Tips for using third-party audience lists

Display & Video 360 offers tens of thousands of audience lists (also known as "user lists" or "data segments") from dozens of third-party data providers, which can be useful for running any behaviorally targeted line items.

Note: It may take up to 72 hours from when the line item is first targeted on an active, in-flight line item before the audience becomes available for use.

Costs for using third-party data

The use of any third-party list (for either targeting or excluding users) requires that an advertiser pay the CPM fee for using the data segment in addition to the media cost CPM for the individual impression. For more information, see Costs for using third-party audience lists. 

Did you know…

Display & Video 360 offers free demographic (age and gender), affinity segment, and in-market audience targeting.

(Note: These features aren't available for network users of Display & Video 360.)

How to choose third-party lists

If your advertiser hasn't started their campaign and they haven't placed pixels on their site, then do the following:

1. Create an Inventory Availability report, and group by "User List > 3rd Party".
2. In the report that's generated, look for user lists specific to your advertiser’s brand like "electronics" or "video games", then target these user lists in your line items. 

Bid strategies

In general, your bid strategy should be based on the size of the third-party audience.

• Smaller audiences: If your line item has as reach of fewer than 50k uniques, you should bid high and use ASAP pacing to ensure you win as many impressions as possible.
• Larger audiences: If your line item has a reach of more than 50k uniques, you can bid less and use even pacing, since you aren't as likely to run out of inventory.​ 

Other considerations

• Budget allocation: For optimal performance, make sure your insertion orders' budgets are allocated so that the line items with the best performing tactics and audience lists have a larger percentage of your overall budget.
• Data costs: Be aware of third-party data fees, which can range between $0.50 to more than $2 CPM. Also, due to the incremental costs of behavioral targeting, remember that BT line items typically have to perform better than other line items in order to achieve the same result as other line item tactics (such as prospecting or remarketing). 

Frequently asked questions

Can I target more than one segment and/or data provider per line item?

Yes, but keep the following best practices in mind to make optimization easier:

• Group similar segments in different line items. For example, consider grouping all "wireless phone" and "travel" audience lists in separate line items.
• Separate line items by data provider.

How are costs calculated if a line item targets more than one audience list?

In the event you target multiple segments from different providers in the same line item, use the reference below for calculating costs when targeting more than one data provider and/or segment per line item.

• Multiple audience lists from the same data provider

  If your line item uses multiple audience lists from the same provider, you will pay the cost of the most expensive single audience list that matches a given impression. (If an impression is only on a single audience list, you only pay the cost of the audience list the impression matches.)

  

• Multiple audience lists from multiple data providers

  If your line item uses multiple audience lists from multiple providers, you will pay the combined cost of all audience lists that match a given impression. (If an impression is only on a single audience list, you only pay the cost of the audience list the impression matches.)

  

In the diagrams above, "List A&B" represents impressions that match both lists.