Keyword Targeting Best Practices

In this doc:

• Best practice when requesting a keyword target from a client
• How to quickly set up large keyword targets
• Troubleshooting when keyword targeting doesn’t work

Best practice when requesting a keyword target from a client

To easily be able to paste the keywords into GAM, the keywords need to have commas between them. So if a client wants to provide a set of keywords, it’s best to request that they supply these in a comma separated CSV file.

As opposed to providing multiple versions of the same keyword (e.g. kill, kills, killer, killing, killed) all we need to do is use an asterisk at the end of the original word - e.g. kill*. This will capture all versions of the word.

You can read more about how keywords are matched in GAM here.

Keywords on our articles are singular, so there’s no point in the client providing keywords with spaces, e.g. “White Island”. The ad server will recognize this as one value; however against the article “White” and “Island” are going to be separate keywords. So “White Island” will not match – the keywords have to be split.

So here are keyword specs you can send to a client:

• Positive keywords (contextual campaign, etc.): at least 15 keywords
• Negative keywords (brand safety, etc.): up to 700 keywords
• Keywords should be supplied in a comma separated CSV file
• Single word keywords (no spaces)
• Use an asterisk at the end of the keyword to capture additional characters - e.g. kill* will capture kills, killer, killing, killed.

That’s ok. You can format it yourself in Excel. Ensure the keywords are listed in a row. Select a cell in the same column as your first row. Use this formula to add an asterisk and a comma to the end of your keyword:

=B5&"*,"

Drag the cell down so it applies to every keyword in the row. When you have a list of keywords ending in a comma, then you can easily paste these into GAM.

How to quickly set up large keyword targets

To create the keyword target go to GAM → Inventory → Targeting presets → New targeting preset.

Name it what you like → Custom targeting → Keywords → is any of (for positive keywords) OR is none of (negative keywords) → paste your keywords in field → create values.

Now you can apply the target to your line by adding a targeting preset. Note that when you apply a targeting preset to a line item, it will generate as an OR value as opposed to an AND value. You may need to reapply your line targets.

Why isn’t my keyword target working?

If you have applied a keyword target to your line, but your ad is still showing on unsavory articles, it’s likely because the keywords in your target don’t exactly match those against the article.

Check the keywords against the article you want to exclude against by using the console.

F12 → Console → type “nzmeads.params” → Enter → Drop down the arrow to find “kw”. Now you can view the list of keywords.

For example, the keyword in your target may be "murder", while the keyword in the article is "murderer". In that case, you need to add an asterisk to the end of murder* to capture "murderer".

If the keywords in your target have a space, e.g. "White Island", this will also not work, as "White" and "Island" are separate keywords – you should load them as two keywords to get the adserver to recognize them.

The keywords are not case-sensitive, so it should work if your target has capital letters.