Select the exchanges that you wish to buy media through. These are inventory sources that your ad will run through (also known as Supply Side Platforms). You can select as many or as few exchanges as you would like. As a starting point, we recommend you run on ALL exchanges, so you have access to the most inventory. To target an exchange, click the green plus button next to the name of the exchange in the list on the left-hand side. This will add this exchange to the campaign. To remove an exchange, click the red minus button next to the name of the exchange in the list on the right-hand side.

Recommended Exchanges by Creative Type:

• Audio: Use Deals and remove all Exchanges, or use Spotify, Adswizz, Triton Digital Exchanges.
• Banner: Use all Exchanges, and remove as needed based to performance.
• CTV: Use Deals and remove all Exchanges.
• Native A: Use Triplelift, Sharethrough, Microsoft.
• Native B: Use Taboola.
• Native C: Use Outbrain.
• Native D: Use Microsoft.
• OTT: Use Deals and remove all Exchanges.
• Online Video: Use all Exchanges, and remove as needed based on performance. Deals are also available.
  

For more information on how the ad exchange works, see here: How the Ad Exchange Works
See the full list of available exchanges here: Exchanges

These are private marketplace deals, or PMPs, are a method through which publishers privately grant access to premium inventory to a specific Advertiser or group of Advertisers. These PMPs are still real-time bidding environments in which the highest bid will win the impression, but the bidding will start at a specified price floor as defined by the publisher. You can see the full list of available PMPs in the ‘Inventory’ tab. This Deals list includes the Inventory Type, Media Type, App Type, Content Category, Price Floor and more. The targeted Deals on a Line should match the Inventory Type and Media Type (Creative Type) of the Line Item. For more information on what each column means, see here: Open Exchange vs. Deal Inventory

To request access to a specific PMP, use the ‘Request Access’ button next to the name of the desired PMP. Please allow at least 2 business days for access, with longer turnaround times if many Deals are requested. Once access is granted, the PMP will appear in the ‘Deal’ section of the Targeting Menu on the Line Item. Remove all exchanges from the Line Item targeting and associate the selected Deals using the green plus sign next to the name of the Deal. The Price Floor provides guidance for bidding, but it’s recommended to add at least $5-10 to the price floor for your Max Bid. Since this is still an RTB environment, competitive bids are necessary to achieve scale with premium inventory.

Download a list of PMP Publishers here:

To review the complete details for all available PMPs, please review the ‘Deals’ table in the ‘Inventory’ tab of the platform.

In the ‘Geo’ tab of the ‘Edit Targeting’ section on the Line Item, you can select Countries, Regions, DMAs, and Cities for where your campaign will be targeted. Below are the key points to setting up Geo targeting:

• Country Selection: At least one Country must be selected to begin targeting. Once a country is chosen, you can further refine your targeting by adding secondary geographic layers such as Regions, Designated Marketing Areas (DMAs), or Cities. Note that Regions refer to states, provinces, or municipalities.
• Targeting Funnel: Geo targeting works like a funnel, where the most granular targeting condition must ALWAYS be met for an impression to be served. For instance, if you select a zip code in Miami, along with the Miami DMA and United States as the country, your campaign will only serve in that specific zip code since it’s the most granular level of targeting.
• Layer Consistency: Each layer of Geo targeting must coincide with the previous layers. If there are conflicts, such as selecting the United States, a New York City DMA, and a Florida zip code, the campaign will not be able to serve because the DMA and zip code are geographically inconsistent.
• Available DMAs: The following countries support DMAs for targeting.
  • Aland Islands
  • Australia
  • Canada
  • China (Diji Shi cities)
  • Finland
  • France (Departments)
  • Germany (German Nielsen Metro Codes)
  • Korea, Republic of (Si/Gun/Gu)
  • New Zealand
  • Norway
  • Russian Federation (Federal Districts)
  • United Kingdom (ITV Regions)
  • United States (DMAs)

In the ‘Edit Targeting’ section of the Line Item, under the ‘Day Parting’ section, you can select specific times of day and days of the week you would like your campaign to serve.

• Time Zone Consideration: Day parts target users according to the time zone they are located in when the ad is served. For example, a Line set to serve from 9am to 9pm in the U.S., will start serving at 9am EST to users on the eastern coast, and will start serving to users on the western coast at 9am PST.
• Multiple Time Zones: To serve ads across the U.S. at the same time in every time zone, you will need to create a separate Line for each time zone and set the day parts accordingly.
• Selecting Days: If you wish to serve ads on a specific day, check the box next to that day of the week. To stop serving ads on a particular day, simply uncheck the box next to that day.

If no site list is attached to your campaign, domain targeting will be open by default.

