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In online marketing, you need to find effective channels from the start. But testing on a large scale can cost a lot of money.

We want to help you reduce wasted spending and target ads more precisely using IAB targeting for Direct Click campaigns. First, let’s explain what IAB is. Then we’ll show a real example.

This case study was prepared by RollerAds together with Affroom. Affroom is a platform where marketers share real examples and fresh strategies.

What is IAB targeting?

IAB stands for standard categories of websites and their content. For example, a cooking website goes into “Hobbies & Interests,” and a fitness blog goes into “Health & Fitness.”

When a website joins the RollerAds network, we review it and assign the right IAB category. This helps advertisers show ads to people who are more likely to be interested. Website owners also earn more.

Benefits of IAB targeting

• Faster testing – No need to check thousands of zones manually. You immediately see which categories work.
• Easy optimization – Turn off hundreds of bad zones with one click.
• Precise control – Manage traffic by topic easily.
• Higher quality – Users respond better to ads that match their interests.

Case study: Testing IAB targeting

We ran a test with two similar offers (VPN service, mobile devices, iOS, $20 payout). Tip: test several similar offers – they can perform very differently.

Note: IAB targeting is currently available on request – contact your manager.

Setup and optimization

At launch, we selected all 38 IAB categories. This allowed us to quickly turn off entire groups of poor-performing zones later.

• Days 1–2: Gathered statistics.
• Day 3: Noticed one zone with many clicks but no conversions – turned it off.
• Day 4: Found a whole category with no conversions – turned off hundreds of zones at once.
• Day 5: Removed the second offer (it performed worse) and another bad category.
• Days 6–8: Continued turning off poor zones and categories (including Sports, Food & Drink, Genres).

Results after 8 days

• Cost: $665.45
• Revenue: $840.00
• Profit: $174.55
• Return on investment (ROI): +26.23%

Thanks to IAB targeting, we not only made a profit during the test itself, but also created a good “whitelist” for future scaling.

Important: This whitelist works only for this specific campaign. Copying it without adjustments may fail. Always run your own tests.

Final thought

IAB targeting works great for Direct Click campaigns. It simplifies testing and optimization, reduces wasted spending, and helps you focus on traffic that actually delivers results.

If you need help setting up IAB targeting – contact your manager or support team.