Content Targeting Logic and Setup

Content Targeting allows you to refine campaign delivery by filtering ad requests according to content-level metadata (for example, category, genre, title, or keywords).
You can use a variety of operators to include or exclude content that matches your targeting criteria.

Available Operators:

• is any of
• is none of
• contains
• not contains

These options allow you to combine and exclude targeting conditions to create flexible and precise targeting rules.

The main difference is:

1. is any of and is none of work with exact value matching.
2. contains and not contains work with nested or partial matches, which is especially relevant for fields like keywords.

For example, when to use them:

1. is any of — for strict fields like genre or language.
2. contains — for keywords, categories, or lists.
3. is none of — to exclude exact values.
4. not contains — to exclude values within strings or arrays.

Example Use Case: How Targeting Rules Are Applied

Let’s say you want to allow ad requests that meet one of the following conditions:

The genre is exactly "comedy"
OR

The category is movies and the keywords contain "comedy"

 

Ad Requests That Will Be Allowed:

1. "&content_category=IAB1-2",

 "&content_keywords=comedian"

IAB1-2 corresponds to the "Movies" &content_category. The &content_keywords includes a variation of "comedy".

 

2.  "&content_genre=comedy"

Exact match for the &content_genre field.

      

Ad Requests That Will Be Blocked:

 

1.  "&content_genre=comedian" 

"Comedian" is not an exact match for "comedy" when using the "is any of" operator.

 

2. "&content_category=""

   "&content_keywords=comedian"

The required content category field is either missing or empty, even though the &content_keywords contains a relevant term

 

Note: All Content Categories supported in targeting follow the IAB Tech Lab Content Taxonomy, ensuring consistent categorization across supply and demand.

 

All combinations are presented here:

Operator	Rule Applied	Request Example	Result
is any of	genre is any of [comedy, drama]	"genre": "comedy, drama" "genre": "comedy" "genre": "drama"	Pass
is any of	genre is any of [comedy, drama]	"genre":"comedian" "genre": "sport" ”genre":"dramatv100"	Fail
is none of	genre is none of [drama]	"genre": "history, horror" "genre": "melodrama"	Pass
is none of	genre is none of [drama]	"genre": "drama, horror" genre": "drama"	Fail
contains	keywords contains [comedy]	"keywords": "comedyan" "keywords" : "comedy" "keywords":"comedyant"	Pass
contains	keywords contains [comedy]	"keywords": "sport" "keywords" :"athletic" "keywords":"comediant"	Fail
not contains	keywords not contains [comedy]	"keywords": "sports, drama" "keywords":"news, newspaper"	Pass
not contains	keywords not contains [comed]	"keywords": "comedian, drama" "keywords":" comediant"	Fail

Required Parameter Checkbox

Each content targeting rule includes a "Required Parameter" checkbox.
When enabled, it ensures the parameter AND its value must be present in the ad request.

Example:
If you set "genre" is any of "drama" and check the "Required Parameter" box, only requests that include: 

• &content_genre=drama (for tags)

• "genre": "drama" (for RTB/Prebid)
  will be matched and processed by the campaign.

This avoids processing incomplete ad requests such as &content_genre=.

Configuration options:

• Custom - manually enter content series values.

• List - use predefined lists for faster setup.

In order to create List please proceed to Tool →  Global Lists → Content List → Create

After adding value to the list, you can select list and set it as a targeting

Benefits:

• More precise contextual targeting at the series level.

• Ability to align ad delivery with brand safety and campaign requirements.

• Flexibility to manage inclusions/exclusions settings.