Revamped environment and position targeting in Display & Video 360

Summary

As of August 28, 2019, we've introduced a revamped experience for environment and position targeting that allows you to target your ads with increased accuracy and granularity. You’ll see updates across Display & Video 360 to support this change, including:

• Revamped targeting settings when you’re creating or editing items individually or in bulk.
• Updated dimensions in Reporting that reflect the new targeting settings.
• A new version of Structured Data Files that supports the new targeting settings.

The previous targeting settings on all insertion orders and line items have been mapped to the revamped options so that all of your targeting selections remain intact. All line items will continue to serve using these mapped settings.

There's no impact to Data Transfer as a result of this change.

To enable consistent reporting and prepare your teams for creating campaigns with the new targeting settings, we strongly recommend that you take the following steps:

• Familiarize yourself with the new targeting settings. Learn more below
• Update any reporting or dashboards, including third-party tools, that use the Environment dimension as the values for this dimension have changed. Learn more below
• Prepare to use the new Structured Data Files v5 if you update environment targeting settings with this tool. Previous versions of Structured Data Files don't support the new environment targeting settings. Learn more below

As of August 28, 2019, we've introduced a revamped experience for environment and position targeting in Display & Video 360. The previous environment targeting options were built for an internet that primarily consisted of display ads on desktop and mobile web. As user behavior and the ads ecosystem have evolved, we want to provide Display & Video 360 users with the ability to target their ads explicitly based on environment (app or web) and position (on screen or in content).

The new targeting settings allow you to:

• Better target display, video, and audio ads with increased accuracy and granularity.
• Explicitly target new inventory sources, such as out-stream video across screens.
• Easily find related options with clearer targeting groupings.

You’ll see end-to-end updates across Display & Video 360 to support this change. Read the sections below to learn more about updates to targeting, Reporting, and Structured Data Files.

Updates to targeting settings

What’s changed: The core of this revamped experience is reflected in updates to Display & Video 360’s targeting settings. All of the previous targeting settings available in Display & Video 360 map to new options. You’re still able to target the same environments and positions - including some new combinations that weren’t available before - but just from different targeting controls.

As of August 28, you’ll see the following:

• Updated environment targeting: Environment targeting is now focused on web or app serving environments. The device- and position-related options have been moved from environment targeting to other targeting controls.

• New position targeting setting: All controls related to an ad’s position on a screen or within content are now grouped together in a new position targeting control. All of the targeting options that have been moved to position targeting  function and serve the same. Position-related settings have been moved from the following targeting controls to position targeting:

  • Viewability targeting: The position on screen option has been moved from viewability targeting to position targeting.

  • Video targeting: The video ad position option has been moved from video targeting to position targeting.

  • Audio targeting: The audio ad position option has been moved from audio targeting to position targeting. Since this was the only option in audio targeting, this targeting setting has been removed.

The new targeting settings are reflected across all targeting editing options in your partners, advertisers, campaigns, insertion orders, and line items when you’re editing items individually or in bulk. Line item reach forecasting also reflects all of the updated targeting options.

The previous targeting settings on all insertion orders and line items have been mapped to the revamped options so that all of your targeting selections remain intact. All line items will continue to serve using these mapped settings.

What you should do to prepare: We strongly recommend that you familiarize yourself with the new targeting settings described below.

Updated: Environment targeting

What you'll see: You’ll see the following options for environment targeting across Display & Video 360:

Environment targeting is now focused on web or app serving environments. Inventory not optimized by device type is included by default, such as desktop websites viewed on mobile devices, but you can opt out of this setting.

Why we’ve made this change: The previous environment targeting setting mixed together serving environment with device types and ad positions. The new version of environment and position targeting separates out these distinct settings into related groupings.

New: Position targeting

What you'll see: You’ll see the following options for position targeting when you’re creating insertion orders:

For individual line items, position targeting only shows options relevant to that type of line item. Display line items, for example, don't include the settings for video or audio.

The controls for position targeting include:

• Position on screen: Set targeting based on where an ad is located on a screen, such as above or below the fold.

• Position in content: Set targeting based on where an ad is located in relation to other content, such as out-stream video or pre-roll for in-stream audio and video.

Why we've made this change: We’ve brought together all of the targeting options related to ad position into a single place.

• Position on screen has been moved from viewability targeting to position targeting. This targeting control still functions the same even though it’s moved locations.

