Advertising is mobile. As the internet user base becomes more mobile, advertising follows close behind. This is shown in the recent ad revenue trends. The revenue has moved from almost entirely wired internet to mostly mobile. Because internet users are more mobile, their internet usage tells more about their behavior. This behavioral data gives advertisers the ability to target customers very specifically, resulting in better campaigns.
Types of Targeting
The two main types of targeting that advertisers use are inventory targeting and user targeting. Inventory targeting is when an advertiser serves ads on a particular website because the traffic to that site matches their target market. User targeting is when ads are served to individuals because of their particular interests or behavior.
One of the biggest limitations for businesses advertising online is the frequency of their customer interactions. Customers are already targeted very specifically based on their demographics and interests. Advertisers have such great resources for targeting customers, but they are not able to continuously reach the customers. Meanwhile, targeting is still advertisers’ greatest strength.
Targeting Strategies
Lookalike Modeling
Digilant suggests using “lookalike modeling” to find the best customers. This is done by identifying key information about the most valuable customers and then aiming at users with similar characteristics. By examining all the customer data collected with DSPs, and then finding the commonalities among the most valuable customers, advertisers improve their campaign efficiency. Because advertisers can direct ads to segments similar to current customers, the engagement rate should improve. This removes ads that otherwise would have been ineffective. This could also help minimize fraud because it would ignore fake traffic in favor of real, engaged users.
Psychographic Targeting
Psychographic information might be buyers’ behavior, hobbies, spending habits or values. Using this data to create your targeting strategy will improve campaign statistics like click-through rates, RPMs and ad impressions.
Targeting With Programmatic Ads
The ability to target customers more directly and efficiently is thanks, at least partly, to programmatic ads. These are ads for which the buying process is completely automated. Programmatic ads make for more efficient buying that otherwise wouldn’t allow advertisers to spend the time specifically targeting each customer. These ads are said to see more fraud, but much of this is getting better as the level of transparency improves. Also, many users have seen great success with this tool. Michael Goldberg of Dun & Bradstreet calls reaching the right audience with the right message at the right time “the true promise of programmatic.”
In conclusion, targeting users is becoming more advanced as mobile internet use becomes more common. Targeting is now based on more factors than demographics, as it now accounts for customer behavior and position on the buying timeline. Advertisers should look for campaigns to become more trackable and thus more effective in the coming future.