Behavioral Targeting Nirvana

3 Steps to Targeting Nirvana

Behavioral targeting can be hit or miss. Here's how to sift through a lot of dirt to find the nuggets of gold.
There's plenty of evidence of behavioral targeting's ability to help build brands and drive direct response, as well as add significant value to publishers' excess inventory. And there are lots of good ideas for distinguishing one form of behavioral targeting from another and knowing when and how to apply each.
What is less well understood is that the typical campaign requires publishers to burn up a lot of inventory in pursuit of an advertiser's elusive targets. To use an eco-unfriendly illustration, it's like killing an elephant for its ivory tusks and throwing away the rest.
Behavioral targeting works best when advertisers have access to an enormous amount of inventory -- more than any single network can deliver efficiently.
Most of us have cookies on our computers that mark us to be targeted as users with certain interests, customer histories and purchase intentions. Point your browser to a site where a network that cookied you also has an inventory relationship, and you may receive a targeted ad. This depends on whether there is a targeted ad available that can be delivered by that network for that category at that time and in that ad size and position.
Those are a lot of variables, and it's no small feat to find them aligned in one place at the right time.
In this article, I'll explain why much of behavioral targeting is hit or miss, describe a better way, and lay out the requirements for achieving your goals.
BT today: hit or missParadise found: targeting without wasteRequirement 1: an open marketplaceRequirement 2: an open technology platformRequirement 3: an open mind