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Getting Started Guide: TargetingService Overview
TargetingService provides operations for managing ad group and campaign targets.
About Targeting Preferences
With this release of EWS, four kinds of targeting are supported:
- Day Parting Targeting: The DayPartingTargeting object allows you to target specific days of the week and a specific time of the day. This is a selective target and is available and supported in the US market only.
- Demographic Targeting: The Gender and AgeRange objects allow you to target specific sections of the population. Gender and AgeRange are preferred targets and cannot be specified without a premium. The UnderAgeFilter object allows you to enable or disable the under-age filter. This is available and supported in the US market only.
- Geographical Targeting: The GeoLocation object allows you to target a specific geographical location. This is a selective target. The supported targetable geographical locations depend on the market (of the account in the request). For example, Country, State, DMA, City, and ZIP are supported in the US market. Although geographical targeting is widely available, the available and supported levels depend on the market area (of the account in the request).
- Network Distribution: This is available in AU market only (at this time).Network Distribution allows you to target a specfic network when the Entire Network is split into multiple networks. It can be set either as a selective target or as a preferred target but not both. The supported targetable networks depend on the market (of the account in the request). When set as a preferred target the user can set a premium as a percentage only. Only this target supports both premium and discount(negative premium).
Selective target — A selective target will be ignored if we are unable to determine the location/time zone of the user or the user is not visiting the targeted network.For example, the ad that is day parted or geo-targeted will only be shown to the user if we are able to determine the location/time zone of the user; otherwise, the targets will not be applied.
Preferred target — A preferred target cannot be specified without a premium. The target will be applied only if we know the age/gender of the user or the user is visiting the targeted network. Premiums are only applied for the targets that match. If we are unable to determine the age/gender of the user or the user is on a network that's not targeted, the premium will not be applied though the ads will still be eligible for serving.
Note: You will participate in all available auctions, regardless of the age/gender information we have about the web site or search page visitor.
You can define geographic, demographic and network distribution targeting attributes for your ad groups or campaigns. You can also specify the day of week and time of day when you want your ads to run. Use the operations in this service to define your targeting preferences. To retrieve the appropriate targeting attribute IDs, types, and values (allowed in the market) before assigning them to an ad group/campaign, use the operations in the TargetingDictionaryService and TargetingConverterService.
About Network Distribution
A targeted network reflects where you want your ads to display to prospective customers.Network Distribution is only supported for Sponsored Search.
About Networks
The Entire Network is split into multiple (two or more) networks. One of them is a base network that works on the base bid and never supports premium/discount. Beside the base network there would be one or more networks. For example a market may have:
- Network A (Base Network) : Always works on the base bid and never supports premium/discount.
- Network B : Can have a premium/discount only when the Entire Network is targeted.
- Network C : Can have premium/discount only when the Entire Network is targeted.
Absence of any Network Distribution target means entire network.
You can use Network Distribution as either:
A preferred target.When you want to target the Entire Network you can set a preference(discount/premium) on network(s) other than the base network. The ads would be eligible to participate on all networks and the targeted network(s) would participate with the adjusted bids.
or
A selective target. You can target only one network. No premium/discount is allowed here and the base bid would be applicable on the selected network. The ads would be eligible to participate only on the selected network and would be ignored on any other networks.
For example, let's suppose you provide a base bid of $1.00 for an ad group or a keyword. You can target Network Distribution in one of the following ways:
Preferred target
- Ads compete on the Entire Network but set a premium of 50% on network B. So your bid will compete with $1.00 on base network (network A) and network C but $1.50 on network B
- Ads compete on the Entire Network but set a discount of 25% on network C. So your bid will compete with $1.00 on base network (network A) and network B but $0.75 on network C
- Ads compete on the Entire Network but set a discount of 25% on network B and premium of 50% on network C. So your bid will compete with $1.00 on base network (network A), $0.75 on network B but $1.50 on network C
Selective target
- Ads compete only on network A. Only base bid applicable and no premium/discount allowed
- Ads compete only on network B. Only base bid applicable and no premium/discount allowed
- Ads compete only on network C. Only base bid applicable and no premium/discount allowed
You cannot have more than one network as selective targets. Example: Ads targeted only to network A and network B but not network C is not allowed.
About Day Parting
A day-part reference reflects when you want your ads to display to prospective customers. You can also use a day-part to specify a bid premium for specific time periods.
You can set ads to run all day, to run only specific times of the day, or to not run at all on specific days. You can also mix these scheduling preferences so that your ads run on different schedules for different days. By default, ads are scheduled to run all day, every day. If you were to never set a day-part for an ad group, its ads would continuously be available to display to prospective customers. However, if you want your ads to run only during a set time period or if you want to apply a bid premium to your ads for certain time periods, then you must set a day-part.
