Placements

This documentation covers the New Ads Manager Experience (limited release starting July 15, 2026). If your dashboard looks different, please view [Creating a new Campaign / Ad Groups and Setting Targeting Goal] for support. Want early access to the new experience? Contact selfservehelp@groundtruth.com to upgrade your account.

Overview of Placements

Placements give you precise control over the specific digital real estate, publisher networks, and audio environments where your ads render. Placement options adjust automatically based on your unique combination of campaign objective and media channel.

If no custom selections are made, the system defaults to the channel’s standard placements to keep your delivery scale as healthy as possible.

Step-by-Step Configuration

1. Review the native environment options available for your selected channel.
2. Toggle on Choose publisher categories (or streaming genres) if you need to filter your delivery based on vertical context.
3. Open Show Advanced Options to adjust granular device criteria if necessary.

Channel-Specific Placement Environments

Placement controls adapt dynamically depending on the channel environment being built. If no selections are made (no toggles are turned on or enabled), the standard option is kept:

📱 Mobile Placements

• Include Mobile Web Toggle: If you keep this toggle off, your campaign will default to an In-App only delivery environment.
• Publisher Categories: Allows you to filter your delivery across a comprehensive set of app and web verticals (e.g., Automotive, Business and Finance, Food & Drink, Healthy Living, Shopping, Sports, Travel, etc.).

💻 Desktop & Tablet Placements

• Shared mapping: Shares the exact same Publisher Categories options as Mobile.
• Browser standard: Does not feature an "Include Mobile Web" toggle, as desktop delivery and tablet delivery natively relies on browser environments.

📺 CTV & OTT Placements

• Standard Placements: System default. Runs non-skippable video ads across a wide network of streaming shows, movies, and living room environments.
• Streaming Categories: Features tailored streaming-content filters. You can opt into categories like Comedy, Documentary, Drama, Education, Entertainment, Food & Home, News & Weather, Outdoors, Reality, Spanish Language, Sports, and Travel.

• Top Networks (CTV only): Allows specialized placement filtering specifically on top-tier CTV distribution networks. Applicable with a $35 CPM.

 

🎧 Audio Placements (Streaming Radio & Podcasts)

• Play on Streaming Radio: Delivers your ads across digital audio networks and streaming radio stations. Toggle on Choose music genres and interests to select styles like Adult Contemporary, Alternative, Classical, Country, Dance/EDM, Jazz, Rock, Urban & Hip-Hop, etc.

• Play on Podcasts: Serves ads alongside relevant audio podcast programming verticals like GT Performance Podcasts, Business, Technology & Education, Entertainment, Lifestyle & Health, News & Politics, Sports, and True Crime.
• Specific Ad Placements (Podcasts only, CPM $29): Gives you granular control over the exact positioning of your ad within a podcast episode. Check the boxes to target Pre-Roll (before the episode starts), Mid-Roll (during the episode), or Post-Roll (after the episode concludes).

Best Practices

• Prioritize Open Scale: It’s highly recommended to leave Publisher Categories and Streaming Categories untouched. Keeping these selections broad ensures your campaign maintains maximum scale, which is especially vital for Mobile and Desktop & Tablet campaigns.
• Contextual Alignment: If you choose to apply categories, align them tightly with your creative asset. For example, target Sports podcasts or streaming radio genres when deploying an athletic apparel promotion.
• Avoid Device Bottlenecks: Restricting device types can heavily impact your available auction volume and suppress delivery scale.

Troubleshooting & FAQ

1. Why can't I see the "Include Mobile Web" toggle on my current ad group setup? This toggle is dynamically generated and exclusive to the Mobile media channel environment. If you are currently building an ad group for CTV, Desktop/Tablet, OTT, DOOH, or Audio, this option will be hidden because those channels do not run on mobile in-app environments.
2. What happens if I select multiple podcast categories and also check Pre-Roll, Mid-Roll, and Post-Roll? The system will apply "AND" logic between your content categories and your specific positions. This means your ad will only serve if it matches one of your selected podcast categories and becomes available during the exact episode window (e.g., Pre-Roll) you checked.
3. Will turning off "Mobile Web" lower my campaign's performance metrics? Not necessarily, but it will decrease the total size of your available inventory pool. Turning it off restricts your campaign to In-App only inventory. If your target location or audience settings are already highly narrow, keeping Mobile Web disabled may result in under-pacing.
4. Can I pick specific, individual apps or websites to serve my ads on? GroundTruth Ads Manager optimizes delivery programmatically across curated verticals using Publisher Categories rather than singular app-by-app selection. This ensures you maintain enough auction liquidity to fulfill your budget while keeping your ads inside contextually relevant content environments. If you wish to whitelist or blacklist certain websites or applications, you may upload your own custom list to do so.