An Icon That Says They’re Watching You

By Saul Hansell

I have an open question for the people who complain about the potential of advertising networks to track your behavior on the Internet: What is a better way?

Some might say that all behavioral targeting should simply be banned. But if you don’t think that showing Chevy ads to people looking for cars is equivalent to poisoning the peanut butter, we need a middle ground that explains to people what’s going on and lets them decide what is acceptable.

This is much harder than it sounds: Any one Web page you visit can have a dozen advertisements and invisible bits of code that each send information about you to different companies, each with different ways of using that data. The privacy policy of the site you are looking at — not that anyone reads privacy policies — can’t even try to explain this to you, because the site owner doesn’t even know what all of its advertisers are doing.

Joseph Turow Example of an icon–the T? below the ad–to indicate the advertiser collects or uses data about the browser

I’m coming to the conclusion that each advertisement on a page has to speak for itself. That’s implicit in the approach Google is taking for its new behavioral targeting system. It puts the phrase “Ads by Google” on all its advertisements. Click that link and you’ll get some limited information about Google’s targeting system and an ability to adjust some of the interests that Google is tracking.

But Google’s approach is presented in a way that glosses over what they are doing and discourages people from reading the disclosure and exercising control, says Joseph Turow, a marketing professor at the Annenberg School for Communication of the University of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Turow has developed a plan that is simpler and more comprehensive: Put an icon on each ad that signifies that the ad collects or uses information about users. If you click the icon, you will go to what he calls a “privacy dashboard” that will let you understand exactly what information was used to choose that ad for you. And you’ll have the opportunity to edit the information or opt out of having any targeting done at all.

“I don’t think ‘Ads by Google’ is enough,’” he said. “The problem with the whole rhetoric Google is using is that it is designed to stop you from wanting to learn more and do something.”

In his mockup, Mr. Turow’s icon has a T for targeting and a question mark. I would propose a bull’s-eye or maybe some sort of creepy eyeball.

What I like about the idea of an icon is that users can learn which ads collect data without having to do anything other than surf the way they normally would. When they do get curious, you can click on the icon and learn more.

I asked Nicole Wong, the deputy general counsel of Google who looks after privacy issues, about Mr. Turow’s concept. She defended the phrase “Ads by Google” on the grounds of simplicity. Anything more risks confusing users.

“I wonder, would the user really understand what a behaviorally targeted ad is compared to a contextual ad?” she said, saying the company is open to changing the phrasing of the text of its notice.

The information that Google shows to people who click on the link on these ads is also similar to, but more limited than, what Mr. Turow proposes.

Mr. Turow’s dashboard is meant to explain exactly why you are seeing a particular ad. You will see what part of it was customized — the product, the price, the image and so on. You will also see the data used — your surfing habits, outside data vendors, inferences from your I.P. address, etc. You can click to learn more specifics about exactly where the data came from and to delete or modify the information used about you.

