Outbrain QA & Verification
A finalized build must be sent to Outbrain QA a minimum of 5 business days before your anticipated release date. We may request changes which will require additional dev resources and could delay your release.
Outbrain reserves the right to remove our recommendations or restrict the app from generating Outbrain revenue if required changes are not incorporated prior to release. Contact your Account Manager for submission instructions.
Technology & UX
Technology Only one Outbrain technology can be used with the same app — e.g. SDK and Web API cannot be used within the same app.
Calling Outbrain
Each request to odb.outbrain.com logs an impression and brings new recommendations. An app session is defined as the time the app gets launched (or re-launched) until the time the app is not in focus.
You should call Outbrain recommendations when and only when:
- Every visit of the user to the page/article
- Every visit from: homepage, section-front, push notification, deep link
You should not call Outbrain recommendations when:
- On a webview or browser, i.e. after opening the Outbrain ad, Outbrain branding, other ad unit, or any other action that opens a webview or browser
- User rotates the device
Pre-loading & prefetching:
- Recommendations should be called only for one article at a time, and only when needed (see above).
- Calling recommendations for an article that the user is not visiting (i.e. prefetching) is not allowed.
Number of recommendations Contact your Account Manager to specify the number of recommendations you plan to feature on each page. Each widget ID (and corresponding request) will be associated with a fixed number of recommendations in the Outbrain response.
Reporting clicks It is permissible to register a click only when the user has pressed on a recommendation. Additional instructions can be found in the integration guidelines for each technology.
Opening paid content When users return from viewing an Outbrain recommendation, they should land on the referring article, in the viewport where the previously fetched widget is displayed. There should not be an additional request.
Labeling & Privacy
Headers Outbrain recommendations must be labeled with the mutually agreed-upon headers in the contractual mocks.
Branding The Outbrain logo must be clearly displayed alongside recommendations and must link to our mobile privacy policy.
Identifying Advertisers The advertiser name (source name) must be clearly displayed for external recommendations.
Google and Apple Privacy Policy Google and Apple privacy policy must be supported. See full instructions here.
Handling Exceptions
Handling a disabled Outbrain widget If the Outbrain connection is refused or 0 recommendations are returned, the entire page should load as expected and the Outbrain container should not be displayed as part of the page, including previously loaded recommendations and the Outbrain header & branding.