• Create Custom Lists:
  • Navigate to the ‘Inventory’ tab.
  • Select ‘New Site List’ or ‘New App List’.
  • Once a list is saved, it will automatically appear under the ‘Site Lists’ or ‘App Lists’ section in the ‘Targeting’ menu of the Line Item.
• Premade Lists:
  • Pontiac also provides premade site lists and app lists for various categories that you can choose from.
• Allow List vs. Block List:
  • Allow List (Target): Use this to target specific sites or apps.
  • Block List (Avoid): Use this to avoid specific sites or apps.
• How to Associate Site or App Lists:
  • Go to ‘Edit Targeting’ within your Line Item.
  • In the ‘Sites Lists’ or ‘App Lists’ tab, select the ‘Allow List’ or ‘Block List’ bubble, depending on your targeting needs.
  • Click the green plus sign next to the list you want to target or avoid,
  • The associated lists will appear on the right side of the screen.

The following are definitions of the default Pontiac Site Lists:

• Arts and Performance –  Sites of various branches of creative activity, such as painting, music, literature, and dance.
• Auto – Sites in the automotive industry or sites for people interested in auto.
• Beauty and Fitness – Sites for inner and outer beauty and health.
• Books and Literature – Sites for book/literature lovers.
• Business and Industry – Sites for business minded people.
• Finance – Sites for financial information, trends, and advice.
• Food and Drink – Sites for foodies, recipes, and restaurants.
• Gaming – Sites to play entertaining games on.
• Health – Sites for fitness, general health, and health trends.
• Hobbies and Interests – Sites for people who interested in popular extracurricular activities.
• Home and Garden – Sites for home décor, home maintenance, and sites for outdoor gardening.
• Internet and Telecom – Includes mostly tech sites and sites for people interested in tech, internet, and telcom.
• Job and Education – Sites for people who are looking for new jobs or want to further their education.
• Law and Government – Sites for legal advice or for government information.
• News – Includes major national news sites.
• Online Communities – Sites for communities whose members interact with each other primarily via the Internet. Members of the community usually share common interests.
• People and Society – Includes world culture and pop culture sites.
• Performance – High performing sites: Premium inventory and High CTRs.
• Pets and Animals – Sites for pet lovers, pet information, animal lovers, and animal information.
• Real Estate – Sites for rentals, house listings, and people interested in real estate/market.
• Reference – Sites for people who are looking for further information. Some sample sites from this list are dictonary.com, usingenglish.com, and howstuffworks.com.
• Science – Sites for scientists or people interested in science or doing scientific research/experiments.
• Shopping – Sites for clothing stores, fashion, and fashion trends.
• Sports – Sites on information on national sport games and sport news.
• Travel – Sites for vacations and travel tips.
• World Localities – Sites for local and world news.

The following are the definitions of the default Pontiac App Lists:

• Auto – Apps for car shopping & reviews.
• Business & Finance – Apps for business news, finance news, stocks, trading, budgeting tools, currency converters, and crypto.
• Entertainment – Apps for literature, cinema review, pop culture, and celebrity news & trends.
• Fitness & Health – Apps for workout plans, fitness guides, meal planning, calorie counters, and step trackers.
• Food – Apps for food delivery, recipes, cookbooks, and nutrition.
• Games – Apps for trivia, word search, puzzles, poker & card games, chess, and sudoku.
• Lifestyle & Shopping – Apps for style, fashion, shopping, and home & garden.
• Music – Apps for radio, music downloaders, and instruments.
• News – Apps for national & local news.
• OTT/CTV – Apps for premium streaming TV for OTT and CTV.
• Premium – Apps for tier 1 publishers.
• Sports – Apps for sports news and scores & streaming.
• Tools & Reference – Apps for weather, calculators, dictionaries, translators, and maps.
• Travel – Apps for hotels, flights, and travel guides.

You can target specific zip codes in the United States or other countries through their regional postal code system. By targeting a set of zip codes, a client’s ads will only serve in the most relevant areas. You can use as few zip codes as needed, but keep in mind that a small set of zip codes will limit delivery. These zip codes can be created in either the ‘Audiences’ tab through the custom zip code audience or in the Line Item targeting menu.

To create a list of zip codes in the Line Item targeting menu, follow the below steps:

• Select the Country: From the dropdown menu, choose the country you want to target.
• Enter Zip Codes: Paste the zip codes you wish to target into the textbox, separated by commas.
• Add a Country: To add a country to the dropdown menu, contact your Account Manager via email.

Tip for Better Scale:

• Expand Zip Targets: If your zip code targeting isn’t scaling effectively, use the ‘Expand Zip Targets’ feature. In the Targeting menu, open the zip code tab, enter a radius in meters, and select ‘Get Zips’. This will find zip codes within this radius from the center point of the zip code/s entered. A window will open showing you the list of zip codes found within this radius. Select ‘Add Zips’ to add the new zip codes to the targeting on the Line Item.

When setting up a Line Item, you will select the Inventory Type in the Line Item settings. In the Inventory Targeting tab, you will see the selected Inventory Type appear with a checkbox. Return to the Line Item parameters to change the Inventory type.

