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Create or manage a Contextual audience

Create a new Contextual audience or review, edit, duplicate, or delete an existing one.

Team IQM avatar
Written by Team IQM
Updated over 2 weeks ago

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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.

Review Contextual audience overview for more information on Contextual audiences and to review scenario-based examples.

Create a Contextual audience (Specialty, Political)

Maximum keywords or URLs: There's no limit to the number of keywords or URLs that you can add to a single Contextual audience. We recommend a maximum of 100 per audience.

You can create a Contextual audience in the following ways:

You can also use a combination of these options; for example, you might add a list of keywords and upload a spreadsheet of URLs to create your Contextual audience.

Follow these steps to access the + Create Audience workflow:

  1. Open the Audiences app.

  2. Select Contextual Audience.

  3. Click + Create New. This will open the Create Contextual Audience pop-up window.

By keyword, one by one

Follow these steps to create a Contextual audience from keywords one by one:

  1. Enter a name for the audience.

  2. Type a keyword into the Keyword field and select Enter on your device’s keyboard.

  3. Additional, optional keyword recommendations will appear. Browse the list and select one or more keywords, if desired.

  4. Repeat steps 2-3 for each additional keyword.

  5. Locate the Contextual Criteria Summary section to review each term you’ve added.

    1. If desired, select the X icon next to any terms to remove them.

    2. If desired, click the wand icon to prompt AI to generate more keywords that are similar to the ones you’ve added to the Added Keywords section.

  6. Select Next.

  7. Choose a Static or Dynamic data collection period.

    1. Refer to Key terms and concepts - Static and Dynamic data collection periods for more information on the differences between these options.

  8. For Static, select a date range and frequency.

    1. Choose a date range of up to 30 days over the past six-month period or future three-month period.

    2. Choose a frequency between 1 and 10.

    3. Refer to Key terms and concepts - Frequency for more information on how frequency determines which users will be added to this audience.

  9. For Dynamic, enter a timeframe and frequency.

    1. Choose a timeframe of up to 30 days.

    2. Choose a frequency between 1 and 10.

    3. Refer to Key terms and concepts - Frequency for more information on how frequency determines which users will be added to this audience.

  10. Select Create.
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By keyword, in bulk

Follow these steps to create a Contextual audience from keywords in bulk:

  1. Use a spreadsheet application to prepare an XLSX or CSV file with a list of keywords.

    1. Download the sample file to ensure that your file is formatted correctly.

    2. List each keyword as its own, separate row in Column A of the spreadsheet.

  2. Click Upload and select the desired file.

  3. Locate the Contextual Criteria Summary section to review each term you’ve added.

    1. If desired, select the X icon next to any terms to remove them.

    2. If desired, click the wand icon to prompt AI to generate more keywords that are similar to the ones you’ve added to the Added Keywords section.

    3. Click + next to a Recommended Keyword to add it to the audience.

  4. Select Next.

  5. Follow steps 7 through 10 of the By keyword, one by one workflow to finish creating this audience.

By keyword, using AI

Follow these steps to use AI to generate a list of keywords and add them to a Contextual audience:

  1. Click Try AI.

  2. Enter information such as content themes and keyword requirements into the provided field.

  3. Select Enter on your device’s keyboard or click the arrow icon next to your description.

  4. Browse the list of generated keywords and select the ones you’d like to add to the audience.

    1. Up to 115 AI-generated keywords will display for each search.

  5. Repeat steps 2 through 4 to enter additional requirements and add more keywords.

  6. Locate the Contextual Criteria Summary section to review each term you’ve added.

    1. If desired, select the X icon next to any terms to remove them.

    2. If desired, click the wand icon to prompt AI to generate more keywords that are similar to the ones you’ve added to the Added Keywords section.

  7. Select Next.

  8. Follow steps 7 through 10 of the By keyword, one by one workflow to finish creating this audience.

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By URL, one by one

More on URLs: Whether you add URLs individually or in bulk, the Contextual audience will consider all child URLs (e.g., https://iqm.com/company/about-us) when you enter a parent URL (e.g., https://iqm.com).

Follow these steps to create a Contextual audience from URLs one by one:

  1. Enter a name for the audience.

  2. Select the URLs tab.

  3. Type a URL into the URL field.

  4. Click Add.

  5. A preview will populate. Confirm it matches the site you intended to enter.

  6. Repeat steps 3 through 5 for each additional URL.

  7. Locate the Contextual Criteria Summary section to review each URL you’ve added.

    1. If desired, select the X icon next to any URLs to remove them.

  8. Select Next.

  9. Follow steps 7 through 10 of the By keyword, one by one workflow to finish creating this audience.


By URL, in bulk

Follow these steps to create a Contextual audience from URLs in bulk:

  1. Enter a name for the audience.

  2. Select the URLs tab.

  3. Use a spreadsheet application to prepare an XLSX or CSV file with a list of URLs.

    1. Download the sample file to ensure that your file is formatted correctly.

    2. List each URL as its own, separate row in Column A of the spreadsheet.

  4. Click Upload and select the desired file.

  5. Locate the Contextual Criteria Summary section to review each URL you’ve added.

    1. If desired, select the X icon next to any URLs to remove them.

  6. Select Next.

  7. Follow steps 7 through 10 of the By keyword, one by one workflow to finish creating this audience.
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Create a Contextual audience (Healthcare)

Maximum keywords or URLs: There’s no limit to the number of keywords or URLs that you can add to a single Contextual audience. We recommend a maximum of 100 per audience.

