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Targeting is one of the most useful and powerful aspects of TAP. It allows you to target the listeners for you ads very broadly or very narrowly. Generally speaking, broadly targeted ads have more delivery opportunities but typically at a lower rate, and narrowly targeted ads have fewer delivery opportunities but are more valuable when they do deliver.
Tutorial: Targeting in tap (Duration: 16:27)
This video shows an earlier version of TAP. The general principles discussed remain the same, but some features and interface elements have since changed.
In TAP, targeting is managed at both the flight level and the creative level.
Flight targeting is the primary way to apply targeting rules. You can create simple or sophisticated targeting rules for targeting by content, listener, or time.
Creative targeting lets you apply targeting rules to specific ad units, and should only be used when the targeting is designed to delivery different ad units depending on the targeting rule.
Targeting is normally done at the flight level. Creative level targeting should only be used when your audio assets change according to the targeting criteria (time, listener, or content).
Understanding Flight Targeting Rules
There are three types of flight targeting rules (content, listener, and time), and each is divided into different categories, which in turn are split into selections. The abbreviated list below demonstrates this essential breakdown:
(Type) Content
(Category) Stations/podcasts
(Selection) Station 1
(Selection) Station 2
(Selection) etc.
(Category) Station/podcast genre
(Selection) Adult contemporary
(Selection) etc.
(Category) Episodes
(Selection) Episode 1
(Selection) Episode 2
(Selection) etc.
(Type) Listener
(Category) Player user agent
(Selection) Apple TV
(Selection) Google Home
(Selection) etc.
(Category) Demography gender
(Selection) Male
(Selection) Female.
(Category) Geography Location
(Selection) Canada
(Selection) Spain
(Selection) United States
(Selection) etc.
(Type) Time
(Category) Day of week
(Selection) Monday
(Selection) Tuesday
(Selection) etc.
(Category) Hour of day
(Selection) 1:00PM
(Selection) etc.
Include and Exclude (Match/Not Match)
When you include (match) one or more selections, all other items at that selection level are excluded (not matched) by default. For example, in the illustration below (Listener targeting > User agent OS), "Android" and "Apple iOS" are selected to be included/matched. It is not necessary to explicitly exclude the others, because they are implicitly excluded/not matched,
You cannot combine includes (match) and excludes (not match) items into the same rule. You can, however, create separate rules for match and not-match, such as combining a Listener targeting rule that matches User agent platform: Mobile App with a listener targeting rule that does not match Gender: Male. This essentially targets female and "other" gender listeners who are using mobile apps. (For details see "AND" Rules vs. "OR" Rules.)
Typically, you use exclude when you want most of the items in that category included but with only a few exceptions. For example, if you had an ad promoting Google Home devices, you might exclude "Google Home" (Listener targeting > User agent device > Google Home) meaning it would play on all other devices except Google Home (on the assumption that the ad is targeting users of other devices in order to entice them to switch to Google Home).
To create an exclude (not match) rule, simply select the items you wish to exclude from targeting and click Not match. The list item icons change from a check mark to an "X" to indicate you are in Not match mode, and the selected items at the bottom appear with a red "X" to indicate this is a not match rule.
For more information about include (match) and exclude (not match), see Targeting Rules Usage Notes.
"AND" Rules vs. "OR" Rules
AND rules and OR rule sets are created separately. When you create a rule, such as listener gender "include females," you can add additional AND rules to it, such as listener location "Include Canada." The result is a rule that targets females listening from Canada (Females AND Canada).
To add another AND rule, click Add AND targeting rule. To add an OR rule, click Create OR set:
Once you add an OR set, it appears in the targeting rules section, separated from the AND rules with an "OR" indicator:
AND indicator. AND sets are grouped together.
OR indicator. OR sets are separated from AND sets.
AND/OR logic examples:
Include Canada ANDinclude females:
Listener must be in Canada and be female.
Include Canada ORinclude females:
Listener can be of any gender as long as they are in Canada, and listener can be at any location as long as they are female.
This is a poorly constructed rule, as it is difficult to predict how it will deliver.
Include stations of classic rock Shoutcast format ANDinclude age 50-65:
Ad will deliver on classic rock stations to listeners between the ages of 50-65.
Include stations of classic rock Shoutcast format ANDexclude age 50-65:
Ad will deliver on classic rock stations to all listeners except those known to be between the ages of 50-65.
"All of" vs. "Any of"
Some of the targeting options that include lists, or series of selections, include a switch to choose between "all of" the selected items and "any of" the selected items.
All of selected:
The rule is only applied when all of the selected items are matched. In the image above of a TTag rule (on the left), targeting is applied only when all of auto:ford, auto:4wd, and auto:suv are matched,
Any of selected:
The rule is applied when any of the selected items is matched. In the image above of a TTag rule (on the right), targeting is applied when any of auto:ford, auto:4wd, or auto:suv is matched,