Behavioral Marketing to Take Off in 2006

Behavioral marketing is a fast-evolving arena that can best serve consumer’s interests and it’s shaping up to be the 2006 turning point for the industry. Behavioral marketing delivers positive results to three main groups. Behavioral marketing affects publishers with positive and measurable results on higher eCPMs on their run-of-network inventory, advertisers with reaching a larger target audience, and consumers with providing them with free content, free applications, and relevant ads to their likings.

Not only are companies such as Revenue Science, Claria, and Tacoda using behavioral marketing but the large online media companies like Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo! are planning to incorporate behavioral targeting into their advertising offerings.
As previously discussed the question still arises as to whether consumers should be aware that their web surfing behavior is being tracked. Users should know that their Web surfing behavioral is being tracked, however what they may not realize is if they visit the Wall Street Journal Web site, they may receive some ads based on their past days surfing behavior.

What is needed is more transparency. Google, with its resources and public trust, could play a positive role in engaging and driving a debate with consumers on a privacy upgrade where Google keeps records of every search on its site collecting information about a users’ activities online, which was suggested from an editorial published in the New York Times. More transparency is also needed from anti-spyware software vendors for more consistency and clarity based on the messages its members provide to their users after their scans have been completed. With the increase in transparency consumers need to be educated on understanding that:

-The innovation of the Web is primarily fueled by advertising dollars
-Behavioral targeting is providing increased returns and an increased inventory for advertisers which increases the transfer of ad dollars from offline to online, and
-Additional advertising dollars that fuel innovation further, plus the development of a massive amount of compelling new free content, services and applications online.

Although Behavioral marketing has taken off quickly, consumer education and awareness efforts haven’t exceeded as fast. Research has been done showing that although our ability to serve the consumers is becoming more effective, consumers are becoming more suspicious of our efforts. To keep consumers content, marketers must let consumers know of their efforts and how they can benefit from the efforts.

It’s a prerequisite to have the public’s trust for any free ad-supported media environment to be successful. What’s needed, is maturity, transparency, and cooperative dialogue from all parties. So if public confidence is restored and these tools necessary for behavioral marketing actually provide benefits to consumers, then advocacy and business sides of generation leaders will have accomplished something extremely successful!