Contextual Targeting: A Simple Way To Make Ads Hyper Relevant

For publishers, contextual alignment can raise the value of ad space and reduce wasted impressions by keeping ads relevant to the content users are actually consuming. For advertisers, it’s a cleaner way to control where ads show up, avoid mismatched placements, and focus ad spend on inventory that’s more likely to perform, especially as privacy changes limit traditional targeting. Ultimately, it makes marketing efforts more efficient by putting relevance back into the environment, not the person.

Keep reading or watch Lina Lugova, Head of Marketing at Epom, explain how contextual targeting works in programmatic advertising and how to set it up in Epom DSP.

For years, contextual targeting stayed in the shadow of behavioral targeting. With the move to privacy-first advertising, this type of target audience targeting is gaining traction.

How granular would you get if you selected what content should accompany your next ad campaign? Should the content relate to sports in general, American football only, or NFL game scores in particular? Whatever level of granularity feels right for you, you can target programmatic ads that way. Read the article, and you’ll learn how to do it.

What Is Contextual Targeting?

To give programmatic contextual targeting a definition, let's first recall the concept of contextual advertising. In a nutshell, it means ad matching with appropriate situations and places:

• A sportswear ad on a football player's t-shirt.
• A toothpaste ad on the wall of a dentist's cabinet.
• A sunglasses ad in an article about summer fashion.

All of these are contextual targeting examples. The way and means of delivering these ads differ, but the effect is the same. People see contextual ads when they watch, read, or think about something close to what’s being advertised. As a result, people perceive ads as relevant and respond to them better.

You can apply the same principle to programmatic ads. All you need to do is put together the right pieces of online advertising software. If the demand-side platform you use for real-time bidding supports contextual targeting, you’re all set to run contextual-based campaigns.

Programmatic contextual targeting focuses on matching a web page's content with an ad's content. It automatically matches the data publishers pass in the bid requests through an SSP with the targeting rules advertisers set in a DSP.

Before we dive into the technical details of contextual ad placements, let's see why this type of targeting even matters.

Contextual Targeting vs Behavioral Targeting

A digital media buyer's primary goal is to deliver the right ad to the right person at the right time. When it comes to achieving it, you can base your targeting strategy on two things:

• User behavior, which is reflected in their browsing history. That’s what behavioral targeting is about.
• People’s current needs, which are reflected in the content they’re currently viewing. This is known as contextual targeting.

Most advertisers used to default to the first option—behavioral targeting. They collect data via third-party cookies to identify site sessions of users who might engage with their ads. But when privacy regulations get tight and third-party cookies are phased out, aligning ads won't be as simple as it used to be.

Unlike behavioral targeting, contextual ad campaigns don't rely on data about users. So it won’t be affected by the changes in the user privacy policies. On top of that, technologies that analyze page content develop fast. All these factors point to contextual ads returning and doing well in the future.

What Are the Benefits of Contextual Targeting?

From the publishers' perspective, putting the right ad next to the right content increases the value of every impression.

• Sell inventory at a higher price. Contextual advertising spending improves ad performance. Therefore, publishers have a valid reason to charge more per impression.
• Enhance the user experience. When ads match the content of a page, they cause less distraction and frustration to the visitors.
• Monetize first-party data. Publishers already have all the data they need to provide to brands for contextual targeting programmatic ads; they just should put it to use.

Here's how advertisers can win by having their ads placed in the most appropriate places.

• Get relevant placements for niche products. Advertisers can better control ad placement for narrow niche products.
• Engage people with the right frame of mind. Ads appear when people watch or read about related stuff and are in the right mood to see them, increasing ad relevance.
• Improve ROI for their advertising campaigns. As they bid on the most relevant impressions, they get a better return on investment.

To take advantage of contextual targeting, a publisher and an advertiser should connect via digital advertising platforms that can exchange contextual data. The platforms can be their own or self-serve accounts on platforms owned by an ad agency or ad network.

How Programmatic Contextual Targeting Works

Contextual targeting advertising relies on the information that publishers provide to identify the topic of the site pages where ads will show up. This data can include, but is not limited to, page type, site category, content tags, on-page keywords, etc.

