Five Things You Need to Know About Behavioral Targeting

Three leading behavioral targeting providers share a wealth of information.

 

Recently, I had the opportunity to hear three leading providers speak about behavioral targeting and some challenges facing the industry. They helped confirm the fact behavioral is not the Holy Grail of online advertising many initially believed it was. It faces many of the same issues previous products grappled with in online advertising.

Below, some key takeaways from these providers.

It Doesn’t Always Work

This is probably the most important point. Just as with contextually relevant placements, search, rich media, and every other type of ad campaign, campaign results will vary. We found this out with some current campaigns we’re running for our clients. Test behavioral targeting, and set benchmarks against which you can improve and optimize. There’s no guarantee of success, only that you must apply hard work and optimization.

Set Realistic Expectations

Set realistic expectations for behavioral targeting. More often than not, targeting by content still returns the best results. Don’t necessarily expect behavioral targeting to deliver numbers that are above and beyond those based on content sponsorships.

These Things Take Time

Campaigns often require optimization, but give them enough time to reflect accurate results. Too often, clients or agencies are quick to boot sites or placements off a campaign when the initial results are lacking. With behaviorally targeted placements, targeted segments often need to be tweaked. You may have to expand or contract the target segment.

Share the Wealth

Share as much information as possible with publishers up front. Provide them with your campaign objectives, success criteria, and target audience. Giving generic information regarding target and objective won’t cut it if you want the campaign to succeed.

Media Doesn’t Work in a Vacuum

Media strategy and tactics can’t always make a campaign great. Creative plays a vital role in a campaign’s success, and the same can be said of creative people. Whether it’s behavioral targeting based on segmentation only, retargeting look-alike targeting, or a combination of behavioral and demographic targeting, the creative should be tweaked to ensure it’s consistent with the media strategy. Utilizing sequential messaging or creative that’s consistent with targeted segments can go a long way toward fostering success.

The Big Picture

Behavioral targeting isn’t about targeting to just Web sites or just networks. It boils down to the ability to target one on one or opportunities that most closely mirror such an individual approach. Soon, behavioral targeting will be used for email marketing and search, as well as for mobile advertising.

Behavioral targeting isn’t the wholesale revolution people originally thought it was. Instead, it’s more an evolution in the targeting capabilities online can provide. It’s certainly a great weapon to have in the media arsenal, but it should by no means be the only one.

David Rittenhouse is off this week. Today’s column ran earlier on ClickZ.

 

Subscribe to get your daily business insights

Whitepapers

US Mobile Streaming Behavior
Whitepaper | Mobile

US Mobile Streaming Behavior

5y

US Mobile Streaming Behavior

Streaming has become a staple of US media-viewing habits. Streaming video, however, still comes with a variety of pesky frustrations that viewers are ...

View resource
Winning the Data Game: Digital Analytics Tactics for Media Groups
Whitepaper | Analyzing Customer Data

Winning the Data Game: Digital Analytics Tactics for Media Groups

5y

Winning the Data Game: Digital Analytics Tactics f...

Data is the lifeblood of so many companies today. You need more of it, all of which at higher quality, and all the meanwhile being compliant with data...

View resource
Learning to win the talent war: how digital marketing can develop its people
Whitepaper | Digital Marketing

Learning to win the talent war: how digital marketing can develop its peopl...

2y

Learning to win the talent war: how digital market...

This report documents the findings of a Fireside chat held by ClickZ in the first quarter of 2022. It provides expert insight on how companies can ret...

View resource
Engagement To Empowerment - Winning in Today's Experience Economy
Report | Digital Transformation

Engagement To Empowerment - Winning in Today's Experience Economy

1m

Engagement To Empowerment - Winning in Today's Exp...

Customers decide fast, influenced by only 2.5 touchpoints – globally! Make sure your brand shines in those critical moments. Read More...

View resource