Help Center Manage Your Account Ad Targeting using Restrictions

Proactive Targeting and Passive Restriction

Evaluation Priority is a setting to control when the restriction/targeting criteria is considered.

Usage in Keyword Targeting

For ad keyword targeting, proactive targeting first searches for ads that match the input keywords before selecting other ads. If there is a matching ad, that ad will be displayed. If there is no matching ad, the ad server will choose an ad based on other targeting criteria. Active targeting is useful if you want this ad to have a higher priority than other non-matching ads.

Passive restriction enforces any selected ad to show or hide against the input keywords. Passive targeting is useful if you want to enforce negative keywords.

For example, zone Travel has 3 ads:

1. Default with no keyword targeting
2. California with a proactive keyword targeting "California"
3. Texas with a passive keyword restriction "Texas"

If the ad tag for zone Travel has:

• No input keyword: only display ad Default
• Input keyword "California": only display ad California
• Input keyword "Texas": display either ad "Texas" or ad "Default"

Usage in Placement URL Targeting

For URL targeting, proactive targeting first searches for ads that match the URL before selecting other ads. If there is a matching ad, that ad will be displayed first. If there is no matching ad, the ad server will choose an ad based on other targeting criteria. Passive restriction enforces any selected ad to show or hide against the URL.

To enable this behavior in the ad tag, please contact us for additional instructions.

Other Articles in Ad Targeting using Restrictions

• Ad Budget and Ad Rates
• Audience Session Targeting
• Companion & Competitive Positioning
• Dayparting
• Frequency Capping
• Geolocation API
• Maximum/Target Quotas
• Restriction Status Notification
• Restrictions for an ad, zone, campaign or group
• Schedule Settings for Restriction
• Share of Voice - Share of Impression
• Start/End Date
• Target ads by placement URL or referring URL
• Target ads by visitor city, group of cities or within a radius
• Target ads by visitor country
• Target ads by visitor language
• Target Keywords
• Time Capping
• Visitor IP Address
• Wizard for setting up restrictions

Cannot find an answer for your question? Ask our Customer Care team

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