You can create the following Contextual audiences for your Healthcare campaigns:

NPI-based (HCP, Nurse) (Healthcare)

Follow these steps to create a new NPI-based (HCP, Nurse) Contextual audience for a healthcare campaign:

  1. Open the Audiences app.

  2. Select Contextual Audience.

  3. Click + Create New. This will open the Create Contextual Audience pop-up window.

  4. Enter a name for the audience.

  5. Choose the NPI-based audience’s type: HCP and/or Nurse.

    1. Selecting both types will result in the creation of two Contextual audiences.

    2. If desired, proceed without selecting a checkbox to create a “generic” Contextual audience, which will be listed as a “-” Type audience in the Audiences app.

  6. Use your preferred method(s) to add keywords and/or URLs to the audience, choose its data collection period and frequency settings, and create it.

    1. By keyword, one by one

    2. By keyword, in bulk

    3. By keyword, using AI

    4. By URL, one by one

    5. By URL, in bulk

NPI-based Contextual audience notice: Your Contextual audience will immediately begin fetching data after you select Create Audience. Once this process is complete and the audience reaches a Data Fetched status, you’ll need to return to the audience and Select a data partner to continue the audience-generation process.

Refer to Contextual audience statuses for more information on each status.

Non-NPI-based (Nurse) (Healthcare)

Follow these steps to create a new non-NPI-based (Nurse) Contextual audience for a healthcare campaign:

  1. Open the Audiences app.

  2. Select Contextual Audience.

  3. Click + Create New. This will open the Create Contextual Audience pop-up window.

  4. Enter a name for the audience.

  5. Choose the Non-NPI Nurse audience type.

    1. If desired, proceed without selecting a checkbox to create a “generic” Contextual audience, which will be listed as a “-” Type audience in the Audiences app.

  6. Use your preferred method(s) to add keywords and/or URLs to the audience, choose its data collection period and frequency settings, and create it.

    1. By keyword, one by one

    2. By keyword, in bulk

    3. By keyword, using AI

    4. By URL, one by one

    5. By URL, in bulk

Generic (Healthcare)

You can create a generic Contextual audience for healthcare campaigns by not making an audience Type selection.

Use your preferred method(s) to add keywords and/or URLs to the audience, choose its data collection period and frequency settings, and create it:

Select a data partner (Healthcare)

Healthcare advertisers who create an NPI-based Contextual audience must return to the audience and select a data partner before we can finish processing it. You’ll complete this step when the audience’s status changes from Fetching Data to Data Fetched.

Refer to Contextual audience statuses for more information on each status, and follow these steps to select a data partner for an NPI-based Contextual audience featuring a Data Fetched status:

  1. In the Actions column, click Select Partner for the desired audience. This will open the Data Partner pop-up window.

  2. Review each data provider’s reach and cost details.

  3. Choose your preferred partner.

    1. Any data partner with a Reach of 100 or greater can be selected.

  4. Click Select Data Partner to apply your selection to the audience.

The NPI-based Contextual audience will immediately begin processing.

Manage a Contextual audience

Use the Contextual Audiences page in the Audiences app to review, search, sort, or filter your existing Contextual audiences. You can also use this page to edit, duplicate, or delete them.

Review a Contextual audience

Follow these steps to review an existing Contextual audience:

  1. Locate the audience you’d like to review.

    1. Search by ID or Audience Name.

    2. Filter by Status for all audiences and by Type for Healthcare audiences.

    3. Open the column selector to add or remove a table column.

  2. Select the desired audience’s ID in the ID column. This will open the audience in a pop-up window, where you can review its details.

  3. Once the audience features a Ready status, you can also review additional data and insights.

    1. Review the audience’s Reach, Cost (CPM), and Status in the summary panel.

    2. If you created a Healthcare audience, review the Type and Data Partner in the summary panel.

    3. Review the details you entered when you created the audience such as the Data Collection Details and a list of individual keywords and/or URLs.

  4. Select Done to close the pop-up window and return to the Contextual Audience page.


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Edit a Contextual audience

More on editing Contextual audiences: Only an existing Contextual audience’s name can be edited. If you’d like to apply changes to the audience’s other settings—such as its keywords, URLs, and data collection period—we recommend duplicating the audience or creating a new one instead.

Follow these steps to edit an existing Contextual audience’s name:

  1. Select the existing name from the table’s Audience Name column, and type the new audience name directly in the cell.

  2. Click the checkmark icon to confirm your selection.
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Duplicate a Contextual audience

Follow these steps to duplicate an existing Contextual audience:
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  1. Select the page icon from the desired audience’s Actions column.

  2. Follow the steps outlined in Create a Contextual audience (Specialty, Political) or Create a Contextual audience (Healthcare) to name the audience and apply your preferred settings.

    1. If no changes are applied, the duplicated audience will include the same keywords, URLs, and settings as the existing audience; and its Audience Name will show “Copy of” followed by the existing audience’s name.

The duplicated audience will appear in the Contextual Audience table of the Audiences app. The original audience will remain unchanged.


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Delete a Contextual audience

Audience deletion notice: Note that deleted audiences are unrecoverable, and this action is permanent. As a safeguard, consider duplicating and updating the existing audience to reflect any desired changes.

You can delete Contextual audiences individually or in bulk. They must feature a Ready, Processing, or Failed status; and their Allowlist/Blocklist count must be 0.

Follow these steps to delete a Contextual audience.
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  1. To delete audiences individually, use the Actions column to select the trash can icon next to the individual audience that you’d like to delete

  2. To delete audiences in bulk:

    1. Select the checkboxes next to the desired audiences.

    2. Click Delete.

The deleted audience(s) will no longer appear in the Audiences app.

Assign a Contextual audience to a campaign

Contextual audiences can be assigned to new and existing campaigns, and from the Audiences and Campaigns apps. Refer to Assign an audience to a campaign for step-by-step instructions.

Locate additional Contextual audience resources

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