A premium value can be set while adding targeting preferences. The TargetingPremium object represents your premium value that is a percentage or fixed monetary amount to increase your current bid (for cases where traffic appears to be consistent with your specified targeting preferences) .
About Time Zone
There are two different time zones on which you can base your day parting and bid premiums:
- Audience time zone: If you specify the audience’s time zone, your day-part and bid premiums will be based on the time zone of the prospective customer(s) to whom your ad is displayed.
- Your account time zone: If you specify your account time zone, your day-part and bid premiums will be based on the time zone you specified for your account. This means that prospective customers outside of your account time zone may actually see your ads earlier or later than your scheduled period (depending on the difference between their time zone and your account time zone).
Note: If your bid is $10.25 and you apply a targeting percentage premium of 50%, then your bid may actually be $15.125 if that targeting preference is met. For the US market, the number of decimal places is "2" and so in this case, the bid that would be actually considered would be $15.12.
About Bid Premiums
Bid premiums enable you to adjust your current bid where traffic appears to be consistent with your targeting criteria, helping you to better compete for ad placement. When you set a bid premium, you specify a percentage or a fixed monetary amount by which to increase your current bid. The maximum premium bid you can enter is either $100 as a fixed dollar amount or 1,000% as a percentage. Only Network Distribution targets can have discounts. The maximum discount allowed is 90% as a percentage.
If the premium bid is expressed as a percentage, the total premium may be above $100. For example, if your base bid is $50 with a 500% premium, your final bid amount would be $300 ($50 base bid + 500% premium). If the premium bid is expressed as absolute, your total premium may be above 1000% of the base bid. For example, if your base bid is $0.10 with a $100 premium, your final bid amount would be $100.10 ($0.10 base bid + $100 premium).
Example 1: Premium Bidding With Demographic Targeting
For example, let's suppose you provide a base bid of $1.00 for the ad group or keyword, a 50% premium bid for males, and a 30% premium bid for age 30-40.
- For a user who appears to be male and within the 30-40 age range, your bid amount would be $1.80 where $1.80 = $1.00 + ($1.00 x (50% + 30%)).
- For a user who is not male and who is not within the 30-40 age range, your bid amount would be $1.00 (which is your base bid amount for the ad group or keyword).
- For a user who is not male but who is in the 30-40 age range, your bid amount would be $1.30.
- For a user who is male but who is not in the 30-40 age range, your bid amount would be $1.50 bid.
Note: Yahoo! reserves the right to serve any ad to users of any gender and age.
For Sponsored Search, the premium bid will be applied on top of the applicable keyword or ad group bid. For Content Match, the premium bid will be applied on top of the applicable ad group bid.
Example 2: Premium Bidding With Day Parting
For example, you might schedule your ads to run all day Monday through Friday and have a base bid of $1.00. But you might decide that, while the $1.00 bid is sufficient for certain hours during the week, it’s particularly important that your ads run more competitively during normal business hours of 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM on Monday through Friday. You could then set a bid premium to increase your bids during the selected time periods, helping them to be more competitive during those times. In this example, if you were to set a bid premium of 50%, your new bid during the selected time periods would be $1.50 ($1.00 original bid + 50% of that bid amount). Or, if you were to set a fixed bid premium of $1.00, your new bid during the selected time periods would be $2.00 ($1.00 original bid + $1.00 fixed bid premium).
Keep in mind that if you also set bid premiums for other targeting preferences, then those premium bids will still apply and all applicable bid premiums would be cumulative for the targets that are affected.
Example 3: Premium Bidding With Network Distribution
For example, you might target the Entire Network and have a base bid of $1.00. But you observe that a specific network(other than the base network) is giving you good traffic. So while the $1.00 bid is sufficient for other networks, it’s particularly important that your ads run more competitively on this network. You could then set a bid premium to increase your bids on the selected network, making them more aligned to your returns there. In this example, if you were to set a bid premium of 50%, your new bid on the selected network would be $1.50 ($1.00 original bid + 50% of that bid amount). Conversely, if you find traffic is not great but you still want to compete with a lesser bid, you may set the discount of 25% on the selected network. This would make your bid to be $0.75 ($1.00 original bid - 25% of that bid amount).
Example 4: Premium Bidding With Combined Targeting Dimensions
For example, assume you currently have a $1.00 base bid and set all of the following bid premiums:
- 50% bid premium for Fridays (50% of the $1.00 bid equals 50 cents).
- 25% bid premium for ages of 30 to 34 (25% of the $1.00 bid equals 25 cents).
