The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for delivering content based on physical object characteristics. When a physical object is detected within a specified proximity of a component of a computer system, the computer system submits an accessed object identifier for the physical object to a content portal. The content portal identifies content and corresponding layout information for the computer system by at least determining the commonality between object keywords for the physical object and target keywords for content providers and determining content placement priorities corresponding to content providers. The content portal sends the content and layout information to the computer system. The computer system filters a subset of content from the received and presents the filtered subset of content on a presentation surface in accordance with corresponding layout information.