How do I use custom data to target ads?

Trafficspaces allows you to integrate data from your system target ads more accurately. For example, you can use your own data to target by gender, age range, interests, keywords.

You can even override the default IP-address based geo-targeting behaviour by specifying your own geo-codes.

So how does this magic work? Pretty simple really.

Getting Started

You need to pass custom parameters to our ad servers when you make an ad call.

To get started, you need to

1. Open your ad zone in the Setup->Ad Zones-> section.
   
2. Proceed to the advanced ad tag page i.e Setup->Ad Zones->Ad Tag->Advanced
   
3. Enable ad targeting by clicking on the Yes checkbox.
   
4. Select the ad targeting options you wish to activate. For each checkbox you select, a new flag will appear in the ad code text box.
   Note: some checkboxes may be inactive if your account doesn't provide sufficient permissions to access them.
5. Finally copy the ad tag into your web page.

Ad Targeting Flags

Each targeting flag is represented by an array of parameters in the TS_AdService.flags object.
By default, each array is empty which implies the ad call will match all possible parameters.
To customize a flag, you'll need to insert parameters into its array.

There are two types of flags.

1. Implicit flags - Parameters for these flags are derived by the ad servers and do not need to be passed explicitly. They include
   

   • Country, State and City - which are derived from the IP address by default,
   • URL - derived from the HTTP_REFERRER header
   • User Agent
   • Date Range
   • Hour of Day
   • Day Of Week
   • Language

2. Explicit parameters - Parameters for these flags must be passed in the TS_AdService.flag arrays. They include
   

   • Keywords
   • Interests
   • Gender
   • Age Range
   • Income Range
   • Ethnicity
   • Relationship
   • Qualification
   • Job
   • Industry
   • Religion
   • Politics
   • GPS Coordinate

Note: The Country, State, City flags are represented by one array - TS_AdService.flags.geographics, and they can be passed explicity to the ad servers or derived implicitly by the ad servers (through the user's IP address) if you do not set any parameters.

Targeting logic

Here's the logic on which the ad targeting is based.

1. If an advertiser specifies at least one targeting preference for an ad, then that ad will only show when that targeting flag is present in the ad call and at least one of its parameters match the advertiser's preference.

2. If the ad call specifies a flag (implicitly or otherwise), then the ad servers assume that it requires ads that must match that flag. If multiple flags are specified, then all flags must be matched. Such ads are called Targeted Ads.

3. Finally, if an ad does not have any targeting preferences, then it is regarded as an Untargeted Ad i.e. one that can match all targeting flags.

4. Untargeted Ads are considered as subordinates to Targeted Ads and as such, they are assigned a lower relevancy rating which is used in the calculation of the ad's overall Quality Score. All things being equal, Untargeted ads have a lower Quality Score which consequently causes them to show less often than Targeted Ads, or they only show when Targeted Ads are unavailable. For example, an ad explicitly targeted to New York will show far more often to users in New York than an ad targeted to Everyone.

5. Finally, if there are no Targeted and Untargeted Ads, then 3rd party ads/feeds are shown.

Ad Targeting parameters

Okay, you can't just pass any explicit parameters to the ad server. :)

The valid parameters are defined in your system's ad targeting configuration. To view your configuration,

1. Go the Setup->System->Preferences->Advanced section of your ad store.
   
2. Select the targeting configuration you wish to download e.g. Interests
   
3. Click on the Download button to download the JSON file.

Each configuration contains a JSON object or a hierarchy of JSON arrays.
When a config contains a JSON object, then you need to use the key names as your parameters. Alternatively, when it contains a hierarchy of JSON arrays, then you need to use the id attribute of each object in the array as your parameters.

You can replace the existing keys and values with your own data if you wish.