Fine-tuning your ad group targeting ensures your campaigns reach the right audiences at the right time and at the right cost. Follow the steps below to adjust targeting settings for any ad group in your campaign.
How to Access Targeting Settings
Select Initiative from the left-hand sidebar, then click the Campaign tab at the top.
Open your campaign and navigate to the Ad Group you wish to adjust.
Select the Options tab.
From here, you'll have access to six targeting settings:
Bids
Devices
Geographic Serving Area
Frequency Cap
Day-Parting
Pacing
Each plays a unique role in how your ads are delivered. Below is a breakdown of each setting and our best practice recommendations.
Bids
What it is:
This section controls your dollar bid range, or the amount you're willing to pay per 1,000 impressions (CPM).
Best Practices:
Use the recommended bid range. This is based on your creative format your ad group is serving.
Avoid setting bids too low, as this may exclude you from real-time auctions.
Avoid setting bids too high, as this may lead to inefficient spending and poor return on investment.
Devices
What it is:
This allows you to choose the types of devices your ads will appear on:
Mobile
Desktop
Tablets
Connected TV
Best Practices:
Select at least two device types to increase scale and performance.
Tailor device selection to match your audience's typical screen behavior.
Geographic Serving Area
What it is: This determines the physical locations where your ads will be shown. Geographic targeting is a critical feature in Agility that allows you to restrict ad impressions to specific locations. This ensures that your campaign remains focused on the intended location, even if the audience size is extensive.
Default Setting:
The system defaults to serving ads across the United States.
How to Adjust:
Remove "United States" and replace it with your desired region, state, or city.
Troubleshooting Geographic Targeting Issues
If your campaign generates ad impressions outside the target location, consider the following potential causes and solutions:
Incorrect Geographic Targeting Settings:
Double-check that the geographic targeting settings have been applied correctly.
Third-Party Tracking Discrepancies:
Issues with third-party tracking or analytics tools might falsely show impressions outside the set target region.
Review a Custom Geographic Report:
Generate a custom geographic report to identify where ads are being served and clarify any discrepancies in targeting.
Advanced Targeting Techniques
Behavioral Parameters and Geographic Targeting
Behavioral parameters can be used alongside geographic targeting to refine your audience. For example:
If your campaign targets a large audience based on behavioral criteria, ads will still only serve to devices within the selected geographic area. This ensures that your campaign remains focused on the intended location, even if the behavioral audience size is extensive.
Addressable Targeting and Location Exclusion
For more precise targeting, consider using Addressable targeting or Location Exclusion:
Addressable Targeting: Upload home addresses to serve ads specifically to users who are residents of those addresses.
Geographic Serving Area: Restrict ad serving to users within a general location, such as a state or city. Addressable targeting offers stricter controls and is ideal for eliminating out-of-state traffic, while geographic area targeting ensures devices meet general location criteria.
FAQs
Why might my campaign generate impressions outside the target location?
This could be due to incorrect geographic targeting settings or discrepancies in third-party tracking tools. Reviewing a custom geographic report can help identify and resolve such issues.
Will ads serve only in the selected geographic areas if I use behavioral parameters?
Yes, ads will only serve to devices within the geographic serving area, even if the behavioral audience size is large.
How can I eliminate out-of-state traffic?
Use Addressable targeting for precise control or Geographic Serving Area targeting for broader location-based restrictions.
Frequency Cap
What it is:
Set the maximum number of times each individual device can see your ads within a chosen time window. You can measure the window in hours, days, or weeks (for example, 3 ads per day).
Stacking multiple caps:
You can apply several frequency caps to the same ad group at once, and a device must satisfy all of them. For example, you might set 1 ad per 8 hours, 4 per day, and 6 per week together to control both short-term and long-term exposure. Use the add control to add a cap and remove any you no longer need; you can set up to five caps per ad group.
Best Practices:
Lower frequency caps spread impressions across more unique users.
Higher frequency caps increase exposure to the same users, which can boost brand recall.
Stack caps across different time windows (for example, an hourly cap alongside a weekly cap) to prevent overexposure in any single period while keeping overall reach healthy.
Day-Parting
What it is:
This setting allows you to define which hours of the week your ads should run.
Best Practices:
Keep more hours turned on than off to prevent delivery issues.
Pacing
What it is:
This determines how impressions are distributed across the ad group's scheduled flight.
Options:
Pace Ahead: Serves a larger portion of impressions earlier in the flight, then tapers off.
Pace Evenly: Distributes impressions equally across the entire flight duration.
Best Practices:
Use Pace Ahead if your flight is time-sensitive or if early performance insights are valuable.
Use Pace Evenly for consistent visibility and performance throughout the flight.