What is Traffic Shaping?
Traffic Shaping is a form of pre-bid request filtering. It provides ability to run a bidder only when specific criteria are met. The following are possible examples of traffic shaping rules:
- Only run AppNexus in the United States
- Only run AppNexus in the United States on Desktop devices
- Only run AppNexus in Android operating systems
- Run AppNexus worldwide EXCEPT the United States on Firefox or Safari browsers
- etc..
Traffic Shaping rules can be conditioned on:
- Country
- Device
- Browser
- Operating System (OS)
How to setup Traffic Shaping
First, enable Traffic Shaping
- Navigate to the Setup Options screen
- Click the “Traffic Shaping” checkbox
Then, configure Traffic Shaping Rules
- Navigate to Header Bidding > Traffic Shaping
- Click “Add New Rule”
- Set the Bidder, Operator and Condition(s)
By default, all bidders are enabled globally. The addition of traffic shaping rules modifies the default behavior.
Using Multiple Conditions
The following rules apply when combining multiple conditions
- Multiple conditions are AND-ed together
- Values of each condition are OR-ed together
For example, consider the following rule
This means
- For the bidder 33Across
- ONLY request bids when…
- The user’s country is Canada or United States
- And
- The user’s device is Desktop or Tablet
Allow versus Block
Each bidder may be associated with 1 or more rules.
- If zero rules are specified for a bidder, that bidder will always request bids.
- If an ALLOW rule is specified, the bidder will request bids ONLY when the conditions are met.
- If a BLOCK rule is specified, the bidder will request bids UNLESS the conditions are met.
For example, the following rule would prevent 33Across from running on Mobile devices (but it would still run on other device types)
FAQ
How is the country determined?
The country is determined by the CDN (Amazon Cloudfront)
How is the device and browser determined?
The device and browser are determined from the browser’s User Agent