Bringing ISPs Into The Behavioral Mix

by Phil Leggiere, Wednesday, Nov 14, 2007 1:45 PM ET

Once the vital center of the Internet eco-system, Internet Service Providers are now more frequently looked at commodities, marginal if not entirely irrelevant to the emerging future of Web advertising. Yet, as Bob Dykes, CEO of NebuAds explains below, ISPs are a crucial, still largely untapped, component of a behaviorally based advertising infrastructure. Behavioral Insider: How does NebuAds work with ISPs in behavioral targeting? Bob Dykes: We started out with a very unique orientation. The challenge we set ourselves was to add value to ISPs and publishers of currently untargeted inventory, which includes about three-quarters of all current ad impressions. ISPs have been a neglected aspect of online's evolution over the past several years. But the fact is the depth of aggregated data they have to offer, anonymous data, is an untapped source of incredible power. In an era when cookie deletion is becoming more and more common, it's also more reliably continuous data. BI: How does the personalization and behavioral methodology you've evolved differ from what most of us are familiar with? Dykes: The conventional approach to behavioral targeting has been to place cookies on specific Web sites or pages. We've gone about it in a very different way. We place an appliance in the ISP itself. Therefore we're able to get a 360-degree, multidimensional view over a long period of time of all the pages users visit. So what we're really talking about for the first time is a truly user-focused, though still anonymous, targeting, taking the totality of anonymous behaviors rather than just a subset of sites on a network. BI: It seems at first glance this could open up a Pandora 's box of privacy problems. How do you avoid that? Dykes: We've had the advantage of coming onto the scene relatively recently when concern about privacy was growing. So we've architected our targeting platform from the ground up to addressing privacy concerns. For one thing, in addition to being committed to only using anonymous data, we have developed a privacy guidelines list which includes providing consumers with robust notice and choice such as instruments for opting-out of ads. BI: So tracking is not by individual identifiers? Dykes: We don't track individual consumers. We set up a taxonomy of commercial interest categories, for instance, ‘Porshe SUVs,' and simply keep track of content interests. We exclude data from sensitive areas, say sex sites or HIV Drugs. By anonymous we mean we collect no personally identifiable email addresses, last names, home addresses, social security or phone numbers, financial or health information. The kind of data we do aggregate includes Web search terms, page views, page and ad clicks, time spent on specific sites, zip code, browser info and connection speed. BI: How does the granularity arise? Dykes: Within this vast universe of information we create a map of interest categories, beginning with the widest definitions, auto, finance, education, what have you. But within those we can provide far greater granularity. So if you're talking about auto, we can drill down into particular interest segments, say SUVs, luxury cars, minivans, and then even to particular brands or models. Within the interest category of travel, we can identify consumers interested in learning about Martinique, the south of France or Las Vegas. Most interest categories age fast, of course, so one very critical component of analysis is identifying optimal cycles for reaching customers in each area. For flowers, say, there's a cycle that's at most hours in which to reach an interested consumer. With auto, obviously, the cycle is far more complex and includes several phases stretching out over days or weeks. By having a far more comprehensive view, from an ISP rather than site by site vantage point, we can identify from the highest level to the minutest level where consumers are in the funnel. BI: What's the key advantage for advertisers? Dykes: The advantage of having a more granular picture of user interests for an advertiser is that they have the capability to adjust and vary creative to suit customer interests. That's an incredible opportunity that often takes brands and agencies some time to really wrap their heads around. When we work with media buyers we educate them that targeting isn't only about serving your message to the most appropriate consumer prospects, but about serving those prospects the most interesting and relevant creative to get those messages across. It can be as simple as an iced-tea advertiser knowing whether and when to serve a creative using snowboarding or windsurfing. A more complex example would be, say you're an advertiser of high-end clothing and you're serving an ad to a woman who's very interested in high-end clothing and accessories and is on MySpace. Instead of just serving the same ad for Fendi handbags several times, you can serve a series of ads with different varieties of handbags. The notion of retargeting as conventionally deployed is very limited. You need to mix up different types of creative or it gets boring. Another advantage of having a more comprehensive set of data points is that advertisers can learn to better mix their ads in an optimal sequence to match consumer interests according to where they are in the buying cycle. They can learn to know when to serve a first impression which is very soft-sell, when to provide more detail and invite more engagement, and, finally, when to really try to drive a transaction. This not only provides more variety but integrates creative, marketing strategy, consumer interest and the product sales cycle in much stronger alignment.

NYC Behavioral Ad Network Collective Media Raises 1st Round

We have heard from people in online advertising that site quality no longer matters. With behavioral advertising its all about getting appropriate ads in front of the right audience no matter where they might be. We think this is an absurd notion. Some brands would freak to see their ads on some stinky web sites.

Collective Media's idea is to wield behavioral advertising technology but only on very high quality sites like Reuters, TV Guide, AP, and Discovery. It has focused on creating relationships with news sites. The New York City based firm has raised an undisclosed amount of Series A led by Greycroft Partners with iNovia Capital.

WunderLoop: a new dimension in targeting

“Integrated targeting”. All options on a single platform.

INTEGRATED TARGETING DEMO GRAPHIC HERE

* Unites all proven and new real-time targeting methods in one system.
* Integrates the most prominent web analysis and
market research applications.
* Is open for integration of customer-specific data from
CRM and Web/data mining.
* Flexible usage options: on-site, cross-site, as a local installation
or ASP, as a standard version or completely personalised.

wunderloop web site
wunderloop's new web design

With the development of the new Integrated Targeting Platform we have redesigned and updated our website at www.wunderloop.com. The site includes useful facts, figures and data and an improved look and feel.


Latest Innovations
Taking Targeting to a New Dimension:

Behavioural targeting is fast becoming standard practice worldwide. But with new developments come new challenges. Our clients now need to combine a range of different targeting techniques.

With wunderloop’s new Integrated Targeting Platform, for the first time, they can.

The unique platform now incorporates all targeting methods, both new and established in one modular and intuitive framework. Key features include:



- Generic Tagging
- Auto Categorisation & Keyword Extraction
- Predictive Targeting
- Typology Targeting
- Geo Targeting
- Standardised Campaign / Brand Impact Studies
- Reaction Analysis
- Relevancy Weighting
- Two options for accessing the wunderloop Integrated Targeting Platform



Generic Tagging:
wunderloop technology enables amazingly quick and simple integration and categorisation of all websites via a single tag.

Auto Categorization & Keyword Extraction:
Manual site classification used to be a long and laborious process. Not any more. wunderloop technology can now classify every web page automatically, yet allow you to specify your own changes. Article keywords are automatically identified and can be used to target specific interest profiles. Whatever your target identification characteristics, they are automatically ready for use. As results are generated, and users interact with those results, the profiles become more and more exact.


