Contextual Targeting Guide: How To Do Contextual Targeting

Every marketer wants to put their brand in front of people most likely to buy. After years of tracking users online to tailor ads to their individual desires and needs, shifting standards around personal data have brought on new privacy regulations. These regulations challenge marketers looking to efficiently reach their target audience—but they’re also driving innovation in how ads are served.

Enter contextual targeting, an advertising strategy projected to grow by 13.8% annually through 2030. Instead of tracking what users did yesterday, contextual targeting meets them right where they are today—placing ads based on the content they’re actively browsing.

Here’s what makes contextual advertising work and how you can use it to reach potential customers in the moment they’re most receptive.

What is contextual targeting?

Contextual targeting places ads relevant to users on the websites they are browsing. Look up a recipe online, and contextual targeting might serve you ads for cookware. Search for a workout routine, and you might get ads for athletic wear.

Data privacy standards make behavioral targeting (i.e., ad targeting based on the user’s browser history or other behavior) more difficult for advertisers. Apple devices users can opt out of app tracking. Users who disable third-party cookies, use a VPN, or browse in incognito mode become nearly impossible to target based on individual preferences. Contextual targeting sidesteps these privacy barriers entirely by focusing on page content rather than user history.

How does contextual targeting work?

• Category contextual targeting
• Keyword contextual targeting
• Semantic contextual targeting

Contextual targeting works by assessing the quality and content of web pages to determine the most relevant ad placements. How advertisers make those assessments and target users varies, but they generally fall into the following categories, progressing from the least to most complex:

Category contextual targeting 

This is the broadest of all contextual targeting strategies and uses general market categories to place ads. It sorts websites into verticals like fitness, finance, or fashion and places contextual ads that fit in the same general category.

Classification systems drive this kind of targeting. These systems scan website content and assign it to broad contextual categories. For example, when a user visits a fashion website, programmatic ad buyers (i.e., automated systems that can buy ads in relevant spaces) identify the category of the website the user is visiting. After that, they then trigger ad auctions to display relevant ads, which in this case might be for a clothing brand.

This strategy lacks the precision of other strategies, but it can still be effective in delivering ads to relevant audiences.

Keyword contextual targeting

This more precise type of contextual targeting uses target keywords—as one might with an ad platform like Google Ads—to place your ads on web pages relevant to the keywords you choose.

Suppose an advertiser wants to serve ads to users searching for the keywords “home renovation.” They could use keyword targeting to place contextual ads on DIY blogs, contractor websites, or home improvement guides where that keyword appears. In that sense, it works a lot like a search algorithm, relying on keyword matching to assess the context of the website and place ads accordingly.

Semantic contextual targeting

This form of contextual targeting uses machine learning to analyze a given web page as a whole—reviewing its content, as well as the perceived sentiment and intent of the page—and place ads accordingly.

Semantic contextual targeting offers greater precision than the first two approaches by analyzing higher-order qualities of the page’s content. Natural language processing tools can differentiate between the search intent behind a keyword (e.g., an “apple” in a baking recipe as opposed to a tech blog reviewing an “Apple” product) and further assess qualities like the credibility of the content and its author. It can also incorporate the context of images on the page.

Contextual targeting vs. behavioral targeting

Both contextual and behavioral targeting have the same goal: to display relevant ads to a given company’s target audience, improving campaign performance in the process. Both aim to do that by targeting users who are more likely to engage with your particular product or service. For the most part, though, the similarities end there.

The two strategies diverge considerably in the data they use to target potential customers. Contextual targeting focuses on analyzing web pages’ content alone, whereas behavioral targeting relies on personal data like users’ browsing history and purchase history. As a result, behavioral advertising is far more subject to privacy regulations.

The two strategies also differ in the timing of their audience targeting. Behavioral targeting draws from past behavior in an attempt to project future behavior and interests. Contextual targeting, on the other hand, is firmly in the present tense, responding to the content that a user is consuming at that moment.

How to use contextual targeting

Contextual targeting works by matching your ads to the content of the page a user is already viewing. Instead of relying on cookies or personal data, companies use software platforms—like Google Ads, Outbrain, Taboola, or programmatic demand-side platforms (DSPs)—that scan keywords, topics, and site categories to determine where an ad should appear.

Advertisers start by defining the themes, industries, or content categories most relevant to their product, then let the platform place ads in those contexts automatically.

Here are five different types of content that lend themselves to contextual targeting, allowing you to meet your potential customers as they browse:

1. Industry-specific content. Industry verticals can be a helpful organizing principle for contextual targeting, reaching relevant audiences that are already engaged with that field of business. A B2B (business-to-business) software company, for instance, might look to reach decision-makers through industry forums or trade publications, where your target audience is already consuming high-quality content.

2. Location-specific content. You don’t need users’ personal data to target ads geographically. Restaurants might target local publications or food blogs, while retailers can leverage local lifestyle websites and city guides.

3. Seasonal/trending content. Contextual segments let advertisers align their ads with timely relevance to seasonal patterns or current trends. A classic example would be tax service providers seeking users on personal finance websites as the annual filing deadline approaches on April 15 in the US. Travel brands might place ads on travel blogs to feature summer locales in the appropriate season, while doing the opposite for winter.

4. Competitor content. Some brands use contextual targeting to place ads directly alongside content that mentions their competitors—like product reviews, comparison articles, or best-of lists. By showing your ad at that moment, you give shoppers an immediate alternative to consider, potentially capturing their attention before they make a purchase decision. For example, a smaller software company might run ads on review pages for an industry giant’s products and highlight their lower pricing or unique features.

5. Purchase intent content. Brands can use contextual targeting to place their ads throughout website content, like buying guides or price comparison pages. Companies can also use these instances to market complementary products/services. For example, if a user goes to a tech review page comparing a few different brands of laptops, brands that sell computer accessories like keyboards and laptop cases might try and prioritize those sorts of ad placements.