Content categories

Content categories are metadata attached to a slice of inventory that describe the contents of that inventory. This makes it easier for buyers to research and to buy. Content categories can also make selling to your potential customers easier as they can buy across a whole category instead of targeting individual chunks of it.

There are two types of content categories:

• Universal: These categories are maintained by Microsoft Advertising.

• Custom: Sellers have the ability to define their own categories and apply them to slices of their own inventory.

  Tip

  We are splitting our "Automotive and Vehicles" category into sub-categories for dealerships, manufacturers, service, and more. For more information, see Automotive Content Categories.

Apply categories to your inventory

You can apply a number of categories to each of your sites and placements at the Network, Site, and Placement levels. For instructions, see Create a Placement.

Expose categories for targeting by buyers

To expose content categories for targeting by buyers, see the sections on targeting access for content categories on the Partner Center Screen - Seller View and Partner Controls page.

Report on volume by category

You can report on inventory volumes broken down by universal content category using the Universal Content Categories Report.

Target categories with your campaigns

Here are the campaign targeting rules as applied to content categories:

• When you target more than one category, the categories have an OR relationship. This means that if a slice of inventory is in either category, it will match your campaign's targeting.
• Content categories have an AND relationship with other inventory targeting options. For example, if you are targeting a universal content category of News coming from the Microsoft inventory source, your campaign will only bid on placements coming from Microsoft that have been categorized as News. This is an example of a set of targeting parameters that are unlikely to match. Be careful when you set up campaign targeting parameters with AND relationships since it's possible to seriously reduce your campaign's reach (or even keep from serving altogether).

For more details, see Content Category Targeting.

Universal content categories list

Below is a list of universal content categories and subcategories we maintain. The most up-to-date list will always be available in the Campaign Manager under the Inventory tab. For more information, see Create a Campaign.

Related topics

• Content Category Targeting
• Manage Custom Content Categories