About display rule signals

When creating rules for display projects, you can select from a variety of signals to help you reach your intended audience. If your project contains variants that are customized for different groups, you would create rules using signals that reflect these groups in order to show each group the right message.

Parts of a rule

Rules are made up of:

• Signals – Signals determine when a rule applies according to audience traits or the viewing context, such as the viewer's geographic location or the topic of the page where the ad appears.
• Variants – Variants are the customized versions of your ad that you want shown when the signals match.

For example, you may want pet lovers to see a different variant than cooking enthusiasts. You would create two rules, one for each variant: one with the "Pet Lovers" audience signal, and the other with the "Cooking Enthusiasts" audience signal.

You can combine signals, even of different types, to define the right target for your message. If a rule includes multiple signals of the same type, the rule will apply when any of those signals match. If a rule includes multiple signals of different types, the rule will apply when all of the signal types match.

Signal types

Ads Creative Studio includes signals of different types for display projects:

• Audience
• Location
• Schedule
• Topic

Audience

Select affinity and in-market audiences to define who should see your ad according to their interests.

Affinity audiences

Affinity audiences let you reach people based on their lifestyles, passions, and habits.

In-market audiences and life events

In-market audiences are useful for reaching people who are actively researching or planning a purchase.

Location

If your message is specific to certain geographic areas, you can select those places as target locations.

The full list of locations can be searched within Ads Creative Studio by state, city, postal code, airport, or university.

Schedule

You can specify when users can see your ads.

Select a timezone (local or UTC) and a start date and time. You can also enter an end date and time.

Add multiple schedules in order to show your ad during more than one range of dates or times.

Topic

Select topics to show ads on content that's about specific subjects.