Integration

Custom Targeting

Web Page Coding

Custom targeting allows you to pass data to the ad server to be targeted. In general, your web pages need to be developed with a programmable or scriptable page technology such as ASP, JSP, or PHP to accomplish this integration.

While the possibilities of what you can do with the custom targeting are endless, here are just a couple of example usage scenarios:

If users need to register and login to your web site, chances are that you've collected some information about them. For example, you might have collected information about their interests and hobbies such as music or golfing. It would be possible to pass that information to the ad server and deliver campaigns related to music or golfing to those users.
Your web site organizes resources into categories, each with their own dedicated web page. It would be possible to pass the name of the category to the ad server, allowing you to effectively target campaigns to individual categories. This type of contextual targeting could enable you to deliver much more qualified leads. As a bonus it will also greatly reduce the number of zones you would require to do per-category targeting because you would only need one zone per ad spot instead of a seperate zone for each category and ad spot combination.

Now that you know what the custom targeting can do for you, lets go into the details of passing your data to the ad server to make it work. We'll assume that you have a 468x60 banner zone that you want to enable custom targeting for. What you should do first is generate HTML code for that zone using the code wizard.

If you look at the code that was generated, you'll see something similar to the code that follows.

<SCRIPT language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">
document.write('<SCR'+'IPT src="http://www.yoursite.com/adserver/servlet/view/banner/javascript/zone?zid=8&pid=0&random='+Math.floor(89999999*Math.random()+10000000)+'" language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"></SCR'+'IPT>');
</SCRIPT>
<NOSCRIPT>
<IFRAME src="http://www.yoursite.com/adserver/servlet/view/banner/html/zone?zid=8&pid=0" height="60" width="468" hspace="0" vspace="0" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no">
<A href="http://www.yoursite.com/adserver/servlet/click/zone?zid=8&pid=0&lookup=true&position=1" target="_top">
<IMG src="http://www.yoursite.com/adserver/servlet/view/banner/image/zone?zid=8&pid=0&position=1" height="60" width="468" hspace="0" vspace="0" border="0" alt="Click Here!">
</A>
</IFRAME>
</NOSCRIPT>

Within that code, you'll notice that there are several <SCRIPT>, <IFRAME>, <A>, and <IMG> tags that each contain a URL that points to the ad server and has some parameters. What you need to do is add extra parameters for each of your custom fields. When one of your web pages is served, you'll need to output the data into the values of those parameters. Where that data actually comes from is of no concern to the ad server, so you're free to use any datasource you have available for use such as but not limited to a cookie, flat file, database record, or a user session object.

Lets look at an example of the above code modified to pass the value 12345 using Custom Field #1 for the custom field.

<SCRIPT language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">
document.write('<SCR'+'IPT src="http://www.yoursite.com/adserver/servlet/view/banner/javascript/zone?zid=8&pid=0&custom1=12345&random='+Math.floor(89999999*Math.random()+10000000)+'" language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"></SCR'+'IPT>');
</SCRIPT>
<NOSCRIPT>
<IFRAME src="http://www.yoursite.com/adserver/servlet/view/banner/html/zone?zid=8&pid=0&custom1=12345" height="60" width="468" hspace="0" vspace="0" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no">
<A href="http://www.yoursite.com/adserver/servlet/click/zone?zid=8&pid=0&lookup=true&custom1=12345&position=1" target="_top">
<IMG src="http://www.yoursite.com/adserver/servlet/view/banner/image/zone?zid=8&pid=0&custom1=12345&position=1" height="60" width="468" hspace="0" vspace="0" border="0" alt="Click Here!">
</A>
</IFRAME>
</NOSCRIPT>

Warning

Even if you have renamed your custom fields by going to Settings > Basic > Custom Fields, the parameter names inserted into the ad tags must always be named custom1 through custom10 as your customized field names are only displayed in the user interface and statistics reports.

Note

You should always URL encode the parameter value to ensure that the ad server interprets your data correctly.

Campaign Targeting

With that integration in place, it's now possible for you to target campaign to the value 12345 using Custom Field #1. That's assuming you're using the EQUALS operator of course. Many other operators like GREATER THAN and even REGULAR EXPRESSION are available to let perform some really complicated matching logic. That said, further help with using the various operators is available in the context help of the custom field editing screen, which you can reach by editing a campaign and selecting Custom Targeting from the Change View drop down menu.

