Custom targeting

It's great to have precise targeting options and reach your audience effectively. Custom targeting can surely help you with that. This feature allows you to pass various (arbitrary) data from external sources (or data providers) into an ad-serving engine and use it for ad targeting. This data may include keywords, tags, demographics, interests, categories, etc.

Passing data

To set up custom targeting, you must first configure passing custom data to the ad server to make them available for targeting.

For banners and other formats using our JavaScript ad code, you need to insert a particular Javascript block into the HEAD section of your website.

For example:

<script>
  var _aso = _aso || {};
  _aso.attr = {
    tags: ["apple", "banana"],
    keywords: ["foo", "bar"],
    category: "hobby",
    price: 100
  }
</script>

For VAST tags and Direct links, you must pass custom data using GET parameters. You must use a comma as a delimiter for array items.

For example:

https://srv.aso1.net/vast?z=34668&tags=apple,banana&keywords=foo,bar&category=hobby&price=100

Configuring attributes

To make custom data available in your panel, you must create attributes with the same names (e.g., "tags", "keywords", "category", "price") in the Settings/Attributes section of your panel.

Configuring campaigns

Then, you will be able to use custom targeting based on the attributes in your campaign form:

Conclusion

Though it is a basic article and doesn't cover all the aspects of custom targeting, it will be useful for those who have some experience in coding and DMP integration. But it's never too late to learn something new, even if you don't.