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Contextual audience overview
When you engage users based on their actual browsing behaviors, you can anticipate how they might interact with your ads. Contextual audiences are formed by grouping users together based on their online activity. You determine these groups by indicating a list of relevant keywords and/or URLs and a timeframe. We add a user to the contextual audience when they visit sites that feature those keywords or URLs, browse them during the time period you select, and meet any other parameters that you specify during audience setup. You can target the contextual audience to advertise to that group of users across the open internet.
Aside from keywords and URLs, your Frequency and Data Collection Period choices determine which users we will add to your contextual audience. Refer to the Key terms and concepts section for more details on how these audience qualifiers work.
NPI-based Contextual audiences (Healthcare)
More on NPI-based Contextual audiences: Gain deeper insights into your NPI-based Contextual audiences with two compatible measurement solutions: Provider Level Data (PLD) Insights reports and Script Lift Study (SLS) Insights reports.
PLD Insights reports help you uncover ad-exposure and engagement data, demographic data, and physician-specialty data for your NPI-based healthcare audiences; while SLS Insights reports help you evaluate the effectiveness of your healthcare campaigns based on pre- and post-campaign prescription (Rx, TRx) volumes and your competitors’ prescription patterns.
Refer to PLD Insights report overview and SLS Insights overview for more information on these measurement products. |
Contextual audiences help ensure maximum unique reach to healthcare professionals (HCPs) and nurses based on their browsing behaviors. Healthcare advertisers can leverage NPI-based HCP and NPI-based Nurse Contextual audiences. Depending on your audience type, you’ll leverage our in-house and integrated data sources to compliantly extract the precise device IDs and NPI data needed to reach high-value healthcare professionals across their connected devices.
*We directly ingest NPI numbers from leading industry sources, which power our identity graph with over 80% coverage of the HCP universe and result in maximum unique campaign reach.
The option to create an HCP or Nurse NPI-based Contextual audience is optional: Healthcare advertisers can create a standard Contextual audience, if desired.
Advertisers who’d like to create a standard Contextual audience or leverage our integrated data sources to generate NPI-based Contextual audiences can refer to Create or manage a Contextual audience for more details.
Contextual audience statuses
You can review a Contextual audience’s status on the Contextual Audience page of the Audiences app. Refer to Manage a Contextual audience for more information on how to access this page.
Status | Definition |
Ready | Your audience is generated. You can review or manage the audience and assign it to a campaign. |
Processing | We’re working on generating your new or duplicated audience. Depending on the audience’s size, this process may take up to 48 hours. |
Data Fetched (Select Partner)* | We’ve fetched the relevant data for your audience. Now you can review the audience’s reach and cost details by data partner and choose your preferred provider to continue generating the audience. |
Fetching Data* | We’re working on extracting the audience’s device IDs and leveraging the IQM HCP Graph to extract and match NPI data. |
Failed | You encountered a technical error during audience creation. You can attempt to regenerate the campaign by selecting Generate Again from the Actions column. |
Deleted | Deleted audiences are automatically removed from the Audiences app as soon as you complete this action. For this reason, none of your Contextual audiences will feature a Deleted status at any time. |
*This audience status is applicable only to NPI-based Contextual audiences (HCP, Nurse).
Key terms and concepts
Frequency
Frequency refers to the number of times a user visits the publisher(s) relevant to one or more keywords or URLs that you added to the contextual audience. You can choose a frequency ranging from 1 to 99. The frequency you select determines which users will get added to your contextual audience.
Example: Frequency
A frequency of “5” will add a user to the contextual audience when all three of these conditions are met:
The user visited any number of sites that featured any combination of your keywords.
The user encountered any combination of those keywords five times.
The user's browsing activity took place during the time period you defined.
Consider a healthcare advertiser who chose "asthma" and "wheezing" as their keywords, and "Last 30 days" as their timeframe. We will add a user to your contextual audience whether they visited one site containing the word "asthma" five times during the last 30 days; or visited two sites containing the keyword "asthma" and three sites containing the keyword "wheezing" during the last 30 days, for example.
Data Collection Period
A data collection period is the timeframe during which a user visits the publisher(s) relevant to one or more keywords or URLs that you added to the contextual audience. You can choose a Static data collection period of up to 30 days over the past six-month period or future three-month period, or you can choose a Dynamic data collection period of up to 30 days over the past one-month period.
Static and Dynamic data collection periods
A Static data collection period will add users to the audience during a set timeframe. For example, if you select “Last 30 days” on June 30th, we’ll add users who visited contextually relevant sites between June 1st-30th to the Contextual audience. If you run a campaign with this audience on August 30th, it’ll still contain users from the June 1st-30th timeframe. In other words, a Static data collection period represents a snapshot of data over a fixed set of dates.
A Dynamic data collection period will continually add users to the audience while that audience is active. For example, if you enter “30 Days” on June 30th, we’ll add users who visited contextually relevant sites between June 1st-30th to the Contextual audience. On July 1st, the audience will include users who visited contextually relevant sites between June 2nd-July1st. On July 2nd, this timeframe shifts from June 3rd-July 2nd. In other words, a Dynamic data collection period takes place over a rolling timeframe, with data refreshes taking place once every 24 hours.
