Behavioral Targeting- Here to Stay

Online advertising and the actions that are driven by this type of advertising are measured in a way that is not possible for traditional media. In order for online publishers to compete with print and TV, they need to demonstrate ROI by click-through traffic, customer acquisition, and other relevant metrics. To test online advertising, online publishers had to do more that present numbers of readers or audience demographics. Fortunate for online advertisers, they have the technology to do so.

As time goes by, advertisers will begin to demand more proof of their audience and their actions rather than just having access to an audience with use of traditional media. With market changes taking place, it is forcing online publishers to focus on ad performance. Publishers will be building and substantiating their media value by diminishing the number of advertisers on their pages to only one. They will offer concurrent serving of ads so advertisers can use multiple units to creatively deliver their message which in return publishers will also be selling roadblocks so advertisers can own readers attention to the fullest.

Especially with behavioral targeting, some advertisers aim to reach a target demographic such as in-market car buyers and business travelers. They do so because these people spend a limited amount of time viewing content that advertisers find situational relevant pages to offer to those advertisers. Advertisers now want more access to selected audiences rather than contextual or demographic targeting.

With use of capturing background pertinent media, publishers and ad networks allow advertisers to reach those same valuable users, just elsewhere. Buying and targeting media this way might not satisfy traditionalists, but it may be one of the necessary approaches to manage the growing media machine.