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Custom Categories Setup Guide

Group campaigns into custom breakdowns for reporting

K
Written by Kevin Wolf
Updated this week

What is Custom Categories?

Custom Categories lets you break down your campaigns any way you want.

Think of it like sorting clothes:

  • Category = how you want to sort (e.g., "Color" or "Clothing Type")

  • Subcategories = the groups within (e.g., Red, Black, White — or Tops, Bottoms, Socks)

Note: "Category" and "Subcategory" are just names to describe the hierarchy — they don't affect how sorting works. The rules you create are what actually do the sorting.

Once set up, you can view these breakdowns in the Attribution page, custom reports, dashboards, SQL editor, and Moby.


Step 1: Create a Category

  1. Go to Settings → Custom Categories

  2. Click + New Category

  3. Choose a template (Campaign Type is a good starting point) or start from scratch

  4. Name your category

Configure scope:

  • Time period — How far back to pull campaigns (e.g., past year only, no need for 2-3 years back)

  • Channels — Which sources to include (default: all channels, or select specific ones like Email + SMS only)


Step 2: Create Subcategories with Rules

For each subcategory, define rules to match campaigns. Manual rules are recommended — they're the most well-defined and predictable.

Rule Types

Rule Type

Use Case

Example

Channel Name

Match by platform

Channel is "Amazon" or Channel contains "AMZ"

Campaign Type

Platform campaign types

Campaign Type is "Performance Max" or "GMV Max"

Campaign Name

Match by naming convention

Campaign Name contains "RTG"

Messaging Channel Type

Klaviyo/Postscript distinction

Channel Type is "SMS" vs "Email"

Spend

Group by spend threshold

Spend greater than 1000

Tip: You can paste a list of values into the "contains" field — just separate them by commas or tabs. Great for bulk-adding campaign names or keywords.

Using AI Rules as Fallback

For categories where you don't have an exhaustive list (e.g., Organic Search), use AI rules:

  • Just describe what should go there: "organic search campaigns"

  • AI picks up whatever didn't get captured by manual rules

Note: Campaigns that don't match any manual rules get evaluated by AI rules. The AI places each campaign in whichever subcategory fits best — so make sure your subcategories cover all scenarios, or include an "Other" subcategory with a catch-all AI rule.


Step 3: Ensure Complete Coverage

Always include an "Other" subcategory as a catch-all:

  • Rule: INCLUDE: All campaigns that don't match any other subcategory's rules

  • This ensures totals add up correctly — every campaign belongs somewhere


Step 4: Save and Categorize

  1. Review your subcategories

  2. Add or remove as needed

  3. Click Save and Categorize

  4. Wait a few minutes for campaigns to be sorted


Where to View Results

Once categorized, your custom breakdowns are available in:

  • Attribution page — Analyze performance by category

  • SQL Editor — Build custom queries

  • Dashboards — Create custom reports

  • Moby — Ask questions using your categories

Tip: Look for the banner at the top of Custom Categories — it links directly to the Attribution page with your category pre-selected.


After Setup

Verify Your Results

Click download button on the top right to export your categorized campaigns as CSV to verify everything landed in the right subcategories. Useful for reconciliation or sharing with your team.

Continual Updating

Every 24 hours, our system checks for new campaigns or campaign name changes and automatically categorizes them.

Manual Overrides

If a campaign gets miscategorized, you can manually reassign it to a different subcategory. However, we generally don't recommend this — manual assignments can get overwritten if you recategorize later.

Instead, tweak your rules to catch the campaign correctly. This ensures consistent results going forward.

Editing Subcategories

You can edit subcategory names and rules at any time:

  • Changes to rules will trigger recategorization

  • Name-only changes save instantly without recategorizing

Duplicating a Category

Want to create a similar category with different tweaks? Duplicate an existing one to use as a starting point instead of building from scratch


Frequently Asked Questions

  1. Why was my campaign categorized incorrectly?

  • The AI interprets rules based on campaign names and attributes. You can manually reassign the campaign, refine your AI rules for better accuracy, or edit the name of your campaign to better match your categorization intent.

2. Can I have overlapping subcategories?

  • No, each campaign can only belong to one subcategory within each category. For example, a campaign can't be both "Meta Prospecting" and "Meta Retargeting" in the Tactic category. However, that same campaign will have one assignment in each different category you create (one tactic, one geography, one product, etc.).

3. How do I handle campaigns from new platforms?

  • You can either add new subcategories for new platforms or use your "Other" subcategory to catch everything else. You can also update existing rules to include new platforms (e.g., adding Pinterest to your "Social Retargeting" rule).

4. Why is Total Impact Attribution greyed out when looking at Customer Categories data?

  • Right now, Total Impact is not yet supported with Custom Categories. Our team is working on having support added for this model using the Custom Category within the Triple Pixel page.

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