To communicate content-related information to advertisers, publishers can add it to the bid requests sent from their sites. For this, they should define a set of additional parameters to be included in the code of the request.

For example, they can add the Category parameter and then identify values it can contain, such as sports, fashion, news, etc. Or they can add the Keyword parameter and pull keywords from the page’s metadata as values.

To bid on impressions on pages with specific content, advertisers should use the additional parameters their DSP receives in bid requests. They can define the bid request parameter values that their DSP will accept or deny for their campaigns.

Wondering how these parameters work? Try them out in our DSP.

Widespread Contextual Targeting Strategies

Let’s consider simple examples of contextual programmatic advertising strategies that advertisers can apply to their campaigns. To implement contextual targeting, advertisers should buy traffic from supply-side platforms that include site page categories and keywords in bid requests.

Category Contextual Targeting

Let’s assume you run programmatic ads on Epom white-label DSP. You connect the DSP to your SSP platform. When your SSP sends bid requests to your DSP, it includes information about site categories.

For example, you want the DSP to bid only on impressions shown on sports media that create relevant content for American football fans. To configure contextual targeting during your campaign setup, you’ll use the Extensions Filter feature.

1. Under the Extensions Filter, you’ll name the parameter ‘Category’ and click Include.
2. Then, you’ll add values for the Category parameter to equal, such as ‘Football’ or ‘NFL’.

Now the DSP will check the code of every bid request to see if it contains the Category parameter. The DSP will bid only if the Category parameter equals ‘Football’ or ‘NFL’.

Keyword Contextual Targeting

Another targeting option you can set up in Epom WL DSP is contextual keyword targeting. It requires you to buy traffic from SSPs that include content keywords in their bid requests.

For example, you want the DSP to bid on impressions shown on pages that feature National Football League scores. You'll use the Keywords Filter feature to configure contextual targeting during your campaign setup.

1. Under the Keyword Filter, you’ll select the parameter Content keywords.
2. Then, you’ll add values the parameter should equal, such as ‘NFL Football Scores’ and ‘NFL Scoreboard’.
3. Additionally, you might want to exclude such keywords as FIFA and Soccer to avoid showing ads on pages that don’t relate to American football.

Now the DSP will check the bid requests to see if it contains the Content keywords parameter. The DSP will bid if the parameter equals ‘NFL Football Scores’ or ‘NFL Scoreboard’.

The Future of Contextual Targeting

Based on Epom’s observations, targeting by keyword and category is the simplest and most proven method of contextual targeting. Yet, as this method becomes more important, technology will develop quickly. New advanced capabilities will emerge on the market. Let’s name a few of the most anticipated:

• Rise of contextual targeting networks providing contextual data to advertisers.
• Expansion beyond text context and the ability to target based on audio, video, and images.
• Using AI in targeting to consider both the topic and the sentiment of the page.

You don't have to wait for these innovations to see that contextual targeting lives up to the hype. Both publishers and advertisers can benefit from the existing technologies. It’s especially true for businesses using in-house programmatic platforms, as they don’t rely on big tech companies to update their DSP self-serve accounts.

FAQ

• What is contextual targeting?

  Contextual targeting is a way to display relevant ads based on the content of the page where the ad appears, not on user behavior. Ads are matched to page categories, topics, or specific keywords, making them relevant without using third-party cookies.

• How is contextual targeting different from behavioral targeting?

  The key difference in contextual targeting vs behavioral targeting is data usage. Behavioral targeting relies on browsing history and third-party cookies, while contextual targeting places ads purely based on the content users are viewing at that moment.

• Why is contextual targeting important in 2026?

  With third-party cookies disappearing and privacy regulations tightening, contextual targeting offers a future-proof way of delivering ads. It helps advertisers maintain performance while improving brand safety and compliance.

• How does programmatic contextual targeting work?

  Publishers send contextual signals (page category, keywords, metadata) via SSPs. DSPs use these signals, often powered by machine learning algorithms, to decide when to bid and where to place ads, ensuring ads match the surrounding content.

• What are the main benefits of contextual targeting?

  Contextual targeting helps advertisers:

  • Match ads to relevant environments
  • Improve ad recall and engagement
  • Increase brand safety
  • Run efficient marketing campaigns without relying on user tracking