Behavioral Targeting: What is it?

According to another study published by Microsoft Research Asia, user segmentation (a behavioral targeting method) for ad delivery can increase CTR by as much as 670%. In this article, we’ll shed light on what is behavior targeting, how it works, and how your brand can benefit from it.

Defining Behavioural Targeting: What is It?

Behavioral targeting or behavioral advertising is an online advertising method used by marketers to display relevant ads and send marketing messages to users based on their behavior while browsing through the web. It uses data that can define a user’s behavior like the pages they view, their search terms, the amount of time they spend on a website, what ads they click on, how often they surf the web, and any purchases that they make online. Using this data, the marketers can create online advertisements relevant to the user’s habits and interests.

The main aim of this behavioral characteristic marketing approach is to deliver a marketing message to behavioral target markets most likely to buy from their brand. 

Types of Behavioral Targeting

There are two types of behavioral marketing used by marketers:

Onsite Behavioral Targeting

Onsite targeting is a tactic used with a website. This form of targeting is used for website personalization. The data about user behavior is captured from the site itself. The pages they visit, the amount of time they spent on a page, and what CTAs they clicked on. Using this information relevant personalized ads are displayed to the user. This method is used to create a more streamlined and relevant experience for the users. 

Onsite behavioral targeting allows marketers to show content, recommend products, and promote to the users based on their behavior on the site. This allows them to keep the users engaged and successfully convert the users into customers.

Network Behavioral Targeting

In this behavioral marketing method, the advertisers divide the users into segments based on different factors like their purchase intent and interests. They define these factors themselves using the user’s web browsing behavior. This data usually comes from the advertiser’s own website, which is then used for personalization and retargeting. 

This data uses device-identifying information like IP addresses and MAC addresses. The information gathered from this data can be used and shared across multiple sites. The algorithms used in this method gather the data and divide them into different segments. The algorithms can predict the users’ gender, age, and purchase intent. This allows the marketers to create more personalized ads that the users will for sure click on.

How Does Behavioral Targeting Advertising Work?

Behavioral targeting tracks the user’s web browsing habits using cookies. Here is a step by step review of how a user’s behavior is tracked and data about that behavior is gathered to create relevant and personalized ads:

• Collecting cookies

As soon as you view a page, you may see a popup box asking whether you would accept the cookies or not. These cookies are used to track your behavior or the site and otherwise. 

• Developing a user profile

This happens when you frequently visit a page, purchase a product online, or spend time on particular content. More and more cookies get collected and stored, which helps build your user profile

• Defining consumer groups

This process is also known as segmentation. The users are divided into segments based on the similar web browsing behavior they exhibit. For example, people who travel a lot, often search for flights and book hotel rooms online, these people can be classified into one segment. 

• Creating relevant ads for viewers

Once the users are divided into segments, you can now create personalized and relevant content and ads for them based on what they need and require. The effectiveness of behavioral targeting relies on a proper data gathering tool and a reliable means of implementing it.

Does Behavioural Targeting Really Work?

Behavioral targeting is all about gathering data about a user’s behavior and creating personalized and relevant content for them based on that data. This method has been proven successful and such targeted ads are proven to be twice as successful as non-targeted ads. Although it has one very significant drawback, some users might feel that these ads are invasive and to them, it would seem like their personal information is being used somehow. Privacy has been a very prominent issue that many marketers and even big media platforms like Facebook and Instagram are trying to cater to now. According to a survey, around 72% of Americans say that they are extremely concerned about their online privacy.

Marketers have to be careful while creating targeted ads. The content should not seem too invasive that it creeps out the users. 

Behavioral Targeting vs. Contextual Targeting

As we have already established, behavioral targeting uses the behavior patterns of users as data to display ads they believe the user would find relevant, whilst contextual targeting matches ads to relevant sites in the Display Network with the help of similar keywords. The ads are displayed based on a website’s content using its linguistic elements. For example, when you search for a recipe for a dish and you click on a webpage with the recipe on it, you are shown ads based on the cooking supplies that you may need. Or when you search for an iPhone, you are shown ads for iPhone covers as well. 

Benefits of Behavioral Targeting

The web browsing behavioral data that the marketers have allows them to create very precise ads that are relevant to the user. The purpose is that it benefits the visitor as much as it benefits the site displaying the ads. Here are some prominent benefits of behavioral targeting:

• Increases on-site engagement

Behavioral targeting can be used to retarget potential customers that entered the marketing funnel but for some reason abandoned it. By tracking the behavior of such users on-site, the brand can create campaigns that would encourage such customers to finish the buying journey. 

• Higher click-through rates

If a user sees ads that are relevant to them and somehow fulfill their requirements, he/she is more likely to click on them as compared to the non-targeted ads that do not speak to them on a personal level

• Higher conversion rates

Again when the user clicks on an ad relevant to them, they are more likely to buy the product as it would be what they are looking for.

• Higher return on investment

Marketers must use methods that have proven to be successful. Using behavioral targeting for online advertising has proven to be twice as successful as non-targeted ads, which means a higher return on the investment you make to display these ads. 

Conclusion

Online advertising is tricky. You need to define your target market and decide which media platform you are going to use for it. Behavioral advertising is one of the many targeting methods used in online advertising. Let our expert marketers help you decide what methods you should use for your display ads to make them more successful.