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Contextual audience overview
When you engage users based on their actual browsing behaviors, you can anticipate how they might interact with your ads. Contextual audiences are formed by grouping users together based on their online activity. You determine these groups by indicating a list of relevant keywords and/or URLs and a timeframe. We add a user to the contextual audience when they visit sites that feature those keywords or URLs, browse them during the time period you select, and meet any other parameters that you specify during audience setup. You can target the contextual audience to advertise to that group of users across the open internet.
Aside from keywords and URLs, your Frequency and Data Collection Period choices determine which users we will add to your contextual audience. Refer to the Key terms and concepts section for more details on how these audience qualifiers work.
Key terms and concepts
Frequency
Frequency refers to the number of times a user visits the publisher(s) relevant to one or more keywords or URLs that you added to the contextual audience. You can choose a frequency ranging from 1 to 99. The frequency you select determines which users will get added to your contextual audience.
Example: Frequency
A frequency of “5” will add a user to the contextual audience when all three of these conditions are met:
The user visited any number of sites that featured any combination of your keywords.
The user encountered any combination of those keywords five times.
The user's browsing activity took place during the time period you defined.
Consider a healthcare advertiser who chose "asthma" and "wheezing" as their keywords, and "Last 30 days" as their timeframe. We will add a user to your contextual audience whether they visited one site containing the word "asthma" five times during the last 30 days; or visited two sites containing the keyword "asthma" and three sites containing the keyword "wheezing" during the last 30 days, for example.
Data Collection Period
A data collection period is the timeframe during which a user visits the publisher(s) relevant to one or more keywords or URLs that you added to the contextual audience. You can choose a date range of up to 30 days over the past six-month period.
Example: Data Collection Period
You create a contextual audience made up of users who are interested in Asthma and its treatments. You indicated these requirements during audience setup:
Keywords: Asthma, wheezing, shortness of breath, inhaler, albuterol
Frequency: 5
Data Collection Period: Last 30 Days
Refer to the table below to review a list of scenarios, and whether or not we will add a user to this contextual audience based on your selections.
Example scenario of user's browsing behavior | User added to contextual audience |
Visited one site containing the keyword "asthma" five times during the last 30 days | Yes |
Visited five sites containing any of the five keywords on time each during the last 30 days | Yes |
Visited two sites containing the keyword "wheezing" and three sites containing the keyword "inhaler" during the last 30 days | Yes |
Visited https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/asthma five times in the last 30 days | Yes |
Visited each URL a total of five times in the last 30 days | Yes |
Visited one site containing the keywords "shortness of breath," "inhaler," "wheezing," and "albuterol," and visited https://www.drugs.com/drug-class/adrenergic-bronchodilators.html one time, in the last 30 days | Yes |
Visited one site containing the keyword "inhaler" four times during the last 30 days | No |
Visited four sites containing any one keyword during the last 30 days | No |
Visited two sites containing the keyword "albuterol" and two sites containing the keyword "shortness of breath" during the last 30 days | No |
Visited https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/asthma twice in the last 30 days | No |
FAQ
Expand the drop-down arrow next to a question to reveal the answer.
Error messages
Q: What is the meaning of the “URL is outside the programmatic universe” error?
Q: What is the meaning of the “URL is outside the programmatic universe” error?
A: The site is not authorized for digital ads by the IAB Tech Lab’s “Ads.txt” initiative. It aims to tackle domain spoofing, arbitrage, and other forms of ad fraud by indicating the authorized resellers of a publisher’s ad inventory.
Q: What is the meaning of the “URL can not be validated” error?
Q: What is the meaning of the “URL can not be validated” error?
A: The URL does not correspond to an active site. Confirm that your URLs do not contain errors such as typos or missing punctuation, and check that the site is active.
Data collection periods
Q: What data collection length can I choose for my contextual audience?
Q: What data collection length can I choose for my contextual audience?
A: You can choose a date range of up to 30 days over the past six-month period.
Q: Can I create a custom data collection period that is longer than 30 days?
Q: Can I create a custom data collection period that is longer than 30 days?
A: We recommend a data collection period of 30 days or less for most contextual audiences. In certain cases, you might want to select a wider data collection period. For example, products and services within the automotive market typically have a longer purchase cycle than those of lower-cost retail businesses. Submit a support request to create a contextual audience with a data collection period exceeding the IQM platform’s 30-day limit.
Users in a contextual audience
Q: Will a data collection period of “Last 30 days” collect users during that time frame from the time the audience was created, or will it continually add users from the last 30 days when the audience is active?
Q: Will a data collection period of “Last 30 days” collect users during that time frame from the time the audience was created, or will it continually add users from the last 30 days when the audience is active?
A: We offer the “Last 30 days” options as a preset to help you quickly select a data collection period of 30 days ago through today. For example, if you choose “Last 30 days” on June 30th, we will add users who visited contextually relevant sites between June 1st-30th to the contextual audience. If you run a campaign with this audience on August 30th, it will still contain users from June 1st-30th.
Create a contextual audience
Q: What steps should I follow to create a contextual audience?
Q: What steps should I follow to create a contextual audience?
A: Refer to the how-to instructions listed in Create a contextual audience. It includes steps to create the audience by keyword or URL, and individually or in bulk.
Manage a contextual audience
Q: How can I edit, duplicate, or delete a contextual audience?
Q: How can I edit, duplicate, or delete a contextual audience?
A: Refer to the how-to instructions listed in Manage a contextual audience to complete these actions.