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Working with consumer behaviour can lead to more sales through satisfied visitors getting more of what they want... Behavioural targeting is an integrated technology. It applies more often within closed networks, which is why people like Google offer free tools. The more they know about you and your interests, the more that they can customise offers to suit what you are looking for - everyone wins. For instance, in its simplest form, behavioural targeting software would take the search term data from the search query and ensuring that the site subsequently delivers information on the subject requested. For instance if the search term were holiday in Venice, then a banner ad would appear about a holiday in Venice - in context of the search term - simple in concept - but very powerful and often over looked. Even if you manage to target the right users from a demographic or geographic point of view, this doesn’t mean that all those who see your add online are interested in your product or service. If you own a pizza shop and manage to target young busy people in your delivery area, a certain number of those people might be on a diet. Your ad popping up with each refresh will annoy and make them leave the site. You lose money, the site loses users and users waste their time. Everybody loses. All this can be avoided by using behavioural targeting which allows targeting users based on their behaviour, by following someone’s interests, patterns and behaviours. Behavioural targeting is not new. It has been used in television and print media, but it is the most effective in online campaigns as it based on real behaviour, and real, personal information - as opposed to the surveys and polls used by traditional media. Behavioural targeting systems collect information regarding the user’s web browsing behaviour. The searches a user makes, the pages visited, the editorial content viewed, the banners clicks on can offer valuable information concerning his interests. In its simplest form, a behavioural targeting system would memorise the search term and make sure the banner appearing on a certain site has something to do with it. Going back to the pizza shop example, if the software finds a user who has been searching for diet advice, then, instead of the pizza banner, it will show a salad banner. Behavioural targeting can help a marketer choose the users who are more likely to be interested in his product or service. But it can also help a marketer adapt advertising according to each user - based on thier 'behaviour'. The users gets only those ads they are most likely to be interested in, the site offers its users information that is valuable to them and the marketer saves money, by showing ads only to those individuals who are most likely to buy. Everybody wins. Moreover, behavioural targeting can establish how relevant a user is to a certain industry. If he has been searching for and reading about holidays it might be of high importance to the travel industry, but also to the financial industry, as he will probably need money or a credit card for the trip. |