Only available in Google Ad Manager 360.
Features in Beta phase might not be available in your network. Watch the release notes for when this feature becomes generally available.
Traffic explorer provides high-level scorecards that break down top geography, line item, ad units and more, by exploring certain targeting scenarios to filter inventory segments.
Building on the functionality the traffic-based audience segment offers, you can generate audience segments from insights surfaced in traffic explorer. Insights include how your users use your first-party data with a wide set of dimensions.
Ad Manager 360 publishers enabled for Audience Solutions can build new audience segments based on some of the first-party data insights provided for your inventory within Traffic Explorer.
The ability to build audience segments in Traffic Explorer is an alternative method to traffic-based population. It lets you understand what the audience segment looks like before its creation, and supports a wider range of dimensions beyond ad units, placements, and key-values.
Build audience segments in Traffic Explorer
- Sign in to Google Ad Manager.
- Click Inventory and then Traffic explorer.
- To explore traffic data, click Edit targeting, then make any targeting changes and click Done. This filters to the segment of inventory for which you’re interested in creating an audience segment.
- On the "Populate audience segment" menu, select an existing audience segment or create a new audience segment.
- To start populating the audience segment, click Save and populate.
- To periodically review the audience segment membership counts and ensure they match your expectations, at the top, click Populated segments and check the "Total size" column.
Tip: You can also view the "Total size" column by clicking Inventory, then Audience, and checking the "First-party" table.
- Use the audience segment in targeting, such as in line items or pricing rules.
Frequently asked questions
How are Traffic Explorer audience segments populated?
Users are added to a Traffic Explorer audience segment if any of their historical ad requests match the targeting selected.
Selected targeting is “Geography = New York”
A user has three ad requests for “Geography = New York” and one for “Geography = New Jersey”.
That user will be eligible and will be added to the Audience segment.
Selected targeting is “NOT Geography = New York”
The same user will be eligible because they have at least one ad request for “Geography = New Jersey”.
What are supported targeting dimensions?
The following targeting dimensions are currently supported:
- Device category
- Geography
- Inventory
- Inventory_size
- Request platform
- Key-value
- CMS metadata
How soon will audience segment population take place?
The day after you save a Traffic Explorer configuration:
- New ad request traffic will begin to populate daily in the associated audience segment.
- The segment will be pre-populated with about one week of data.
What happens if I change the targeting associated with an audience segment?
Similar to traffic-based audience segment pre-population, Save and populate can’t be undone. After saving, ad requests matching the new targeting will start being added to the segment daily. One week of data matching the new targeting will also be pre-populated. If changes must be made, we recommend creating new audience segments instead.
Should I expect the audience segment memberships to match the data shown in Traffic Explorer?
Data shown in Traffic Explorer represents a sampled view based on your selected settings. These numbers are estimates and the accuracy is lower when small portions of inventory are specified.
Audience segments will be populated with real ad request traffic. Based on this, the membership size is expected to be close to—but not exactly match—Traffic Explorer.
Remember that the date range you selected in Traffic Explorer may differ from the duration that the audience segment has accumulated memberships.