- 25 cent bid premium for males.
- 50 cent bid premium for the cities of Boston and New York.
If an ad is displayed to prospective customers who meet all of these four targets, the bid premium would be cumulative for all four targets. In this example, the new bid would be $2.50 ($1.00 original bid + $1.50 total bid premiums). If an ad is displayed to prospective customers who meet two of the four targets, the bid premium would be cumulative for the two applicable targets.
For premium bids on multiple geographic levels, the most granular match’s bid is used. For example, let's suppose you have set up a base bid of $1.00 and the following premiums for California, New York, and Texas traffic:
- 10% premium bid for California traffic
- 15% premium bid for San Francisco (the city) traffic
- 20% premium for 91409 traffic (94109 is a zip code within San Francisco)
If an impression came in from New York, your bid will be $1.00. If an impression came in from Los Angeles, your bid will be $1.10. If an impression came in from 94107 (another ZIP code in San Francisco), your bid will be $1.15. If an impression came in from 94109, your bid will be $1.20.
Note: We do not apply a day-part bid premium if we are unable to determine the prospective customer’s location (and thus their time zone).
Manage Targeting Preferences
You can manage targeting preferences in two ways:
- Using generic targeting objects. Generic targeting is targeting by means of TargetingAttribute. The generic targeting objects are TargetingAttributeDescriptor and TargetingAttribute. You can populate the ID and type obtained from the EWS system into TargetingAttributeDescriptor object, populate the premium in the TargetingPremium object, and pass the two in the TargetingAttribute object.
- Using typed targeting objects. Typed targeting is targeting by means of TargetingProfile. The strongly typed targeting objects such as DayPartingTargeting, GeoLocation, AgeRange, Gender, NetworkDistribution and UnderAgeFilter can be used to set and update your targeting preferences (profile).
TargetingService provides operations for adding, updating, retrieving, and deleting ad group and campaign targeting preferences (profile).
Add Targeting Attributes
To add generic targeting attributes (type and ID) to an ad group, use the addTargetingAttributesForAdGroup operation. To add generic targeting attributes (type and ID) to a campaign, use the addTargetingAttributesForCampaign operation.
Tip: To retrieve the ID of a specific type of targeting object (such as AgeRange, Gender) that you wish to add to an ad group or campaign, use the operations in the TargetingConverterService.
Retrieve Targeting Attributes and Profiles
To retrieve an ad group's generic targeting attributes (including bid premiums), use the getTargetingAttributesForAdGroup operation. To retrieve a campaign's generic targeting attributes (including bid premiums), use the getTargetingAttributesForCampaign operation.
To retrieve the targeting profile (typed targeting objects) of an ad group, use the getTargetingProfileForAdGroup operation. To retrieve the targeting profile (typed targeting objects) of a campaign, use the getTargetingProfileForCampaign operation.
Update Targeting Profiles
To update the targeting profile of an ad group, use the updateTargetingProfileForAdGroup operation. To update the targeting profile of a campaign, use the updateTargetingProfileForCampaign operation.
Delete Targeting Attributes and Types
To delete specific targeting attributes from an ad group, use the deleteTargetingAttributesForAdGroup operation. To delete specific targeting attributes from a campaign, use the deleteTargetingAttributesForCampaign operation.
To delete specific types of targeting from an ad group, use the deleteTargetingByTypesForAdGroup operation. To delete specific types of targeting from a campaign, use the deleteTargetingByTypesForCampaign operation.
To delete all targeting (preferences) from an ad group, use the deleteTargetingForAdGroup operation. To delete all targeting (preferences) from a campaign, use the deleteTargetingForCampaign operation.
Note:There is no TargetingAttributeDescriptor for UnderAgeFilter.Disable. For changing UnderAgeFilter from Enable to Disable, use deleteTargetingAttributesForCampaign/deleteTargetingAttributesForAdGroup with the TargetingAttributeDescriptor obtained for UnderAgeFilter.Enable
.Set Targetable Level
For each campaign in your account, you can specify whether you want to target at the campaign level or the ad group level.
Note: By default, targeting is set at campaign level. For the US market (only), you can set targets at the ad group level also.
To target at the ad group level, use the setTargetableLevelAsAdGroup operation. When you target at the ad group level, you can apply specific targeting settings to each ad group in the campaign. The targeting preferences cannot be defined at the ad group level if targeting settings are defined in the campaign that the ad group belongs to. In this case, you must edit the targeting settings for the parent campaign.
To target at the campaign level, use the setTargetableLevelAsCampaign operation. When you target at the campaign level, all ad groups in the campaign use the same targeting preferences set for the campaign.