Targeted advertising is a type of online advertising that is served to a particular, niche, and detailed set of audiences and not a wide spectrum of the audience. The targeting could be based on demographics, interests, behavior, location, etc. Simply put, targeted ads are those that are chosen to match the relevance of a particular site which inturn stays relevant for its users.
How Does Targeted Advertising Work?
Targeted advertising works on the basis of cookies. Let’s say you’re looking for a book based upon health and nutrition on Amazon, you’ll end up leaving your search traces on Amazon and it’ll save this information in the form of cookies. Now, the next time you’ll be reading something on kindle or surfing on the internet, you’ll be seeing the ads for similar books. The good thing about this is that you’re not seeing ads for something that doesn’t have any relevance to you. You’re only greeted by the ads of the products you want/ed to buy.
Key Types Of Targeted Advertising
1. Contextual Advertising
Contextual advertising is a type of targeting that is done by keeping in mind the context of the website the ad is appearing on. It depends upon the content of the website rather than the data of the viewer. To understand more about contextual advertising and how it works, we’ve covered an elaborate article here.
2. Behavioral Advertising
Behavioral advertising is a type of targeting that takes into consideration data related to search queries, browsing habits, purchases, etc to display a relevant ad to the user and thereby improving the efficacy of the campaign. The primary difference between contextual and behavioral targeting is that the former focuses on the content of the website and the latter on the behavior of the visitor.
3. Location-based Advertising
Location-based advertising, as the name suggests, is a type of targeting that relies on location-specific data to deliver ads to the audiences. It is highly used to increase the foot traffic to the stores, attract prospects in the vicinity, and boost in-store sales. To understand more about location-based advertising and how it works, consider going through this expansive article.
4. Retargeting
Retargeting is the process of targeting users with similar ads in case they don’t end up taking the desired action as desired by the advertiser. It tracks the user journey to retarget them efficiently. It is basically the act of following the user from one site to another in order to map out and understand their journey.
Best Practices To Do Targeted Advertising
1. Build Trust With Your Audience
This is one of the basic and primary rules of the marketing industry. You must make sure that your audience trusts you. With ever-changing and evolving technology, there needs to be a sense of transparency and security your audience should feel when they’re engaging with you – offline or online. It is a best practice to always be transparent with your advertising efforts and keep your audience updated about the same. This is the reason why you must have seen the ‘Why am I seeing this ad?’ option on most of the advertising platforms.
2. Gather Data
Data sits at the core of any marketing activity. Sure, you can purchase this data from various sellers, but having your own first-hand data works wonders. Make sure to use pixels in order to store your own data which can be analyzed and used for future campaigns. Pixels are invisible pieces of code placed across your website to store the user data and understand the user journey. You can then use this data on your DSP to launch precisely target campaigns.
3. Be As Precise As Possible
Choosing certain targeting parameters isn’t enough to launch a targeted campaign. With IngeniousPlex, you get access to over 25 targeting options and we recommend you do not oversee the geo-targeting option. If your business is catering to a specific area of the globe, there’s no point advertising about it to the rest of the world. Make sure to choose or exclude certain geographical locations where your business doesn’t operate. Right from region, city, area, pin code, etc., you can launch a campaign as detailed as you’d like.
4. Be Clear With Your Channels
Choosing the right channel means reaching your prospects at the right place. This especially holds true in an omnichannel marketing strategy where your ads rely heavily on the channels that you choose. It’s important to note that specific channels complement specific marketing objectives. For eg. Video, native, rich media work well for desktop campaigns. On the other hand playback ads, in-app advertisements, rewarded video, etc compliment the mobile advertising campaigns.
5. Don’t Forget Retargeting
It’s great to reach out to the new prospects but it’s crucial to build a relationship with the existing ones. It could be possible that some of your prospects are still researching and what better way to reach out to them than retargeting. With retargeting campaigns, you can also bring back those prospects who didn’t complete the action earlier. For retargeting, however, make sure to put proper pixel placements and practice conversion tracking.
Conclusion:
Targeted advertising infers positive results if practiced properly. The key is to make your campaigns as precise as possible. For businesses catering to a niche segment, targeted advertising works the best since it can cater to the narrowest of audience segments. Remember to segment your audience so that you’re able to keep a note of best-performing settings which can be used for future campaigns.
Stay connected with your prospects and build a constant revenue stream for your agency with IngeniousPlex.
