For the past decade, advertisers have mostly targeted individual users based on tracked browsing behaviors. However, privacy changes are ushering in a celebrated return to contextual advertising. With Apple and Google putting new tracking obstaclesOpens a new window in place, advertisers are trading in behavioral targeting for contextual, which serve ads based on a nuanced understanding of digital content and audience interest, all while respecting user privacy.
Every contextual targeting solution boils down to sets of tags or keywords that allow DSPs to match advertiser requests with available supply. For example, a sneaker company might target content related to “running†or “fitness.â€
Typically, these keyword-based approaches to advertising miss the mark, poorly judging the appropriateness of content for a campaign. This is particularly true in the gaming industry, where conversations are ambiguous, user-generated content is high, and inventory is prone to misclassification.
Let’s explore how emerging technology can drive more effective contextual ads and revitalize gaming inventory.
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The Promise of Contextual Ads
When done correctly (using AI and vertical-specific understanding), contextual advertising offers marketers a prime opportunity to connect with consumers in the right settings, such as when they are actively consuming content related to the advertised product or service.Â
That is an improvement on behavioral ads, which are often perceived as creepyOpens a new window for hitting users with ads for products outside the context of their online experience. (Why am I getting ads for strollers I saw on Instagram while reading about the latest Marvel TV show?)
Contextually targeted ads also have an organic link to brand safety. Because they hinge on the context in which they appear, contextual ads can be engineered to display only next to media with which advertisers would be proud to be associated.
 Most importantly, contextual ads are a future-proof, time-tested ad targeting method. They do not rely on cookies, identity scraping, or other privacy-invasive dark arts; they equip advertisers well to embark on the nascent era of privacy-first advertising.
 How Keywords Miss the Mark in Gaming
 Gaming is the perfect example of the inappropriate dynamic, as the ecosystem often involves terminology that an advertiser might typically avoid.Â
Keywords alone fail to live up to the promise of contextual advertising. In fact, the very benefits of contextual ads — their organic connection to brand safety — can work against them when a ham-fisted keyword-based strategy is deployed.
 For example, plenty of tremendously popular games involve weapons and some level of violence. But not all games involving “weapons†or “violence,†two words that might lead DSPs to shirk gaming inventory, are created equal.
Consider a relatively innocent game like Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros., where characters like Mario and Luigi pick up ray “guns.†The online conversation surrounding in-game items is positive and respectful. The game content itself is anodyne, and the audiences are highly engaged consumers who would make strong targets for advertisers. However, because the content involves “guns,†keyword blocklists prevent advertisers from capturing the inventory, doing a disservice to the advertiser, the publisher, and the gamers themselves.
 Brand safety efforts such as these become brand slip-ups. Keyword-based solutions can misclassify URLs, resulting in missed opportunities, irrelevant ads, and lower revenue for both advertisers and publishers.
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Contextual Strategies for Smarter Ads
Cutting-edge solutions involve artificial intelligence, natural language processing, and knowledge graphs. In tandem, NLP AI backed by a knowledge graph allows advertisers to more accurately contextualize content, even when it is unstructured, and assess both audience sentiment and brand safety. This is particularly important in gaming inventory, rich in high-velocity, user-generated content.
Consider a common web page a gamer might visit: a guide on how to defeat a particular in-game encounter. This may include advice on how to “kill the bossâ€, innocent within gaming vernacular, yet flagged as unsafe by most DSPs. Even if the page was correctly tagged as gaming-related, this is only the tip of the classification iceberg. Â
In the same way the same ad would not be served to audiences of string quartets and heavy metal bands, the ray gun in Smash Bros shouldn’t be lumped in with the laser sight in Call of Duty. Making sense of these nuances requires both NLP AI and a deeper contextual understanding of the gaming ecosystem.
Next-generation contextual analysis can do even more for advertisers. In addition to identifying appropriate contexts for ads, it gauges audiences’ other related brand affinities, understands the culture of a community, and helps advertisers employ niche influencers while simultaneously mitigating safety risks.
Media and measurement providers are already leveraging contextual signals to elevate campaign performance. Comscore’s Predictive Audiences shirk cookies in favor of context, and Gamesquare’s GCN uses AI-powered custom contextual targeting to drive unparalleled ROAS.
In each case, contextual understanding — enabled by a rich knowledge graph and advanced AI — is central to the application. Whether creating an ideal audience or targeting the right placement, AI-powered contextual analysis is the future of advertising.
Indeed, AI-powered contextual targeting is only one aspect of what it takes to plan and execute a smart marketing campaign today, especially in gaming. Holistically, successful contextual campaigns require AI-powered understanding at every stage: from creative decisioning and media planning to audience targeting and impact analysis. It’s time for advertisers to level up their audience understanding and media strategy. It’s time for Contextual Advertising 3.0.
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