Set up line items and targeting
Create a line item, set its bid and budget, and choose where, when and to whom it shows, with what each targeting option really does.
A line item is the rule that buys your ads: a bid, a budget, a flight and the targeting that decides where, when and to whom they play. Most delivery questions come back to a line item.
Before you start
- Create the campaign the line item belongs to.
- Have at least one approved creative on your account.
- Your wallet needs a balance above zero for the line item to serve. See Wallet and top-ups.
Steps
- Open Line Items and select New Line Item.
- On the Basic tab, enter a name, pick the campaign, and set the Bid CPM ($). If the buy belongs to an order, pick it under Order.
- Set a Total Budget ($) and a Daily Budget ($) so spend has a limit.
- Set the Start Date and End Date.
- Open Inventory & Geo, Audience and Frequency & Pacing and set the targeting you need. Leave a field empty to mean no restriction.
- Look at the delivery check at the bottom of the form. It tells you which channels the line item can reach as it stands.
- Select Create Line Item.
- A new line item is a draft. Select the play icon on its row to activate it.
For agencies
Build line items in the client's account: select Open account on the client's row in Managed Advertisers. You work with your own agency seat.
The Basic tab
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Deal Type | You can save open auction. Higher priority levels come only from a negotiated deal, never by choice. |
| Deal | Binds the line item to an accepted deal. The deal then sets its type, price and flight, and the line item serves only on the deal's channels. |
| Order | Optional. Lists the orders of the campaign you picked. A line item with an order serves only while the order is approved. Pick No order to detach it. |
| Bid CPM ($) | The price per thousand impressions you bid. It must be at least the channel's minimum price, unless a deal sets the price. Among line items at the same priority, the higher bid generally wins. The line item always bids this price. |
| Total Budget ($), Daily Budget ($) | Spend stops when either is reached. Leave both empty and the line item has no limit of its own, but its campaign's total budget still applies. |
The Pacing (for alerts) choice is on the Frequency & Pacing tab. It only decides when you get pacing alerts and never changes delivery. See Pacing and frequency.
Inventory and geo
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Publishers and channels | Limit the line item to the publishers, channels or channel groups you pick. A block set on the campaign always wins. See Choose publishers and channels. |
| Platforms | Only requests from these device platforms. Empty means all. |
| Content Models | Only channels of these types, such as AVOD or FAST. |
| Ad Break Types | Pre-roll, mid-roll, post-roll or bumper. |
| Content Ratings | Only channels with one of these ratings. A channel with no rating is skipped. |
| Content Categories | Only channels in these categories, or whose IAB category matches. An IAB code also covers its sub-codes. A channel with no category is skipped. |
| Countries | Only viewers located in these countries. A viewer whose country cannot be worked out is not shown the ad. |
| Regions, Cities | Only viewers located in these regions or cities. Use region codes such as IN-MH or names. A viewer whose location cannot be worked out is skipped. |
| US DMA codes | US viewers only. |
| Min/Max Ad Duration | The ad break must allow an ad at least this long and no more than this long. |
Location comes from the viewer's connection, so it is approximate. A viewer reached through a shared or server address may be placed in the wrong city or not placed at all.
Audience targeting
Audience options are checked on every ad request. If the check cannot be made, the line item does not serve. It never falls back to untargeted delivery. Values inside one field are alternatives (any one matches). Different fields must all match.
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Gender, Age Bracket, Income Group | Households reported with that value by an operator, or uploaded by the channel's own publisher. A publisher's list counts only on that publisher's channels. Operator values need 1,000 households on your network. |
| Publisher audiences | A publisher's own tags. They match on that publisher's channels only. |
| Primary Language, Screen Resolution, TV Manufacturer, OTT Apps Installed | Households reported by an operator with that value. Operator values need 1,000 households on your network. A make or app is matched whatever its case or spacing: "Mi TV" and "MI TV" are both saved as MI_TV, and "Prime Video" as PRIME_VIDEO. |
| Lifestage, Engagement Tier | Engagement tier counts ads LtvAdx has delivered to the household: high is 100 or more, medium 20 to 99, low 1 to 19. |
| Primetime only | 7 PM to 11 PM in the viewer's country. A viewer whose country is unknown is skipped. |
| Binge-watching households only | Households LtvAdx classes as heavy viewers. |
| Hours | Hours of the day, in the viewer's country time. On the Frequency & Pacing tab. |
| Custom Audiences | Your uploaded lists. See Custom audiences. |
| Retargeting Segments | Households that saw or finished your ads. See Retargeting. |
| CTV Audience Segments | Households that watched or engaged with your ads. See Audience segments. |
| ACR TV-Exposed Segments | Households whose TV viewing put them in one of these groups. Only households with data from a connected provider qualify. Until one sends data, a line item using this does not deliver. |
| Competitor Brand Suppression | Skips households that saw a listed brand's ad in the last 7 days, using the brand ids your data provider reports. |
Things to know:
- Household targeting reaches only households LtvAdx can identify on that request. Audiences also need the publisher to allow audience data on its channels. The delivery check warns you when a channel will not match.
- Viewers who opt out, who are on children's channels, or who send do-not-track or a privacy opt-out are served contextually only. No household targeting applies to them.
- A segment must exist, belong to your account, and have at least 1,000 households before you can add it.
- The same minimum applies to the operator values above. You cannot newly add a gender, age, income, language, life stage, screen, TV make, app or household segment that reaches fewer than 1,000 households on your network. The save is refused and the message names the value. A value that is already on the line item stays. An audience that is below the minimum is empty, so it reaches nobody.
- Some values cannot be targeted, including children, low income, students and the newly married. Retail segments and active-viewership targeting are not applied when serving and are refused on save.
- Political and issue campaigns allow location and context targeting only.
The Advanced tab
- Min VCR Threshold (%): compares against the measured completion rate of the creative that would play, over the last 7 days. If it is below your minimum, this line item is skipped and the ad break goes to the next line item that qualifies. A creative with no recent plays is not held back. Leave it at 0 unless you mean it.
The delivery check
At the bottom of the form, the delivery check lists the selected channels, whether the line item can deliver on each, and the reason when it cannot, for example the channel's minimum price is above your bid or the publisher blocks the advertiser. It also flags issues that stop delivery everywhere: no approved creative, a flight that has ended, an empty wallet, or a deal that is paused. Saving is never blocked by it.
If something goes wrong
- Your account is pending admin approval. You can keep setting up drafts, but activating a line item is available once your account is approved.
- Needs a negotiated deal. A deal type other than open auction is refused unless it comes from an accepted deal. Use open auction, or accept a deal first.
- A message that an audience segment is unknown, or too small. The list is not yours, no longer exists, or is below the minimum size.
- A message that a value "reaches fewer than" 1,000 households "on this network, so it cannot be targeted". Fewer households than that carry it, counting every operator on your network. Pick a wider value, such as a broader age bracket, or remove it.
- You cannot delete a line item yourself. Pause it.
- It is saved and active but nothing plays: Why a campaign is not delivering.