Ad Dropper: Target category specific in-content ads

You can do some pretty cool targeting for in-content ads with Ad Dropper and categories. This will work on both WordPress posts, IssueM Articles, and even custom post types and custom taxonomies.

1. Create a new Ad Zone

Go to Ad Dropper > Ad Zones and add a new Ad Zone.

2. Add the zone details

Add a name for the zone... plus a slug, parent category, and description (if desired).

3. Check the box to Insert Into Content

Check the box next to "Automatically insert ads in this ad zone into content" which will open up additional options.

4. Set the post type you want the add to appear on.

We'll check the box for Posts, in this example, because we want this ad to appear in all posts with the category of Loose Leaf Tea.

5. Go find the ID of the taxonomy (for example, a category) that you want this ad to appear in.

Note: Setting the specific taxonomy details is completely optional and if you don't follow steps 5-6 the in content ad will appear in all Posts (or whichever post type(s) you have selected in step 4).

Open up a new tab and navigate to the post (or article or custom post type)'s categories section (or whatever taxonomy you want to use).

Find the category you want the ad to display in and click the link to edit that category.

When editing the category, look up at the url to find the ID.

6. Add that ID to the new ad zone

Add that ID (and others separated by a comma if you want to use multiple categories for the same zone) to the Show Only In Taxonomy.

Another way to approach this is to use the Hide in Taxonomy functionality... where the ad zone would appear on all posts except for the ones in the category with IDs you add to that box.

7. Set where in the content you want the ad zone to appear

You can choose between Before Content, After Content, or you can set the location based on paragraphs. We will set ours to appear after the second paragraph.

8. Save the zone

Click the Add New Zone button to save your work and you should now see it appear on the right-hand side along with your other ad zones.

9. Repeat this process

Repeat this process to set up as many custom ad zones as you would like. You could have one per category or groups of categories. When selling to advertisers you can use this customization to make sure that their ads are appearing in the appropriate content to help them market to the users they are wanting to reach.