Context and behaviour: the magic formula for reaching customers online

Gavin Sinden, digital strategy director, Equi=Media, says targeting has come on in leaps and bounds over the last year but there are still some big developments in its future…

Behavioural targeting has been much talked about over the last year and is a practice that has grown hugely in use and sophistication.

Behavioural targeting started with simply tracking users’ website preferences as they moved through the web and targeting adverts at large groups of people who had shown interest in your type of product or service.

Now, however, thanks to the advances in data collection and tracking technology, marketers are now able to be much cleverer with the targeting methods they use and with how they aim to convert customers.

Behavioural retargeting gives retailers a second chance to reach potential customers that have visited their website, browsed but not made a purchase, which is proving to be a powerful technique in the world of advertising.

Behavioural targeting works by tracking consumers online browsing habits. Previously potential customers would be served with a generic ad to try and drive them back to a retailer’s website but developments in technology mean that now users can be served with ads that reflect products or categories of products that they have previously viewed on the site.

So for example, if you are looking at booking a holiday and have gone through several stages of the booking process but not completed the order, you might then see adverts for that particular holiday as you read the news or view travel reviews on other sites, all designed to encourage you to return to the site and complete your purchase.

In order to create the most effective targeted campaign, it’s crucial that marketers also consider context. If you are able to serve ads to consumers while they are reading related, relevant content then you have more chance of catching users when they are most likely to be interested in your product.

A good example of this is a recent campaign we ran for Panasonic Toughbook’s mobile computer the U1. We were able to serve Toughbook ads alongside news articles about how the product was used to help rescue the 33 Chilean miners. In order to make this kind of contextual advertising work, marketers need to ensure they have a tight set of relevant keywords through which the targeting operates – get this right and it can be hugely effective.

But what does this have to do with behavioural targeting?  For maximum efficiency it is crucial to ensure you are not just retargeting customers based on past behaviour but that you are also able to reach them when they are viewing related comment.

So for example if a potential customer looks at a specific pair of shoes on your website and then goes to the vogue website and reads an article about accessories you are able to tie together context and behaviour when targeting that consumer. Of course, the efficiency of this type of multi-layered complex campaign is only as efficient as the media buyer setting it up and optimising the campaign over time.

Targeting has come on in leaps and bounds over the last year but there are still some big developments in its future. The skill of the buyers and campaign optimisers is the key to achieving a successful campaign. If brands are willing to test new techniques and understand that advanced targeting can mean online campaigns will become more efficient overall, contributing significantly to their marketing mix, they could be on the way to harnessing the true power of the web.