_ID == '00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000') {
  // User has limited tracking - use contextual attribution
  useContextualTracking();
} else {
  // Device ID available
  useDeviceTracking(DEVICE_ID);
}

Privacy Macro Behavior

Empty Values: Privacy-restricted macros return empty strings or zeros:

{DEVICE_ID} → "" or 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 when LAT enabled
{GDPR_CONSENT} → "" when no consent provided
{IP_ADDRESS} → "" or masked/truncated IP when privacy restricted

Always test for empty values before using privacy-sensitive macros.

URL Encoding

No need to URL-encode macro placeholders. The ad server handles encoding of actual values automatically. Example:

❌ WRONG: https://track.com/imp?device=%7BDEVICE_ID%7D
✅ CORRECT: https://track.com/imp?device={DEVICE_ID}

The ad server will URL-encode the actual value when replacing the macro.

Template Syntax

AdCP macro-bearing URLs validate as RFC 6570 URI templates (Level 1) — simple {var} substitution only. Level 2–4 operators ({+SKU}, {#SKU}, {.SKU}, {/SKU}, {;SKU}, {?SKU}, {&SKU}) are not used by AdCP and must not appear in manifests. The ad server performs literal string replacement, not RFC 6570 expansion.

Implementation Notes for Sales Agents

This section is for AdCP implementers, not buyers.

Macro Translation Approach

Sales agents must translate universal macros to their ad server’s native syntax. The recommended approach: Option 1: Hard-Code During Trafficking (MVP)

When creating ad server creatives, replace AdCP ID macros with actual values
Translate platform macros to ad server syntax
Creates one creative per line item but is simple and reliable

Option 2: Dynamic Wrapper (Future)

Intercept ad calls and inject values dynamically
More complex but avoids creative duplication

Translation Examples

Google Ad Manager:

{
  '{CACHEBUSTER}': '%%CACHEBUSTER%%',
  '{DEVICE_ID}': '%%ADVERTISING_IDENTIFIER_PLAIN%%',
  '{DEVICE_ID_TYPE}': '%%ADVERTISING_IDENTIFIER_TYPE%%',
  '{DOMAIN}': '%%SITE%%',
  '{VIDEO_ID}': '%%VIDEO_ID%%'
}

Kevel:

{
  '{CACHEBUSTER}': '{{timestamp}}',
  '{DEVICE_ID}': '{{device.ifa}}',
  '{DEVICE_ID_TYPE}': '{{device.ifaType}}',
  '{DOMAIN}': '{{request.domain}}'
}

Xandr Monetize:

{
  '{CACHEBUSTER}': '${CACHEBUSTER}',
  '{DEVICE_ID}': '${DEVICE_APPLE_IDA}',  // or ${DEVICE_AAID}
  '{DOMAIN}': '${DOMAIN}'
}

Click Tracker Insertion

Sales agents must automatically insert click tracking macros into clickable elements: Original creative:

<a href="https://brand.com/product">Click here</a>

After insertion (GAM):

<a href="%%CLICK_URL_UNESC%%https://brand.com/product">Click here</a>

Mapping Storage

Store the mapping between AdCP IDs and ad server IDs for reconciliation:

{
  media_buy_id: "mb_spring_2025",
  ad_server_order_id: "1234567",
  packages: [
    {
      package_id: "pkg_ctv_prime",
      ad_server_line_item_id: "8901234"
    }
  ]
}

Return this in create_media_buy responses and make it queryable for reconciliation.

Creative Formats - Understanding format specifications and discovery
Creative Protocol - How creatives work in AdCP
sync_creatives - Creative management API

​Overview

​Available Macros by Format

​Common Macros (All Formats)

​Privacy & Compliance Macros

​Device & Environment Macros

​Geographic Macros

​Identity Macros

​Web Context Macros

​Placement & Position Macros

​Video Content Macros

​Video Ad Pod Macros

​Audio Content Macros

​TMP Exposure Tracking

​AXE Integration (Legacy)

​Catalog Item Macros

​Substitution safety (catalog-item macros)

​Creative Variant Macros

​Usage Examples

​Video Creative with Tracking

​Display Creative with Tracking

​Audio Creative with Tracking

​Catalog-Driven Creative with Item Tracking

​Macro Availability by Inventory Type

​How Macros Work

​1. Discovery

​2. Include Macros in Creatives

​3. Sales Agent Processing

​4. Impression Time

​Best Practices

​Use Macros Consistently

​Check Format Support

​Combine VAST and AdCP Macros

​Privacy Compliance

​GDPR Compliance (EU Traffic)

​US Privacy / CCPA Compliance

​Device-Level Privacy

​Privacy Macro Behavior

​URL Encoding

​Template Syntax

​Implementation Notes for Sales Agents

​Macro Translation Approach

​Translation Examples

​Click Tracker Insertion

​Mapping Storage

​Related Documentation