XML Data Feeds

In most cases, you will probably have a list of preset data values that you would like to target your campaigns to. You may pass such a data list into the user interface so that you can select data values to target instead of having to type them in. To do this, go to Settings > Basic > Custom Fields in the contorl panel and enter the URL of an XML feed into the Field Values input box for the desired custom field.

Your XML feed may be static or dynamically generated, but it must adhere to the following syntax.

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<dataset>
<entry name="One" value="1" />
<entry name="Two" value="2" />
<entry name="Three" value="3" />
</dataset>

There is no limit to the number of data field entries, however, you may experience performance issues if your feed contains more than a few hundred or thousand entries.

Keyword Targeting

Web Page Coding

Keyword targeting enables you to target or block campaigns to or from a set of keywords and phrases. Generally speaking, this is going to require your web site to have some sort of search functionality where users can input keywords. There are other cases where you could probably use the keyword targeting, but normally the custom targeting will be a lot more flexible for you.

Now that you know what the keyword targeting can do for you, lets go into the details of passing your keywords to the ad server to make it work. We'll assume that you have a 468x60 banner zone that you want to enable keyword targeting for. What you should do first is generate HTML code for that zone using the code wizard.

If you look at the code that was generated, you'll see something similar to the code that follows.

<SCRIPT language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">
document.write('<SCR'+'IPT src="http://www.yoursite.com/adserver/servlet/view/banner/javascript/zone?zid=8&pid=0&random='+Math.floor(89999999*Math.random()+10000000)+'" language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"></SCR'+'IPT>');
</SCRIPT>
<NOSCRIPT>
<IFRAME src="http://www.yoursite.com/adserver/servlet/view/banner/html/zone?zid=8&pid=0" height="60" width="468" hspace="0" vspace="0" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no">
<A href="http://www.yoursite.com/adserver/servlet/click/zone?zid=8&pid=0&lookup=true&position=1" target="_top">
<IMG src="http://www.yoursite.com/adserver/servlet/view/banner/image/zone?zid=8&pid=0&position=1" height="60" width="468" hspace="0" vspace="0" border="0" alt="Click Here!">
</A>
</IFRAME>
</NOSCRIPT>

Within that code, you'll notice that there are several <SCRIPT>, <IFRAME>, <A>, and <IMG> tags that each contain a URL that points to the ad server and has some parameters. What you need to do is add a parameter to this code on your search results page to pass the keywords that were searched for to the ad server.

Lets look at an example of the above code modified to pass the value blue coat,windbreaker,parka to indicate that the phrase blue coat along with the keywords windbreaker and parka were searched for.

<SCRIPT language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">
document.write('<SCR'+'IPT src="http://www.yoursite.com/adserver/servlet/view/banner/javascript/zone?zid=8&pid=0&keywords=blue+coat%2Cwindbreaker%2Cparka&random='+Math.floor(89999999*Math.random()+10000000)+'" language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"></SCR'+'IPT>');
</SCRIPT>
<NOSCRIPT>
<IFRAME src="http://www.yoursite.com/adserver/servlet/view/banner/html/zone?zid=8&pid=0&keywords=blue+coat%2Cwindbreaker%2Cparka" height="60" width="468" hspace="0" vspace="0" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no">
<A href="http://www.yoursite.com/adserver/servlet/click/zone?zid=8&pid=0&lookup=true&keywords=blue+coat%2Cwindbreaker%2Cparka&position=1" target="_top">
<IMG src="http://www.yoursite.com/adserver/servlet/view/banner/image/zone?zid=8&pid=0&keywords=blue+coat%2Cwindbreaker%2Cparka&position=1" height="60" width="468" hspace="0" vspace="0" border="0" alt="Click Here!">
</A>
</IFRAME>
</NOSCRIPT>

Note

The ad server does not support boolean queries, but it does support logical queries. To denote that a keyword or phrase is required it should be prefixed with a plus symbol. In the same fashion, to denote that a keyword or phrase should be excluded it should be prefixed with a minus symbol.

Note

You should always URL encode the parameter value to ensure that the ad server interprets your data correctly.

Campaign Targeting

With that integration in place, it's now possible for you to target a campaign to the phrase "blue coat" or the keywords windbreaker and parka. The ad server always does case insensitive matches, so you don't need to worry about case sensitivity. You should, however, be aware that the ad server will perform stemming matches if you don't place your keywords or phrases inside of double quotes. More details on this behavior can be found in the context help of the keyword editing screen, which you can reach by editing a campaign and selecting Keyword Targeting from the Change View drop down menu.

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