How to Target Advertisements by Using Expressions

You can use an expression to target an ad to a specific group of users. Each expression has a single action associated with it. This is an expression/action pair. You can layer expression/action pairs to obtain more detailed information. You can create expressions to include specified users in a group, or exclude specified users from a group. You select the group of users you want to target from an existing list of groups or you can create a new group. This topic describes how to target an existing advertisement or a new advertisement to a group of users.

To target an advertisement by using an existing global expression

  1. Click Start, point to Microsoft Commerce Server 2009 , and then click Marketing Manager.

  2. In Marketing Manager, in the Views pane, click Campaigns.

  3. In the Tree View pane, click All Ads.

    Note

    If you cannot see the Tree View pane, click Tree View on the toolbar.

  4. In the Search Results pane, select the ad that you want to target.

  5. In the Tasks pane, click Edit.

  6. In the Ad Properties screen, in the Target Expressions section, click Add to open the Choose Expressions dialog box.

  7. In the Choose Expressions dialog box, select the expression you want to use.

  8. Click Create a Local Copyof this Global Expression if you want to create a copy of this global expression that can be edited locally, and then click OK.

    Note

    If you select this check box, future changes to the global expression will not be reflected in the copy of expression.

  9. In the Ad Properties screen, click Save and close on the toolbar.

To target an advertisement by using a new expression

  1. Click Start, point to Microsoft Commerce Server 2009 , and then click Marketing Manager.

  2. In Marketing Manager, in the Views pane, click Campaigns.

  3. In the Tree View pane, click All Ads.

    Note

    If you cannot see the Tree View pane, click Tree View on the toolbar.

  4. In the Search Results pane, select the ad that you want to target.

  5. In the Tasks pane, click Edit.

  6. In the Ad Properties screen, on the Targeting tab, click Create New Expression.

  7. In the New Target Expression screen, do the following:

    Use this

    To do this

    Expression name

    Type a name for the new target expression.

    This expression will be a local expression. You will not be able to make it a global expression. To create a global expression, see How to Create a Target Expression.

    Field

    Select the field that you want to use in this condition from the drop-down list.

    Condition

    Select an operator type for the expression from the drop-down list. Available types of conditions are operators such as Is equal to and Is greater than.

    Value

    Type the property or value that you want the expression to evaluate.

  8. To add more expressions, click Add, and then click OK.

  9. In the Ad Properties screen, on the Targeting tab, in the Target Expressions section, in the Action box, select the type of action that you want to occur from the drop-down list. The following action options are available:

    • Exclude. The group of users in the target expression will be excluded from the target group.

    • Require. The group of users in the target expression will be included in the target group.

      If the expression evaluates to "True", the content is eligible for delivery; if it is "False", the content is not eligible for delivery.

    • Sponsor. The ad associated with the target group will be exclusively displayed on the site.

      If the expression evaluates to "True", the content is eligible for delivery and no other content is eligible unless it too has an expression with "action = Sponsor". (Sponsor has only one multiplier.)

    • Target. Use in situations that have a limited population of the property available, but the user wants to buy many requests.

      If the target expression evaluates to "True", the score is increased, as is the probability that the content will be shown. If the expression evaluates to "False", the score is not changed. In both scenarios, the content is eligible for delivery.

  10. Click Save and close on the toolbar.

See Also

Other Resources

What is an Advertisement?

How to Create an Advertisement

How to Target Advertisements to Page Groups

How to Edit an Advertisement

How to Copy an Advertisement

How to Restore an Advertisement

How to Create a Target Expression

Managing Tasks Common to All Business Management Applications