How does the Location Rule work?

A detailed look at how the location rule works

Setting up the Location Rule

When configuring the Location Rule, users have several options:

1. Manually enter the latitude, longitude and radius
2. Use Rule Suggestion to automatically apply a latitude, longitude and radius
3. Manually search for a location and have the latitude, longitude and radius populated automatically (the gif below demonstrates this)
4. Use Rule Suggestion to automatically search for a location name and apply the appropriate latitude, longitude and radius

Whatever your approach - you always end up with a circle on a map - or a point if you have set the radius to 0.

Selecting a specific location line for the user

When the A Million Ads Platform receives a request for an ad, the most common way to derive the user's location is from their IP address. The A Million Ads Platform converts the user's IP address to a location - expressing it as a latitude, longitude and radius - another circle on a map. The radius value is a reflection of how confident A Million Ads can be about the user's specific location.

The A Million Ads Platform then compares the circle on a map for the user to the circle on a map for each Rule Condition. A script line can only be selected to a user when the circle on a map that was derived from their IP address fits entirely within the circle on a map as configured in the Location Rule for that line.

In the example below:

• the green circle represents the Location configured in Studio for a specific script line
• the blue circle with a tick represents the location of one user and this user will hear the line associated with the green circle
• the blue circle with a cross represents the location of another user who cannot hear the line associated with the green circle. This user will hear the default location line unless their circle fits entirely within the circle on a map for another Rule.

If a user's latitude, longitude and radius fits entirely within the circle on a map for multiple script lines - the script line with the latitude and longitude that is closest to the user will be heard/seen.

When script lines using the Location rule have a radius of 0 (a point, rather than a circle on a map), A Million Ads ignores the radius for the user and simply selects the script line that has a Location that is closest to the user.