What is ad targeting?
Ad targeting is the process of defining which advertising opportunities should be considered suitable for a campaign.
Without targeting, an advertiser may spend across a very large inventory pool. Targeting narrows the opportunity set so budget can be directed toward more relevant traffic.
Geographic targeting
Geographic targeting allows campaigns to focus on users or inventory associated with selected geographic markets.
This can be useful when an advertiser operates in specific countries, regions or markets and does not want to spend budget elsewhere.
Device targeting
Device targeting distinguishes between environments such as desktop, mobile and tablet. Device behavior can differ substantially, so campaigns may benefit from treating these environments separately.
Contextual targeting
Contextual targeting considers the surrounding content or context of an advertising opportunity. The idea is to place an advertisement where the surrounding subject matter is relevant to the campaign.
Audience-oriented targeting
Audience-oriented approaches attempt to reach groups of users with shared characteristics or behaviors. The exact signals available depend on the advertising marketplace and its privacy and data framework.
Avoid over-targeting
Targeting should improve relevance, but every additional restriction can reduce the pool of eligible inventory.
Advertisers should therefore test targeting constraints rather than assuming that the narrowest possible audience will automatically produce the best result.