Working with click filters

Before you start

The touch point filter allows you to regulate clicks on ad media. For example, it allows you to conflate repeated clicks that occur within a short time range. You can also make sure clicks are not rated whenever they are being redirected.

Please note that you can apply different click filters to different types of ad spaces. You can even create different filters for different marketing channels.

Getting started

Make sure you are logged in to your admin UI and go to the administration section of the main navigation menu. Click on ‘configuration’ and proceed to click on ‘custom click filters’. If you do so, you will see a page looking more or less like this:

As you can see, the page consists of two main panels:

  • The upper panel contains the overview of the click filters you have created so far.

  • The lower panel contains the application rules for the filters. With the applications rules, you define to what channels, ad space subcategories or ad spaces the filter should be applied.

Creating a click filter

Defining the filter settings

Make sure you are on the overview page and click on the on the button ‘create new filter’ in the top right corner of the upper panel. If you do so, you will see a page containing a panel looking more or less like this:

In this panel, make sure you do the following:

  • Give the filter a name. It is recommended to choose a name that makes clear to what ad space category or marketing channel the filter should apply, for example ‘display channel filter’ or ‘filter for retargeting’.

  • Choose the filter type. You have the following options:

    • ‘Country’ means filtering clicks based on a country restriction. If you choose this type, you will see two panels appearing, called ‘whitelist’ and ‘blacklist’ respectively. Clicks from countries mentioned on the whitelist will be not be filtered, clicks from countries in the blacklist will be filtered out. By default, any country is whitelisted. To blacklist a country, just browse trough the whitelist (the countries are categorized by continent) and drag and drop it to the whitelist. You can also use the search bar above.

    • ‘Time’ means filterling click based on time restriction. If you choose this type, you have to make the following specifications:

      • First of all, choose how precize you want to filter:

        • ‘Identical click’ means you conflate clicks that are produced by the same potential customer and generated via identical ad media items, ad spaces, partners and advertisers within the selected timeout frame. If you choose this option, you will conflate the least amount of clicks.

        • ‘Identical click per partner and ad space’ means you conflate clicks that are produced by the same potential customer and generated via identical ad spaces, partners and advertisers. However, they are not necessarily generated via identical ad media items. This means clicks generated via different banners or links on the same website or app will be conflated, as long as they belong to the same advertiser.

        • ‘Identical click per partner’ means you conflate clicks that are produced by the same potential customer and generated via identical partners and advertisers. However, they are not necessarily generated via the same ad media item or the same ad space. This means clicks that come from different websites or apps will be conflated, as long as they are registered for the same partner and promoting the same advertiser.

        • ‘Identical advertiser’ means you conflate clicks that are generated for an identical advertiser. The clicks do not need to be produced by the same potential customer and are not necessarily generated via identical ad media items, identical ad spaces and identical partners. This means clicks on different ad media items on different websites or apps registered for different partners will be conflated, as long as they are generated for the same advertiser. If you choose this option, you conflate the biggest amount of clicks.

      • Define a timeout for clicks, i.e. the time range during which multiple clicks will be regarded as one click.

      • Choose whether you want to ignore clicks without valid shop touch points, i.e. whether you want to disregard traffic generated via a click URL that is not redirected to the website of the advertiser. Please note this can only work properly when the on-page tag has been properly implemented on all the pages of the advertiser.

When you are done, make sure you hit the ‘save’ button in the right lower corner of the panel.

Creating an application rule

After you have created a click rule, you need to define to what ad spaces or, in a broader sense, to what ad space subcategory or marketing channel it will be applied. Even if you want your filter to be applied to all channels, you will need to create an application rule. Please note you can apply both a time filter, a country filter, or a combination of both to one or more ad spaces, ad space subcategories or marketing channels.

To start, make sure you are on the overview page and click on the button ‘create new rule’ in the right top corner of the lower panel. The page that will be displayed after you’ve done so will contain a panel looking more or less like this:

 

In this panel, you need to do the following:

  • Define to what filter or filterts the application rule should apply. This can be time filter, a country filter or a combination of both.

  • Define to what advertiser the filter should apply.

  • Choose the level on which you want to apply the filter: on the level of the marketing channel, of the ad space subcategory or of individual as spaces. Depending on the level you select, continue to do the following:

    • If you choose ‘channel’, proceed to select the channel in the drop down menu. If you want your filter to apply to all channels, simply select all channels.

    • If you select ‘subcategory’, continue to select a category and a subcategory in the drop down menus. Please note you can select multiple categories and subcategories.

    • If you select ‘ad space’, continue to select a partner and an ad space in the drop down menus. Please note you can select multiple partners and ad spaces. If you want to select all ad spaces a partner has registered, it is recommended to select the partner only. If you do so, future ad spaces will be included as well.

  • Finally, switch the status of the filter to ‘on’.

When you are done, make sure you don’t forget to click on ‘apply rule’ in the right lower corner of the page. When you do so, you will be taken back to the overview page, on which the both the filter and the application rule will be displayed.

Application rule behavior

It is important to consider how application rules behave and interact to achieve your desired filtering setup. It is possible to setup multiple rules with varying scopes for application, which naturally leads to the question what happens when you have rules which overlap for some targets. As a general approach, the platform orders priority based on the granularity of the target specified.

For example, an active rule specifying an individual advertiser will take priority and be applied for that advertiser, overruling another active rule which specifies settings for all advertisers. Another example: if you have an application rule applied for a specific ad space and one application rule for the tracking channel to which the ad space is allocated, the rule applied to the specific ad space will overrule the rule applied to the tracking channel.

The overall priority order is as follows (highest to lowest):

  1. Adspace

  2. Partner

  3. Adspace subcategory

  4. Adspace category

  5. Tracking channel

  6. Specific advertiser

  7. All advertisers (platform)

If you apply multiple rules on the same priority level, for example when you apply two rules to the same ad space, the rule that was applied lastly will overrule older application rules.