Example: Data Collection Period - Static
You create a contextual audience made up of users who are interested in Asthma and its treatments. You indicated these requirements during audience setup:
Keywords: Asthma, wheezing, shortness of breath, inhaler, albuterol
Frequency: 5
Data Collection Period: Last 30 Days
Refer to the table below to review a list of scenarios, and whether or not we will add a user to this contextual audience based on your selections.
Example scenario of user's browsing behavior | User added to contextual audience |
Visited one site containing the keyword "asthma" five times during the last 30 days | Yes |
Visited five sites containing any of the five keywords on time each during the last 30 days | Yes |
Visited two sites containing the keyword "wheezing" and three sites containing the keyword "inhaler" during the last 30 days | Yes |
Visited https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/asthma five times in the last 30 days | Yes |
Visited each URL a total of five times in the last 30 days | Yes |
Visited one site containing the keywords "shortness of breath," "inhaler," "wheezing," and "albuterol," and visited https://www.drugs.com/drug-class/adrenergic-bronchodilators.html one time, in the last 30 days | Yes |
Visited one site containing the keyword "inhaler" four times during the last 30 days | No |
Visited four sites containing any one keyword during the last 30 days | No |
Visited two sites containing the keyword "albuterol" and two sites containing the keyword "shortness of breath" during the last 30 days | No |
Visited https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/asthma twice in the last 30 days | No |
Example: Data Collection Period - Dynamic
You create a Contextual audience made up of users who are interested in Asthma and its treatments. During audience setup, you indicate the same requirements outlined in Example: Data Collection Period - Static, but choose a Dynamic data collection period instead of a Static one.
The Example: Data Collection Period - Static example scenarios detailing whether or not a user will get added to the Contextual audience will still apply when the data collection period is Dynamic. We add a user to the Contextual audience when they visit sites that feature the keywords or URLs you specified, and browse them during the time period and at the frequency you selected. However, the way this Contextual audience evolves over time differs from audiences with a Static data collection period.
Refer to the graphic below for an illustration of a data collection period that covers the last 10 days. Since you select a Dynamic timeframe, the 10-day date range you chose continues to move forward with the campaign’s flight, refreshing daily and capitalizing on new data each day that the campaign runs.
AI-powered keyword generation
When you create a keyword-based Contextual audience, we’ll prompt you to manually enter your desired keywords or upload a file that contains them.
There may be instances when you know the themes or types of keywords you’d like to add, but you haven’t determined a preferred list of keywords. You have the option to enter a description of your Contextual audience rather than specific terms. This will generate keyword recommendations for you that are powered by AI.
You’ll have an opportunity to review the AI-generated keywords list and select which ones will be used to create the Contextual audience. Refer to Create or manage a Contextual audience to get started with AI-powered keyword generation.
FAQ
Expand the drop-down arrow next to a question to reveal the answer.
Error messages
Q: What is the meaning of the “URL is outside the programmatic universe” error?
Q: What is the meaning of the “URL is outside the programmatic universe” error?
A: The site is not authorized for digital ads by the IAB Tech Lab’s “Ads.txt” initiative. It aims to tackle domain spoofing, arbitrage, and other forms of ad fraud by indicating the authorized resellers of a publisher’s ad inventory.
Q: What is the meaning of the “URL can not be validated” error?
Q: What is the meaning of the “URL can not be validated” error?
A: The URL does not correspond to an active site. Confirm that your URLs do not contain errors such as typos or missing punctuation, and check that the site is active.
Data collection periods
Q: What data collection length can I choose for my contextual audience?
Q: What data collection length can I choose for my contextual audience?
A: For audiences with a Static data collection period, you can choose a date range of up to 30 days over the past six-month period or future three-month period. For audiences with a Dynamic data collection period, you can choose a rolling lookback period of up to 30 days from today.
Q: Can I create a custom data collection period that is longer than 30 days?
Q: Can I create a custom data collection period that is longer than 30 days?
A: We recommend a data collection period of 30 days or less for most contextual audiences. In certain cases, you might want to select a wider data collection period. For example, products and services within the automotive market typically have a longer purchase cycle than those of lower-cost retail businesses. Submit a support request to create a contextual audience with a data collection period exceeding the IQM platform’s 30-day limit.
Users in a contextual audience
Q: Will a data collection period of “Last 30 days” collect users during that time frame from the time the audience was created, or will it continually add users from the last 30 days when the audience is active?
Q: Will a data collection period of “Last 30 days” collect users during that time frame from the time the audience was created, or will it continually add users from the last 30 days when the audience is active?
A: We offer the “Last 30 days” options as a preset to help you quickly select a data collection period of 30 days ago through today. For example, if you choose “Last 30 days” on June 30th, we will add users who visited contextually relevant sites between June 1st-30th to the contextual audience. If you run a campaign with this audience on August 30th, it will still contain users from June 1st-30th.
Create a contextual audience
Q: What steps should I follow to create a contextual audience?
Q: What steps should I follow to create a contextual audience?
A: Refer to the how-to instructions listed in Create a contextual audience. It includes steps to create the audience by keyword or URL, and individually or in bulk.
Manage a contextual audience
Q: How can I edit, duplicate, or delete a contextual audience?
Q: How can I edit, duplicate, or delete a contextual audience?
A: Refer to the how-to instructions listed in Manage a contextual audience to complete these actions.