Ad-Targeting Variables

RebelMouse supports ad variables for Runner sites, allowing you to target ads to effectively increase ad revenue and support custom campaigns. Your ad tech can automatically serve different creative based on the ad variables you set.

Supported Ad Variables

  • Tags:
    • Example output for tag "dog" is "dog"
    • Example output for tag "dogs rock" is "dogs-rock"
    • Call this variable as {{tags}}
  • Sections:
    • Example output for section 'Marin' is 'marin'
    • Example output for section "Silicon Valley" is "silicon-valley"
    • Call this variable as {{sections}}
  • Page Type: page_type (homepage, sectionpage, postpage)
    • If on post page output will be "postpage"
    • If on home page output will be "homepage"
    • If on section page output will be "sectionpage," then the section variable will give you the section you are on
    • Call this variable as {{page_type}}

Example of How to Include Ad Variables in the Runner Editor

Ads are set up in Runners based on inserting the ad code, which usually requires:

  • A piece of header code (targeting is usually found here). Header code must be added within the ad header code element:

  • Ad tags placed where the ads themselves were shown.

Variables are actually passed in that ad code, so the client code needs to call those variables. Here's an example:

googletag.pubads().setTargeting('Sections', {{sections}}).setTargeting('Tags', {{tags}}).setTargeting('page-type', {{page_type}});

Examples of Output from a Client's Site

  • Home Page
    • http://7x7.com/
    • No tags or sections, but identified as "homepage."
    • Example:
    •  googletag.pubads().setTargeting('Sections', []).setTargeting('Tags', []).setTargeting('page-type', ["homepage"]);
  • Post Page
  • Section Page
    • http://7x7.com/san-francisco/
    • Section is "San Francisco" which we translated to "san-francisco." No tags are set up. Section is identified as "sectionpage."
    • Example:
    • googletag.pubads().setTargeting('Sections', ["san-francisco"]).setTargeting('Tags', []).setTargeting('page-type', ["sectionpage"]);

Note: Dynamic ads in articles are not supported for Runner sites.

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Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): A website's LCP is the time it takes to load the main content on a page. Google wants LCP to happen within 2.5 seconds of when a page first starts loading.

First Input Delay (FID): This metric quantifies a user's experience when trying to interact with unresponsive pages. This usually occurs between First Meaningful Paint (FMP) and Time to Interactive (TTI) (more on what these two mean below). You want your FID score to be low to prove the usability of your site. According to Google, pages should haven an FID of less than 100 milliseconds.

Cumulative Layout Shift Score (CLS): CLS determines how often your users experience unexpected layout shifts or changes on a page. To ensure visual stability, you want your CLS score to be low. Google wants pages to maintain a CLS score of less than 0.1.

From Google.

Google says Core Web Vitals scores will be considered across every page, and will be a ranking factor in its Top Stories feature. While relevant quality content will always be the most important, the page experience ranking is now a make-or-break metric for your site's survival.

"A good page experience doesn't override having great, relevant content. However, in cases where there are multiple pages that have similar content, page experience becomes much more important for visibility in Search." —From Google's page experience announcement, May 2020

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First Contentful Paint (FCP): This metric measures the time from click to the time when a user's browser renders the first bit of content from the Document Object Model (DOM), which is your site's HTML structure. According to Google, this is an important milestone for your readers because it provides signals that your page is loading.

First Meaningful Paint (FMP): This is the amount of time it takes the most important content, what Google calls "hero elements," to load on site. Hero elements are different for every site, but should be intuitive based on your content. This metric helps determine your site's usability.

Time to Interactive (TTI): This is the most important metric to keep an eye on. This is when the site is fully rendered and ready for user action. This is a critical point when slow load time can occur, usually because JavaScript or other complex content hasn't fully rendered. So, in short, think of TTI as how long it takes for your site to load in its entirety.

Total Blocking Time (TBT): TBT measures a page's load responsiveness to quantify how long a page is non-interactive prior to becoming interactive. You want your site to have a low TBT to maintain its usability.

Speed Index (SI): SI is the measurement of how quickly the contents of a page are populated. You want your speed index score to be as low as possible.

Creating quality content is only half the battle in 2020, and publishers are already burdened with the around-the-clock task of creating content that resonates. This is why quality content must be supported by modern technology that can keep up with the speed of the web. RebelMouse provides publishers with a CMS that supports the new content lifecycle with an editorial suite designed for reach on site, search, and social.

Click here to read more about our modern approach to web performance. If you want to make performance a priority, request a proposal today. We can easily transform your site into one of the fastest on the web, giving you increased user retention and better conversion rates than ever before.

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