Behavioral Targeting: Advertising Reaches Your Target Audience
Behavioral Targeting is a term from online marketing and is based on the method of analyzing the user’s browsing behavior and displaying ads based on that. This is also referred to as behavior-based audience targeting.
The more data is collected through Behavioral Targeting, the more efficiently the created user profiles can be used. This is because marketing efforts are not aimed at tailoring advertisements for every individual buyer but at identifying homogeneous groups and delivering suitable ads to those groups.
Throughout the further Customer Journey, these user profiles will only see products or services that are likely to be interesting and match their browsing behavior. Both advertisers and target audiences benefit from this targeted ad placement. Potential customers only see relevant ads, and advertisers reduce wastage and achieve higher ad effectiveness.
Behavioral Targeting can also be compared to a modern mom-and-pop shop: Aunt Emma knows all the customers personally and knows exactly what they prefer, giving purchase recommendations based on that knowledge. Behavioral Targeting is not much different. By collecting data through cookies, it is closely monitored how visitors behave on an online shop, and based on that, relevant ads (recommendations) are displayed.
The goal of Behavioral Targeting is to display ads at the right time and in the right place, minimizing waste. Ultimately, the aim is to increase conversion. Since the user sees the content they searched for, Behavioral Targeting contributes to better performance in online campaigns.
Behavioral Targeting collects data via cookies, such as information about the user’s visit duration, bounce rates, viewed products, clicks, and more. As a result, it becomes clear which products are of interest to the visitor, what isn’t of interest, etc. Behavioral patterns and user interests are identified, and user profiles are created.
Example of Behavioral Targeting:
You want to buy a new high-end designer sofa and search for a suitable model on various websites. Based on your browsing behavior, different furniture providers will offer exclusive sofas for purchase in the coming days.
Behavioral Targeting only works on websites that have access to cookies. Behavioral Targeting does not involve collecting personal information but exclusively focuses on collecting generalized behavioral data. The cookie technology creates anonymized user profiles. However, if a computer is used by different family members, Behavioral Targeting has its limits, as the user profiles become distorted.
In addition to Behavioral Targeting, there are other targeting methods for placing ads effectively. The most common ones are:
- Content or Contextual Targeting: This method reads the text of a webpage and displays only relevant ads. For example, if a webpage discusses rheumatism, advertisers will likely show ads related to rheumatism nutrition and suitable recipes.
- Semantic Targeting: This method doesn’t just search for a specific keyword, such as “rheumatism,” on a webpage, but reads the entire page’s text. Based on that, topic-specific online campaigns are placed.
- Sociodemographic Targeting: Ads are displayed based on sociodemographic criteria such as age, gender, etc.
- Retargeting: This method targets users who, for example, abandoned a purchase in an online shop.
- Geo-Targeting: This method uses the IP address to regionally target ads.
- Technical Targeting: Ads are displayed based on technical information such as the browser, operating system, etc.)
Your contact for user-oriented advertising using Behavioral Targeting
With Behavioral Targeting, traditional environment-based advertising has shifted to user-centered advertising. While this reduces the reach of an online campaign, the chance of triggering a purchase increases. The targeting options available to you and how to integrate them effectively into your campaigns are best discussed with our online specialist Tanja Hensler (hensler@trebbau.com, Tel.: 0221/37646 – 330).