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Create a Recommendations playlist

Learn how to use a video to automatically suggest videos with the highest likelihood to extend a viewer's watch session.

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A Recommendations playlist suggests videos based on the first video that a viewer watches. These videos are based on an aggregated data set across all users and are not specific to a single user.

Recommendations are selected by using a blend of two proprietary methodologies: a version of association rule mining and content similarity of videos. Recommendations playlists are limited to a maximum of 100 videos. If the Recommendations algorithm cannot find any videos using the methodologies above, trending videos are served

🚧

For meaningful recommendations to be shown to viewers, create descriptive, keyword-rich titles and descriptions for the videos in your media library. Read Edit video metadata to learn how to update the title and description of a video.


Create a playlist

🔑

If you are a developer or have developer resources, you can use the Management API to create a Recommendations playlist.


Use the following video and steps to create a Recommendations playlist.


  1. From the Playlists page, click Create Playlist. A popup window appears.
  2. Click the Recommendations tile. The Configuration tab of the playlist settings appears.
  3. Replace Untitled Recommendations Playlist with a title for the playlist.
  4. (Optional) Set the video filters and recency.
  5. (Optional) In the Items Per Page section, enter the maximum number of videos to display in the playlist.

    📘

    If no number is entered, the list length will default to 10 videos.

  6. (Optional) Enable Promoted Content.
  7. In the Preview section, under Source Media, click + Add Source Media. The Add Source Media panel appears.
  8. At the top of the Add Source Media panel, search and filter to find specific media or select any media visible in the list.
  9. Select a media item. The panel closes. The Preview section updates to show the Source Media and Top Recommendations results.
  10. Click SAVE.

📘

When updates are made to playlists, there may be up to 3 minutes of caching in JWP's systems before the changes are reflected. Web browsers also cache playlist content and can be cleared.

You can now pair this playlist with a player and create a recommendations experience for your viewers.



Set video filters

Use the following step to configure the video filters:

  1. On the Configuration tab, in the Filters section, configure the filters. The following table explains each filter option.
Option Description
Filter by Tags Defines tag rules determining which videos can be dynamically added to the playlist

Use these steps to set this filter:
  1. Click Include or Exclude. The settings options appear.
  2. Choose an Items should match option:
    • All Matches only videos with all specified tags
    • Any: Matches videos with any of the specified tags
  3. In the search box, type the name of a tag.
  4. Select the tag from the listed options.
  5. Click Include Tags or Exclude Tags to close the settings options.
  6. (Optional) If you have multiple tags to add, repeat steps 3-5 until all tags have been added.
You can define tags both to Include and Exclude for a playlist. Read Filter by Tags explained to learn how to filter with tags.

NOTE: To be able to select the videos that are included or excluded from your Recommendations playlist, tags must have been added to the metadata of your content.
Filter by Custom Parameters Filter videos using key-value pairs to include or exclude videos

Use these steps to set this filter:
  1. Click Include or Exclude. The settings options appear.
  2. Choose an Items should match option:
    • All Matches only videos with all specified key-value pairs
    • Any: Matches videos with any of the specified key-value pairs

    NOTE: When All is selected, only one key can be added. For example, if your key-value pair is country:spain and All is selected, your media selection is limited to one value (Spain) defined under the key (country).

    To include media based on multiple values, select Any and define more than one value per key.
  3. In the Key textbox, type a key.
  4. In the Value textbox, type a value.
  5. Click Include Tags or Exclude Tags to close the settings options.
  6. (Optional) If you have multiple custom parameters to add, click + Add. Then, repeat steps 3-4 until all custom parameters have been added.
Recency Only includes videos published within a set number of days

Use this step to set this filter:
  1. In the text field, enter a number for the number of days.


Enable Promoted Content

In the Promoted Content section, you can highlight videos by pinning content to a playlist position. If the selected playlist has more than one video, a random video is selected each time.

Use the following steps to promote videos in position 1, position 2, or both:

  1. In the Promoted Content section, click the toggle to ON. The settings appear.
  2. From the Content in Position 1 dropdown menu, select a playlist.
  3. From the Content in Position 2 dropdown menu, select a playlist.

FAQs

How can I generate reports for Recommendations?

You can use one of the following approaches to generate reports for Recommendations:

  • View the Recommendations Playlists Summary
  • Create a custom recommendations report
  • Create a custom recommendations playlist report


View the Recommendations playlist summary

This report is a default report that includes the following metrics for all recommendation playlists: ad impressions, completes, complete rate, plays, and time watched. This report cannot be edited and covers the last seven days of Recommendations performance.

Use the following steps to access this report:

  1. From your JW Player dashboard, click Custom Reports.
  2. Click Recommendation Playlists Summary from the list of reports.


Create a custom Recommendations report

You can also create a custom report that allows you to specify the date range and metrics to include in the report.

Use the following steps to create a custom recommendations report:

  1. From your JWP dashboard, click Custom Reports.
  2. Click Create Report. A panel appears.
  3. Select a Date Range from the dropdown menu.
  4. Select up to five Metrics to display in the report.
  5. In the Group by section, select Playlist Type.
  6. From the Filter by dropdown menu in the Filter section, select Playlist Type.
  7. From the Choose an option dropdown menu, select Equals.
  8. In the final text box, enter Recommendations.
  9. Click RUN REPORT. After the report completes, the results are displayed. If you do not want to save the report, skip to step 12.
  10. Click Untitled Report and name the report.
  11. Click Save Report.
  12. Click the More menu icon (next to the Save Report button) to Download graph or Download table of the report.


Create a custom Recommendations playlist report

You can also create a custom report for a specific recommendations playlist that allows you to specify the date range and metrics to include in the report.

Use the following steps to create a custom recommendations playlist report:

  1. From your dashboard, click Custom Reports.
  2. Click Create Report. A panel appears.
  3. Select a Date Range from the dropdown menu.
  4. Select up to five Metrics to display in the report.
  5. In the Group by section, select Playlist Type.
  6. From the Filter by dropdown menu in the Filter section, select Playlist.
  7. From the Choose an option dropdown menu, select Equals.
  8. In the final text box, enter the name of the playlist.
  9. Click RUN REPORT. After the report completes, the results are displayed. If you do not want to save the report, skip to step 12.
  10. Click Untitled Report and name the report.
  11. Click Save Report.
  12. Click the More menu icon (next to the Save Report button) to Download graph or Download table of the report.

How can I optimize the performance of Recommendations?

You can optimize the performance of Recommendations by following these best practices:

  • Create a title and description for each video in your library.
  • Group similar categories of videos with tags.
  • Associate a recommendations playlist with each player that you embed.
  • Replace dynamic, trending, and manual playlists with recommendations playlists.
Can I promote specific videos when using Recommendations?

Yes. Use the following steps to promote up to two playlists that will appear when the countdown overlay appears:

  1. From your JW Player dashboard, click Playlist > name of the recommendations playlist.
  2. In the Promoted Content section of the SETUP tab, select a manual, trending, or dynamic playlist from the drop-down menu. Once you have chosen one playlist, an option to select a second playlist appears.
  3. (Optional) Select another manual, trending, or dynamic playlist to promote from the second drop-down menu.
  4. Click SAVE.
What is the minimum number of videos that I need in my library?

To derive the most benefit from Recommendations, you should have a minimum of 50 videos in your library.


Updated 10 days ago

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