Predictive Targeting:
By cleverly correlating market research and real-time online user data we can create ever more precisely defined target groups while at the same time maximising reach.

Typology Targeting:
wunderloop’s tools allow you to connect behavioural and socio-demographic data to target standardised or individually matched target types. Relevant data from analysis of user and client databases can also be added. The types of clients are defined by a comparison of "average" online and offline client data.

Geo Targeting:
Users can be targeted right down to district and city level, without threatening data privacy - wunderloop never saves an IP address.

Standardised Campaign / Brand Impact Studies:
wunderloop’s integrated standardised analysis enables straightforward assessment of advertising effectiveness. Net result: you can spend the time you save further optimising profiles and making your campaigns still more effective.

Reaction Analysis:
With wunderloop you can now analyse who has actually reacted to an ad and therefore which of the characteristics of your target groups are really important. Similarly, a Pre-Flight allows you to check out different configurations in advance in order to find the most effective formula.


Relevancy Weighting:
Alongside the new, tried and tested wunderloop features such as relevancy weighting are of course still available. The relevance of current user behaviour is assessed and weighted in relation to historical data and in real-time context. Relevancy weighting can be used in targeting to define the strength of interest e.g. in the purchase of an automobile

Targeting Multi-Modally

by Phil Leggiere, Wednesday, September 26, 2007

THE FUNDAMENTALS OF BEHAVIORAL TARGETING are simple: getting the right message to the right person at the right place at the right time. Applying those simple fundamentals to real-world media behavior, however, is unfortunately not so simple. In fact it's getting more complex all the time. As consumers become ever more nimble at moving across myriad media channels to get the information and entertainment they want, marketers remain frustratingly flat-footed in traversing the new digital arena. Adapting targeting to the complexities of digital behavior, Bob Walczak, CEO of mobile ad network MoPhap explains below, requires a truly multi-modal data platform.

Behavioral Insider: What's unique in your approach to how behavioral data can work in what you call a multi-modal environment?

Walczak: The challenge with behavioral targeting lies in reaching the same customer across different media. With MoPhap's mobile server-side cookie, we're able to target by creating a comprehensive profile based upon a user's browsing history over time. The technology derives contextual meaning from each page that the user visits. This combines to create a psychographic user profile. We're also able to identify the specific mobile device. We can then ensure that ads served to consumers are optimal in terms of both format and content. Until now, there's been no way to bridge mobile and online data because the mechanisms for gathering, organizing, and interpreting data were so different. Online tracking has been -- and largely remains -- cookie-based, and mobile has lacked a unified tracking platform for contextual or behavioral data. With mobile, each individual publisher or network has used its own proprietary software and server set-up. None have been compatible with or comparable to the online world.

BI: How are you applying the platform concretely?

Walczak: Our goal is to forge partnerships with online ad networks such as MeMedia. We're enabling them and their advertisers to sell into mobile for the first time. From the very beginning, we've attempted to build out a platform that brings online functionality to a mobile environment. With that in mind, we're been the first to configure third-party ad serving via various partnerships, including ContextWeb. The benefit is that we've been laying the groundwork for a seamless movement back and forth between online and mobile -- which is the same direction where consumers are now moving.

BI: Can you give some examples of how that can work?

Walczak: Here's a simple example of bringing digital mediums together: A consumer clicks on a mobile Web banner, opts in for an SMS auto response, and later receives a text message that includes a coupon code that must be redeemed online. With the mobile cookie, we're now able to tie the subscribers together online and in mobile.

BI: What are the attractions of multi-modal targeting of behavior to an agency?

Walczak: There are benefits to doing this. First, anyone trying to plan and buy mobile campaigns has been limited by lack of reach and frequency. By seamlessly aggregating data across mediums, there's a huge potential for increase in both. Also, for brands interested in targeting a younger demographic of heavy mobile users, they now have a wider scope of options.

Another benefit is that mobile advertisers can plug into the auditing, tracking, and reporting solutions they've used online to track consumer behavior. Agencies can use their interactive systems such as Atlas Media Console and Dart to manage online and mobile campaigns. They can also integrate data from online and mobile campaigns into their back-end systems, which allows media buyers to view results and make mobile buying decisions in the same way they'd been doing so for online buys.

Scaling Intensity: BT And Social Media

By now it’s widely understood that the core focus of targeting is not the content of the page, but the consumers of that content — and, even more important, how they consume it. Unfortunately most advertisers and publishers still approach Web 2.0 with models of consumer behavior based on Web 1.0 limitations, as Andy Monfried, founder of leading social media technology developer Lotame explains below.

Behavioral Insider: What were some of the motivations that led to the development of Lotame and your signature technology for social network targeting, Crowd Control? Previously you worked with Advertising.com, right?

