Different Types of Targeting


There are about five trillion varieties of targeting currently on the market, but they all fall into two categories: Inventory Targeting and User Targeting.


Inventory Targeting


With inventory targeting, you’re choosing to run your ad on certain types of sites.

  • Site content. Place your ad on sites with a specific type of content, like finance, autos or entertainment.
  • Demographic. Place your ad on sites frequented by specific demographic groups. Here’s how the process works: A network collects data on what kind of consumers visit each of its sites. Using this data, the network can organize its sites into demographic groups. For example, the network might create a group of sites visited most frequently by women, by Hispanics, by people age 18-24, by people who earn $50K to $75K a year, and so on. When you target by demographic index, you’re choosing which of these groups of sites you want your ad to run on.

User Targeting


Most networks, including Retargeting Base, look at IP or cookie data to determine if a user is part of a specific demographic or has demonstrated a particular online behavior, such as shopping for a car, browsing cooking sites, and so on. With user targeting, you reach those consumers directly, regardless of the sites they happen to be visiting. Your audience is pre-qualified.


  • Retargeting. Serve ads to audience who have previously visited your assets. 
  • Behavioral targeting. Reach consumers who have demonstrated specific interests online; examples include auto intendeds, apparel shoppers and moviegoers.
  • Geographic. Reach consumers in specific geographical locations. 
  • Device targeting. Reach consumers right on their mobile device and serve your ads on their apps or in their optimized browsers. 

Next Lesson: Retargeting Base Targeting