Contextual data taxonomy design
Data taxonomy is the classification of contextual categories into hierarchical groups to create a structure that affects how your data is priced in The Trade Desk platform. After completing the initial setup phase, you must create a taxonomy that outlines your categories, data elements, and rates, and submit it as a spreadsheet with all required information to your Data Partnerships Manager for approval.
IMPORTANT: You must submit your taxonomy by the end of the second week of the integration timeline.
Here's what you need to know about taxonomy design and pricing:
- Taxonomies typically categorize data in a tree-like structure, with parent and child segments, as shown in Taxonomy example.
- The actual contextual category pricing is assigned at the data element level.
- You can specify which categories you want to become available to all buyers (standard categories) in the platform or only specific buyers (custom categories).
- The Trade Desk uses hybrid pricing: price rates use a percentage of media cost with a maximum CPM (Cost Per Mille) cap.
Design your taxonomy
To design your taxonomy, complete the following steps:
- Include the names and IDs of the categories you want to onboard from your system and add your category prefix to each ID. Your category prefix was provided to you during the initial setup.
- Organize your categories into two types, standard or custom, based on whether you want them to be available to all advertisers or only specific advertisers in The Trade Desk platform.
- Organize your categories into data element groups by category type and unique pricing, and then assign a rate to each data element.
- Within each data element, assign the tactic you and your Data Partnerships Manager discussed during the initial setup.
Category types
There are two types of categories you can onboard: standard and custom. These category types determine which advertisers can access your categories in The Trade Desk platform. In your taxonomy, you must provide a column that indicates which categories are standard and which are custom.
NOTE: When you onboard your data, you will set the type at both the category and data element level.
The following table lists the two types of contextual categories that you can surface on our platform.
| Category Type | Availability | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Custom category | Specific buyers that you assign | Custom contextual categories are lists of keywords and phrases that you can build with customizations based on The Trade Desk users' requirements. These categories have a flat structure with no hierarchical, parent-child relationships. |
| Standard category | All buyers | Standard contextual categories are global categories that you create and upload to The Trade Desk platform for all partners to query and apply to bid lists. These are predefined, "off-the-shelf" targeting categories that can be used by any advertiser at scale. They include arts, entertainment, sports, and many other categories and may be organized hierarchically. |
NOTE: For custom categories in your taxonomy, you do not need to specify which buyers you want to assign. You specify buyers when you onboard your data.
Data elements
Data elements determine how you assign rates to your contextual categories. Here's what you need to know:
- Advertisers in the platform purchase categories individually and are charged at the rate you assign to each category's data element.
- When you assign a rate to a data element, that rate is applied to all categories in that data element.
- You can assign prices to your categories only by assigning rates to data elements.
- A data element can have only one type of category assigned to it. In other words, you cannot have both standard and custom categories in the same element.
- Price rates use hybrid pricing.
For each data element in your taxonomy, include the name of the element and the rate you want to assign to all categories within the element.
Taxonomy example
The following diagram illustrates a standard data element, with three custom categories, that has a hybrid rate of 12% of media cost and $1.50 CPM cap, and the Brand Safety tactic.
NOTE: The image above offers a visual representation of contextual taxonomies; however, creating a diagram is not required. To submit your taxonomy for approval by The Trade Desk's Data Partnerships team, you must use a spreadsheet.
Taxonomy spreadsheet example
Your taxonomy spreadsheet must have the following columns:
Data element name
Tactic
Rate
Category type
Category name
Category ID with your brand prefix
The following table is an example of a complete taxonomy spreadsheet of three data elements.
| Data Element Name | Tactic | Rate | Type | Category Name | Category ID |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Element A | Attention |
15%, $3.00 | Standard | Category 1 | br_192a |
| Data Element B | Attention |
13%, $2.00 | Standard | Category 2 | br_047b |
| Data Element B | Attention |
13%, $2.00 | Standard | Category 3 | br_305c |
| Data Element C | Sustainability |
12%, $1.50 | Custom | Category 4 | br_826d |
| Data Element C | Sustainability |
12%, $1.50 | Custom | Category 5 | br_134e |
| Data Element C | Sustainability |
12%, $1.50 | Custom | Category 6 | br_718f |
IMPORTANT: If you make changes to your rates or add any new data elements or standard categories that are not listed in your taxonomy, an approval process is automatically triggered by the Third-Party Data Rate API. You must get your new rates and data elements approved by The Trade Desk Data Partnerships team before they go live in The Trade Desk platform.
Next steps
After you draft your contextual data taxonomy, submit it to your Data Partnerships Manager and, upon approval, start implementing your taxonomy into the platform. For details, see Third-party contextual data integration.