Overview
Offer targeting defines which traffic is allowed to access an offer.
Each incoming click is evaluated against targeting rules. If any condition is not met, the click is discarded and not forwarded to the advertiser.
There are two levels of targeting:
General Targeting → basic setup (required)
Advanced Targeting → additional conditions (optional)
General Targeting acts as the first filter, while Advanced Targeting applies further restrictions. If both are configured, all conditions must be met for traffic to pass.
General Targeting
General Targeting is configured in the General tab of the offer and is mandatory.
It includes:
Countries
Platform (OS)
Important
If you want to allow both iOS and Android traffic, select Web
If conditions are already defined here, do not repeat them in Advanced Targeting
Advanced Targeting
Advanced Targeting is configured in the Advanced Targeting tab and allows you to apply more granular rules.
It is configured in the Advanced Targeting tab of the offer setting and can be used to filter traffic based on:
device attributes
location (city, region, etc.)
time (hours, weekdays)
publisher parameters (sub IDs, app name, etc.)
technical data (IP, user agent, connection, etc.)
Advanced Targeting is typically used when more control is required beyond country and platform.
Advanced Targeting Rules Setting
Each rule consists of:
a field (e.g. Country, Device OS, City, etc)
an operator
a value
Available operators
Equals / Not Equals → exact match
Example: Browser equals Chrome - only clicks from Chrome will be accepted
In / Not In → multiple values
Example: City in London, Berlin - only clicks from London or Berlin will be accepted
Is Empty / Is Not Empty → presence check
GAID is not empty - only clicks with passed GAID value will be accepted
Contains / Not Contains → partial match
Example: Referrer contains facebook - only clicks for which referrer value contains 'facebook' will be accepted
Regex matching → pattern-based filtering
Example: IP not matching ^123(.*) - clicks from IP addresses, which start from 123 will be rejected
Greater / Less than → numeric comparison
Example: OS version greater than 14.5- only clicks from devices with OS version higher 14.5 will be accepted
AND & OR Logic
You can combine rules using:
AND → all conditions must be met
OR → at least one condition must be met
You can also create groups of rules to define more complex logic.
Example
AND logic:
Example - City in Sheffield AND OS Version greater than equals 14.5
→ only traffic matching both conditions is accepted: click must be from Sheffield and device OS version higher than 14.5
Grouped logic (publisher-specific)
Example - Time Targeting for two particular Publishers (2 and 135): Publisher 2 → allowed only 10:00–12:00 and Publisher 135 → allowed only 14:00–16:00.
Common Use Cases
1) Basic setup
Country + Platform → use General Targeting
2) Additional restrictions
OS version
device type
city / region (state)
→ use Advanced Targeting
3) Time-based control
specific hours or weekdays
→ use Advanced Targeting
4) Publisher-specific conditions
different rules for different publishers
→ use rule groups in Advanced Targeting
5) Whitelisting & Blacklisting
Traffic Control - for basic setting (blacklisting sub ids, whitelisting app names, etc)
Advanced Targeting - worth using for more complicated targeting conditions (for example, blacklisting sub ids for specific hours of the day only)
Reporting & Troubleshooting
If traffic is not reaching the offer, it may be blocked due to targeting rules. If traffic is not reaching the offer, it may be blocked due to targeting rules.
Targeting mismatches are reflected as failed click rules in reports:
Offer Targeting Mismatch - when General Targeting conditions (country, platform) are not met
Advanced Targeting Mismatch - when Advanced Targeting rules are not met
Where to Check
You can analyse discarded clicks in:
Custom Report
Explorer
Superset
What to Look For
Add the following metrics and dimensions:
Discarded Clicks - number of clicks blocked by targeting
Failed Click Rules - indicates which rule caused the discard
Failed Click Subrules - provides more detailed reason
How to Investigate
Open Custom Report or Explorer
Apply filters (optionally)
Add dimensions:
Click Failed Rules
Click Failed Subrules
Add metric:
Discarded Clicks
Example
You notice discarded clicks for offer 29345:
In the report:
Click Failed Rules = ADVANCED_TARGETING_MISMATCH
Click Failed Subrules = USER_GEO_CITY
This means:
incoming traffic did not match the configured city targeting
Advanced Analysis (Optional)
For deeper investigation, click-level data can be analysed in Superset (Reports → Studio).
This allows you to:
review individual clicks
analyse discard reasons in detail
identify patterns across publishers or traffic sources