Guide
Ad Creative Submission Workflow: From Request to Trafficking
A booked campaign still has to get from a sold placement to a file someone can traffic. The advertiser has to know what to send. The team has to receive it, check it, deal with what is wrong, and pass a usable file to trafficking.
That sequence is the ad creative submission workflow. The exact steps vary by publisher, platform, placement, and creative type, but the workflow follows the same core decisions.
What is an ad creative submission workflow?
An ad creative submission workflow is how a publisher, media team, or ad ops group requests, receives, checks, and prepares advertising files before launch. It is the path those campaign files take, not the technical specification of any one file.
What to ask for is covered in ad creative requirements. The technical constraints behind size, ratio, format, and file weight are covered in ad creative specifications. This guide stays with the order of work.
The ad creative submission workflow step by step
Use the order below as a working sequence. A single newsletter placement and a campaign with several banners will not need the same number of files. Both still need each of these decisions.
Step 1: Confirm the booked placements
The asset list should follow what was sold. A homepage banner, a newsletter placement, and a mobile unit are separate files unless the booking says otherwise. If the sold placements are still unclear, the request will ask for the wrong materials, or for one file when the campaign needs several.
Confirm the list before writing requirements. A media kit is a menu. The workflow starts from the line items on this order.
Step 2: Define the creative requirements
For each asset, define what that placement will accept. That usually includes dimensions or an aspect ratio, accepted formats, a maximum file size, whether a landing URL is required, how many files to send, and any instructions that apply only to this placement.
There is no universal set. Ad creative requirements covers what the request should contain. Ad creative specifications explains those technical pieces in more depth. When the asset is a banner, common display dimensions are only a reference. The size on the request is the size this placement booked.
Give each asset its own requirements when the bookings differ. One shared note for the whole campaign hides those differences.
Step 3: Send the submission request
Send the requirements before the advertiser produces or submits the file. The request should name the placement and the constraints, so the advertiser is not choosing a version on their own.
Include the submission date when this campaign has one. Lead time is not a standard number of days. Publishers, platforms, placements, and creative formats can each need a different gap for review, correction, and trafficking. Write the date this booking needs.
Step 4: Receive files and landing URLs
Receive each file against the placement it was requested for. When the placement needs a click destination, take the landing URL with that file. A banner in one thread and a URL in another is easy to mismatch, especially when the campaign has more than one asset.
Step 5: Validate the submission
Check the submission against the requirements for that asset. Supported checks cover dimensions or aspect ratio, accepted format, file size, and a required landing URL. Validating ad creatives is that file check, done before trafficking.
A file can pass those checks and still be wrong for other reasons. HTML5 click tags, animation behavior, creative quality, brand compliance, the submission deadline, and campaign approval are separate reviews. Someone on the publisher side still has to own those. A passed file check is not campaign approval.
Step 6: Resolve missing or incorrect assets
When a file is the wrong size, the wrong format, too heavy, or missing its landing URL, it is not ready to traffic. Tell the advertiser which placement failed and what to send instead. A missing file uses the same loop: name the asset that never arrived.
The correction can travel by email. Email becomes a problem when the new version is detached from the placement, or when people keep opening the first file. Keep the replacement with the original request so there is one current file per asset.
Step 7: Prepare files for use
Some files can be prepared without a new export from the advertiser. For a supported still image, a safe preparation is a downscale, a compression, or a format conversion. It is not a crop, a stretch, or an upscale. Upscaling invents pixels. Cropping changes the artwork the advertiser submitted. If the image cannot be prepared that way, ask for a replacement.
Safe AutoFix applies only to that limited case: a supported still image, and only when the change does not crop, stretch, or upscale.
Step 8: Hand assets to trafficking
Trafficking needs the file that will run, the placement it belongs to, and the landing URL when the placement has one. If a prepared version exists, keep the advertiser's original as well. Originals and Ready-to-Use files stay separate so the team can see what was submitted and what was prepared.
This is the handoff out of intake. The person trafficking should not have to guess which version was accepted.
Where creative submission workflows break down
- The booked placements and the requested assets do not match.
- The request leaves out size, format, file size, or the landing URL, so the advertiser guesses.
- The file and the destination URL arrive apart from each other.
- Several placements are submitted as one unlabeled batch.
- A corrected file arrives in a new thread while the old file is still treated as current.
- A passed file check is treated as creative approval, or as a reason to skip trafficking review.
- The team uses another campaign's lead time instead of the date this booking needs.
Creative submission workflow checklist
Before the handoff, confirm:
- Which placements were booked?
- Which file belongs to each placement?
- Are dimensions or aspect ratio, formats, maximum file size, and file count defined?
- Is a landing URL required, and did it arrive with the file?
- Has each submission been checked against those requirements?
- What is still missing, and who is sending the replacement?
- Can any file be prepared safely, or does it need a new upload?
- What will trafficking receive?
- What is the submission date for this campaign?
How DropAsset fits into the workflow
DropAsset covers the intake portion of this workflow. The publisher creates a request and adds a slot for each booked asset. Each slot holds that asset's requirements: exact dimensions, an aspect ratio, or no pixel size, plus accepted formats, a maximum file size, and instructions the advertiser can read. A slot can require a landing URL. The publisher shares one link. The advertiser uploads without an account and can replace or remove a file on that request.
DropAsset checks the upload against the supported file requirements and shows whether the asset is Ready or Needs attention. It does not check HTML5 click tags, animation behavior, creative quality, brand compliance, a submission deadline, or campaign approval. Instructions on the slot are visible to the advertiser. They are not an automated review of those items.
When a supported still image can be downscaled, compressed, or converted without cropping, stretching, or upscaling, Safe AutoFix can prepare that file. The original stays. A Ready-to-Use file is added only when that preparation applies. If the upload already met the slot, that file is the one ready to hand off. Publishers and ad operations teams still pass the chosen files to trafficking.
Questions about the ad creative submission workflow
What is an ad creative submission workflow?
It is the sequence a publisher or media team uses to request, receive, check, and prepare advertising files before trafficking. It starts from the booked placements and ends when a usable file is handed off. The exact steps vary by publisher, platform, placement, and creative type.
What should advertisers submit before a campaign launches?
They should submit what the booked placement asked for. That often includes the asset, a size or aspect ratio, an accepted format, a file within the stated file size limit, and a landing URL when the placement needs one. The list is not the same for every publisher or placement.
When should advertisers submit creative files?
Use the date this campaign needs. Lead time depends on the publisher, the platform, the placement, the creative format, and how long review and trafficking take. There is no single number of days that fits every workflow.
Who checks ad creatives before trafficking?
Someone on the publisher side still owns the review. That may be ad ops, the trafficking team, or another person the publisher names. A file check can cover supported requirements such as dimensions, format, file size, and a required landing URL. Creative quality, brand compliance, animation, HTML5 click tags, deadlines, and campaign approval remain a human review.
What happens when an advertiser submits the wrong file?
The asset is not ready to traffic. Tell the advertiser which placement failed and what to send instead. Keep the replacement with that same asset so the new file does not land in a separate thread from the original.
Should landing URLs be collected with creative files?
Yes, when the placement needs a click destination. Taking the URL with the matching file keeps the destination attached to the right asset. A placement with no click destination does not need one.
How can publishers organize creative submissions?
One workable way is to list each booked placement, put that placement's requirements on its own asset, and keep later versions on that same asset. Status then shows what passed, what needs a replacement, and what can be handed to trafficking.