Targeted Advertising: The Good and the Bad
I have always been under the impression that targeted advertising does more good than harm. Only recently did I truly realize how this type of advertising places harmful privacy infringements on the user. Most marketing campaigns rely on the fact that their company ads will have the greatest click-through-rate when they’re targeted towards specific users. However, there must be a better way to go about targeting advertisements toward specific users because most of the time, user searches are not confidential. Most people find it unsettling when they see ads catered to their searches concerning health issues, financial situations, and relationship issues. In order to preserve the privacy of the user, marketing strategies should rely less on personalization of advertisements and more on presenting ads on popular webpages.
I have been thinking a lot about this topic and have condensed a list of the pros/cons of targeted advertising:
Pros:
For companies:
- They will see an increase in ROI. (This is a given — for most companies, more targeted advertisements mean more sales, higher revenue.)
- Marketers get the bang for the buck. (These ads ensure that the right customers are seeing the right advertisements.)
- Less time goes in to the design process of the advertisements. (When ads are geared towards specific users, companies can ensure they get the design right the first time.)
For users:
- You see it, you buy it. (When advertisements show results that are tailored perfectly to a customers’ interests, the user will find exactly what they’ve been looking for.)
- More options, better results. (When users see ads that appeal to their interests indirectly, they will be pleasantly surprised and might go to that company website.)
- Users get a better look at the culture of the brand. (Most clever advertisements engage users with the material through catchy slogans, images, etc.)
Cons:
For companies:
- Might result in pushback from the public. (If advertisements are sexually offensive, racist, etc. the public will not shy away from publicly shaming the advertisement as being inappropriate.) To see this in action read: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-36516378
- Difficult to attain all necessary information from specific users without violating privacy policies.
- Might not breakeven due to the unpredicability of user response to certain advertisements.
For users:
- Advertisements that are too personal might make feel users feel uneasy due to the fact that their data is being shared.
- Find it irritating when ads are plastered across sites. (Most users exit pages that have too many ads.)
- Due to the personal content displayed through advertisements, most users won’t even visit certain sites. (They believe these companies are spying on them.)
All in all, companies receive the most benefits from targeted advertisements. With new technologies and data mining techniques, companies are able to track user data and use that information to create advertisements that are successful in the long term. However, the process of gathering user information is unsettling in terms of privacy concerns.
If you want to learn more about this topic, I encourage you to look at these sources:
