Brand campaigns seeking better performance look to behaviorial targeting
As brand dollars shift online and as brand campaigns shift more towards performance, we’re beginning to see a lot more interest in the performance benefits of behavioral targeting (BT). BT takes information such as the pages users have visited or searches they’ve made, and enables you to serve ads that are more relevant to a user’s interests. The argument then becomes: if you can show relevant ads to interested users, the performance of your campaign should increase – hence the natural link between performance campaigns and BT.
I attended OMMA Behavioral late last week and had the pleasure of taking in several interesting presentations and speakers that focused on the growth of BT and its impact on publishers and advertisers. The best of these was “How Are Brands Looking at Behavioral Targeting?”, presented by Doug Chavez, senior manager of digital marketing at Del Monte Foods. He confirmed the above trend when this equation flashed across the screen: “Brand + DR [Direct Response] = BT Growth”. This is backed up by a June 2007 forecast by eMarketer, which projects behavioral targeting to more than double between now and 2011.
Brand advertising and BT can be a particularly strong match, because brands have a deep understanding of their consumers and how to engage them. Brand advertisers and their agencies try to use a precise combination of demographic and psychographic information to target the appropriate audience. BT lends to this extremely well. We’re starting to see more brand-relevant segments offered in the market – the Avid Golfer, the Family Chef, etc.
The one thing I took away from OMMA Behavioral and Doug’s talk in particular is that BT may not be a silver bullet but it does align very well with what brand advertisers seek. Doug underscored the importance of BT providers being transparent with advertisers with respect to how their BT segments are created. Brands are not looking for the “special sauce”, but more for the ingredients that are necessary to show the most relevant ad to the most interested user.
— Megan Bergtholdt, Consultant, Professional Services