One Answer to Problem of Behavioral Targeting

There are many kinds of Internet advertising. The latest contender for the new online advertising paradigm is behavioral targeting (BT), which displays a particular creative or rich content based on the sites the viewer has visited and what actions the viewer has performed on those websites.

BT results in increased access to users who are in the market for (ready to buy) a particular product, perhaps because of the affects of online advertising or a branding campaign. However, to use Internet advertising and BT, you must be able to change your advertising on the fly based on the behavioral segments identified.

Behavioral targeting helps identify behavorial segments that are then labeled, for example:

• visited but did not buy,


• searched for discounted appliances,


• looked at brand name, or


• saved a shopping basket on site.

BT may be the latest harbringer of advertising successs for online stores.

Primary Types of Behavioral Segments

Firstly, there are behavioral segments developed by aggregating users who have gone to targeted advertising on a web site.

Secondly, there are behavioral segments formed by users who have searched for specific keywords or have read content containing a specific keywords on a website. These users are looking to purchase a specific item or group of items.

Lastly, there are behavioral segments of users who visited your web site and performed specific actions, such as put items in a shopping cart, watching a video or subscribing to a mailing list. Any member of any behavioral segment may be retargeted when they are found on other more general-content-type websites.

Problem of Behavioral Targeting

The biggest drawback of behavioral targeting for advertisers is that it is hard to change their media mix once BT segments have been identified, even though changing the media (content and interactive elements) to make use of behavioral targeting would result in significant saving of marketing dollars by Internet advertising.

One Solution to Problem of Behavorial Targeting

Some advertisers use an Internet advertising traffic source such as ad networks, to deliver their message to the online community, versus the site-by-site implementation of content targeting specific behavioral segments.

For more information, visit Ad Week

Tags: Behavorial Targeting, Internet Advertising, Ad Networks, shop but do not buy, behavioral segments