The Programmatic Glossary
A practical glossary designed to help marketers, advertisers and ad-tech professionals understand the terminology that powers programmatic advertising
Identity & Data
Contextual Targeting
A method of deciding which ads to show based on the content of the page being viewed rather than tracking the individual user. If you're reading an article about running shoes, you might see ads for sportswear not because anyone tracked you, but because the ad matches the context of the content.
HOW IT WORKS
Contextual targeting technology scans the text, images, and keywords on a page to classify its content into categories such as travel, sport, finance, and more. Advertisers target these content categories. When a matching page is detected, their ad becomes eligible to serve without requiring any user data or cookies.
EXAMPLE
A cookware brand does not want to track users across the web. Instead, it targets cooking and food related content categories. Its ads automatically appear on recipe websites, food blogs, and cooking videos, reaching an already relevant audience without using any personal data.
RELATED TERMS
Third-Party Cookie | First-Party Data | Identity Solution | Universal ID | Brand Safety
★ LIMELIGHT INSIGHT: As third-party cookies deprecate, Limelight supports contextual and first-party data strategies to help publisher partners maintain targeting quality and yield.
