The Physics of Behavioral Ad Targeting
When you build a building, you always have to know both the static and dynamic forces at work. Otherwise the structure falls down.
Website building is a little like that, in a way. At least, it is when you’re attempting to use behavioral ad targeting techniques.
Behavioral ad targeting may be one of the latest hot areas, but — like most up-to-the-split-second trends — it’s been brewing for some time.
It makes sense as an area worthy of focus given that normal Internet users spend, in aggregate, a few minutes a month performing searches. The rest of the time they’re researching via favorite sites, doing comparison shopping via previously known merchants, etc. In other words, they’re not seeking sites that tell them where to look for what they want. They’re just looking for what they want.
That suggests one secret to successful behavioral ad targeting: knowing what a visitor wants when they visit. Obvious, to the point of dullness. But observe it has two components. What THAT visitor wants and WHEN. One static fact, one dynamic.
Contextual ads do that to some degree, by displaying ads relevant to the content on a page. But there are other ways to display relevant ads. Ways that are both more dynamic and more static.
They’re static in that shoppers tend to have interests that change slowly over time. Some middle-aged males are interested in high-tech golf clubs and rarely develop a sudden interest in the latest CD from Radioactive Virus.
They’re dynamic in that a shopper’s wants during a given visit will vary with the season or date, or more particular events like an anniversary, birthday, or other personal fact.
But many of those facts themselves are (relatively) static. Age changes slowly, people relocate homes on average only every few years, and incomes typically (like it or not) don’t jump by large percentage points overnight. A particular person’s birthdate and gender don’t change, period.
All these demographics help define that visitor, which gives strong clues about what they might be interested in.
Taking advantage of those facts is as simple — and as difficult — as finding them and displaying the relevant product for their particular wants at that unique time.