• Some of the position in content options could be targeted with the previous version of environment targeting, but they were bundled together with device types. Now, you can explicitly target position in content across formats separately from serving environment.

Updated: Viewability targeting

What you'll see: You’ll see the following options for viewability targeting across Display & Video 360:

This continues to be the targeting setting for Active View-based viewability targeting.

Why we’ve made this change: We’ve moved position on screen from viewability targeting to position targeting so it’s grouped with other position-related options. This targeting control still functions the same even though it’s moved locations.

Updated: Video targeting

What you'll see: You’ll see the following options for video targeting across Display & Video 360:

This continues to be the targeting option for selecting specific video player sizes.

Why we’ve made this change: We’ve moved video ad position from video targeting to position targeting so it’s grouped with other position-related options. This targeting control still functions the same even though it’s moved locations.

Removed: Audio targeting

What you'll see: The audio targeting option has been removed from audio line items.

Why we’ve made this change: We’ve moved audio ad position from audio targeting to position targeting so it’s grouped with other position-related options. This targeting control still functions the same even though it’s moved locations.

Download new environment and position targeting combinations

To help you quickly adapt your workflows to the updated settings, you can download a mapping of what new settings you should use to recreate previous targeting combinations.

DOWNLOAD

Updates to dimensions in Reporting

What’s changed: We’ve updated some dimensions in reporting to reflect the new targeting settings. All reporting options, including Instant Reporting and offline reports, have been updated.

As of August 28, you'll see the following:

• Updated values for the Environment dimension: We’ve updated the values for the existing Environment dimension to reflect the new environment targeting settings. All previous values have been mapped to the new values, including historical data.
  • New values
    • App
    • Web Optimized for Device
      • This includes inventory that was designed for the device it was viewed on, such as mobile websites viewed on a mobile device.
    • Web Not Optimized for Device
      • This includes inventory that wasn’t designed for a device but viewed on it, such as websites optimized for desktop but viewed on a mobile device.
  • Previous values with no change
    • Unknown
  • Previous values that have been mapped
    • Previous values that have been mapped to Web Optimized for Device
      • Desktop Web Game (Video RTB)
      • Desktop Web (Display RTB)
      • Desktop Web Video (Video RTB
      • Mobile Web
      • Video Desktop In-Feed
      • Video Desktop In-Read
    • Previous values that have been mapped to Web Not Optimized for Device
      • Desktop on Mobile (Display RTB)
    • Previous values that have bee n mapped to App
      • Mobile App
      • Mobile App Interstitial (Display RTB)
      • Video Mobile App Interstitial (Video RTB)
• New Position in Content dimension: We’ve added a Position in Content dimension to reflect these options from position targeting. The values for this dimension are:
  • In-Article
  • In-Banner
  • In-Feed
  • Interstitial
  • Unknown - Out-stream
  • Pre-Roll
  • Mid-Roll
  • Post-Roll

Scheduled reports will continue to deliver and will reflect the new values for the Environment dimension. They will not contain the new Position in Content dimension.

The existing Ad Position dimension isn't changing.

What you should do to prepare: In order to prevent any reporting or dashboards, including third-party tools, from being impacted by this change, we strongly recommend that you make the following updates:

• Update any reporting that filters on values for the Environment dimension: Any reporting or dashboards you use that are dependent on values that have been removed may no longer function properly. You should update these tools to only use the remaining values for this dimension listed above.
• Add new Position in Content dimension to your reports: In order to accurately report on the position of your ads, you should add the new Position in Content dimension to your reports.
• Add the Device Type dimension to your reports: If you previously relied on the Environment dimension to report on device options, you need to use the Device Type dimension for this data.

New version of Structured Data Files

What’s changed: We’ve introduced a new version of Structured Data Files (SDF). SDF v5 contains updated fields that reflect all of the new targeting options Learn more about SDF v5.

You can't use older versions of SDF to update environment- or position-related targeting options. All other fields will still function in older versions.

What you should do to prepare: You’ll need to use SDF v5 for your files to be fully compatible with the new targeting options. Learn more about the updates to SDF v5 for environment and position targeting.  

No changes to Data Transfer

There are no changes to Data Transfer as a result of this targeting revamp. The existing DBM Ad Position field will continue to show whether each impression included in a Data Transfer file was above or below the fold.