Web Inventory: If you selected Web, you can specify the devices you want to target:

• Desktop
• Mobile-Web
• Tablets
• Or any combination of these

CTV Inventory: If you selected CTV, you can specify the devices to target:

• TV
• Game Consoles
• Set-Top Boxes
• Or any combination of these

Web & Mobile Operating System:

• Android
• Apple iOS
• Apple Mac
• Microsoft Windows

CTV Operating System:

• Roku OS
• Samsung OS
• Apple TV
• Chrome OS
• Life is Good OS
• PlayStation OS
• Unknown

More specific Operating Systems can be chosen in the ‘Operating Systems’ tab.

When Video is selected as the Creative type, a Video tab will appear in the Targeting menu to select Playback Type and Player Size.

Playback Type

• MidRoll: An instream placement where ad plays during streaming video content.
• Outstream: An outstream video is placed in non-video environments among other content.
• PostRoll: An instream placement where ad plays after streaming video content.
• PreRoll: An instream placement where ad plays before streaming video content.

Player Size

These sizes are publisher defined and do not have exact specifications, however, there are examples of each below for reference.
Large Player Size:


Medium Player Size:

Small Player Size:

If you want your Line item to aim for a specific viewability threshold, check the ‘Enable Viewability Targeting’ box, and enter the viewability threshold you wish to target in the ‘Viewability Target’ area. Note that it is not recommended to deploy this feature for CTV or In-App campaigns as this targeting is not typically available in these environments, and it can prevent the Line from serving.

The viewability is not a guarantee, but rather a benchmark. The platform will determine how likely an impression is to be viewable through pre-bidding technology. Per IAB guidelines, an ad is considered viewable if 50% of the pixels are in-view for 1 second or more. Using a high threshold may limit delivery of the Line. While the IAB benchmark for viewability is 70%, this may limit the number of impressions that can be won causing the campaign to under pace. If using a strict viewability threshold, consider increasing your bid to stay competitive and maintain scale. Balancing viewability and delivery is crucial. Higher thresholds reduce available inventory, potentially leading to under-pacing.

Choose from over 200 specific Operating Systems to target. See the full list here: Operating Systems

Operating System targeting can be used, but does come with some limitations. Due to inconsistent naming conventions used by app providers and mobile carriers, OS targeting methods for mobile apps are only available for a small portion of inventory, so targeting these may significantly limit scale. A significant portion of impressions are also from unknown browsers and operating systems, so it is recommended to include ‘Unknown’ to avoid excluding these impressions.

Choose to target specific Device Models from over 14,000 offerings. See the full list of Device Models that you can target here: Device Models

Device Model targeting can be used, but comes with some limitations. Due to inconsistent naming conventions used by app providers and mobile carriers, the device type and device make/model targeting methods for mobile apps are only available for a small portion of inventory and may significantly reduce potential scale.

A significant portion of impressions are also from unknown browsers and operating systems, so it is recommended to include ‘Unknown’ to avoid excluding these impressions.

The Ads.txt filter is a feature that can be used to restrict domains purchased through the platform to only come from sellers which are defined in the publisher’s Ads.txt file. Ads.txt stands for Authorized Digital Sellers and is a project that aims to create transparency in the programmatic advertising ecosystem. In the Ads.txt file, publishers can declare the authorized sellers for their inventory. Ensuring that domains can only be purchased through this list of sellers defined by the publisher, this increases protections against fraudulent inventory and authenticates that the URL passed in the ad call is an accurate representation of the inventory being bought and the seller it is coming from. You can see an example of an ads.txt file here: cnn.com/ads.txt

For more information on the Ads.txt project, visit the IAB website here: https://iabtechlab.com/ads-txt-about

To enable the Ads.txt feature, open the ‘Edit Targeting’ section of a Line Item. In the ‘Ads.txt’ tab, check the box, then ‘Save’ and submit the Line. This feature can only be applied to ‘Web’ inventory and will not affect targeting for Deal inventory or In-App inventory. The Ads.txt file is only applicable to domains sold through the Open Exchange.

Select from Pontiac Curated Deal Lists, or create your own custom list that can be used across all Advertisers and Lines for a quick and easy set-up process. In the ‘Inventory’ tab under ‘Deal Lists’, you will see the existing Pontiac curated lists. To review the Deals included in these lists, click on the name of the list. Deals included will be listed on the right-hand side of the screen. These lists cannot be edited. You will only be able to see and target the Deals in this list that you have access to. To request access to Deals, use the ‘Request Access’ button where the Deal is listed in the ‘Deal’ table above.

To create your own custom list, go to the ‘Inventory’ tab and select, ‘New Deal List’, then use the green plus button to add Deals to the list. Give the list a name, and ‘Save’. This list will then become available in the ‘Targeting’ menu of all of your Line Items to quickly associate all included Deals.