cookielessaudiences for Elixir

Turn a URL into an audience profile from Elixir. The library calls the Cookieless Audiences API with OTP's built-in HTTP client and decodes the answer with Jason. Nothing is tracked, and no personal data is read.

Mix dependency

def deps do
  [{:cookielessaudiences, "~> 1.0"}]
end

Usage in iex

iex> client = CookielessAudiences.new(System.fetch_env!("COOKIELESS_KEY"))
iex> {:ok, page} = CookielessAudiences.segment(client, "https://example.com/blog")
iex> page["audience_type"]
"b2b"
iex> CookielessAudiences.labels_for(page)
["Technology & Computing", "Computing", "Computer Software"]

Every function returns {:ok, map} or {:error, %{status: integer, message: string}}.

Functions

• new(key, timeout: 120_000)
• segment(client, url, structured: true)
• categorize(client, url, confidence: true, root_fallback: false)
• categorize_text(client, text)
• vocabularies(): public, needs no key
• labels_for(result): readable names for the coded values

Pattern match on failures

case CookielessAudiences.segment(client, url) do
  {:ok, page} -> store(url, page)
  {:error, %{status: 403}} -> {:halt, :no_credits}
  {:error, %{status: s}} when s in [410, 411] -> :skip
  {:error, other} -> Logger.warning("segment failed: #{inspect(other)}")
end

The status is read from the JSON body. HTTP is not used to signal errors.

Concurrent batch with Task.async_stream

urls
|> Task.async_stream(&CookielessAudiences.segment(client, &1), max_concurrency: 8, timeout: 130_000)
|> Enum.zip(urls)
|> Enum.map(fn
  {{:ok, {:ok, page}}, url} -> {url, page["audience_type"]}
  {_, url} -> {url, :failed}
end)

Back-pressure is built in. Raise max_concurrency once you know your plan.

Phoenix controller idea

def show(conn, %{"url" => url}) do
  case CookielessAudiences.segment(conn.assigns.client, url) do
    {:ok, page} -> json(conn, Map.take(page, ["audience_type", "demographics", "interests"]))
    {:error, e} -> conn |> put_status(502) |> json(e)
  end
end

Cache the answer in ETS or Cachex; pages change slowly.

Where the data is used

Teams building deal packages work from the inventory side. The ad inventory curation feature page describes how coded interests turn a pile of domains into a package a buyer can understand.

Questions

Does it depend on Req or Finch? No. It uses :httpc from OTP, so the only package is Jason.

Which Elixir? 1.14 or later. TLS verification uses the OTP trust store.

License? MIT. info@alpha-quantum.com