Custom targeting with DoubleClick (DFP)

We had to insert some custom targeting tags for our advertisments this week and a lot of the documentation I found popping up was old or unrelated. It took a little bit of time digging down the rabbit hole, but I was able to work out the current (March 2014) method of adding additional targeting data. It all starts with the googletag.cmd.push() method you use to initiate your ad units. Inside the closure, you're able to use the setTargeting() method to assign custom tags.

<script type="text/javascript">
  googletag.cmd.push(function () {
    // Tag defintions ect. go here.

    // Create a custom tag
    googletag.pubads().setTargeting("gender", "Male");

    googletag.pubads().enableSingleRequest();
    googletag.enableServices();
  });
</script>

Of course, if you want to use dynamic tags it's still pretty easy. Here's a Laravel example.

@if(Auth::check())
    googletag.pubads().setTargeting('gender', '{{{ Auth::user()->gender }}}');
@endif

Hopefully this is helpful to some people. I figure the more blogs that publish the new way of doing things the further down the old blog posts will move down the Google rankings.