Andy Monfried: After I left Advertising.com I did some consulting for social media publishers and found they had this incredible platform, but the tools used to monetize it were woefully inadequate in comparison to the property itself. The prices they were having to offer for inventory were unbelievably low. I remember thinking to myself this just couldn’t be.

BI: How about advertisers? What sorts of perceptions or misperceptions did they bring to social networks?

Monfried: Advertisers for their part are working with Web 1.0 tools and methods for a Web 2.0 world. What I mean is that advertisers need to serve and sell social media advertising in the same manner as people are actually using it. Lotame bridges this gap by effectively aligning consumers and advertisers.

BI: How do you achieve that kind of alignment?

Monfried: Most targeting, even targeting that bills itself as behavioral targeting, has a very outmoded notion of behavior. The implicit assumption is that behavior consists of passive consumption of “precooked” information or entertainment content. So you follow what Web site visitors browse and associate that by inference with some subjects they’re likely interested in, segmenting accordingly.

That may or may not be adequate for traditional Web published content, which is still largely based on the model of old media, which are designed to target passive consumers. But when you’re attempting to migrate advertising, new media now accounts for at least 20% of all impressions and rising fast.

You’ve got to look at entirely new sets of data that social media generates and, more importantly, learn how to cull from that relevant ways of tracking the kinds of engagement, participation, interaction and involvement in depth that are unique to social networks and how to segment audiences who are actually makers and creators.

The mandate now is to go beyond targeting in terms of subject classification and contextually by content. What we do is tie engagement to context for the first time. We pride ourselves on being the industry leader at presenting this hidden value to our clients.

BI: How does Crowd Control apply behavioral methodology to social media?

Monfried: We track over 34,000 individual behaviors ranging from uploads to sharing to posting to linking to commentary. It’s not just about navigating existing content. It’s about how individual members in a social network interact with content in specific communities. We provide publishers with those behaviors and a general taxonomy that includes 171 different segments. But we allow — more than allow, we encourage — publishers to code them any way they want to reach the customers they most need to.

The object in fact is to make this technology light enough so that publishers can easily learn to target behaviors on a self-serve basis. Our technology is customizable to provide our clients with the ability to tap into the audience they want without wasting time, energy, or money on people who aren’t interested in their product.

BI: At this stage it appears social networking is still a tough sell for many brands. Would you say it’s primarily a vehicle for direct sales?

Monfried: Social networking is not by any means a direct marketing vehicle alone. It’s the biggest opportunity for brand frequency because you’re talking about a highly involved user population. The average page views per session can be in the hundreds. When there’s that much involvement you’re uniquely positioned as a brand to target for high frequency and recency.

BI: What sorts of criteria make the most sense in judging metrics on a behaviorally targeted social media campaign?

Monfried: As ads get richer the duration of time spent with the ad becomes much more relevant than click-through. For so long click-through rate and conversion metrics have been the primary factors in determining the success of an online campaign. However, social media needs to be looked at through a different lens. I think engagement metrics are evolving into the next yardstick when you’re talking about successful online advertising within social media.

OMD recently provided a study showing that one engaged user is the equivalent of eight regular users. I think engagement has to be part of the discussion when you’re talking about effective behavioral targeting inside Web 2.0 and successful online advertising results. If your interest, especially as a brand, is to identify customers by the highest levels of interest and the most intensity, social media’s the place to be. It gives the brand the opportunity to send multiple creatives to people they identify as their sweet spot.

BI: How do you see the convergence of behavioral targeting and social media evolving the remainder of this year and into next?

Monfried: Ultimately we see the adoption curve over the next 12 months growing to make user-generated content a much bigger part of media plans. As experience becomes more prevalent, we see brands becoming more comfortable.

The Next Differentiators: Transparency and Quality?

"If anyone should be bored with the ad network business, it should be me," confesses Joe Apprendi, CEO of Collective Media, which reaches 99 million unique users monthly across high-profile inventory like USA Today and TVGuide. Joe has run sales operations for Click Now, 24/7 and Falk in a career about as long as the Web itself. "But I have never been more excited by this business," he tell us. After attending the MediaPost Behavioral Marketing Forum in July and hearing JupiterResearch's Emily Riley explore the distinctions between different kinds of online behaviors, Joe was eager to extend the discussion. As networks aggregate greater reach and consolidate to achieve scale, he argues that they will need to differentiate themselves in the market. Media buyers need to ask deeper questions about how behaviors are being gathered and where the ads are showing up.

Behavioral Insider: You think media buyers need to demand more transparency and inventory quality from BT networks. How so?

Joe Apprendi: A lot of my perspective comes from my background. First, I started in the ad network business close to 12 years ago. Whether you were a direct marketer or a brand advertiser with a Fortune 1000 company, you cared where [your ad] ran because you were burned in the past. And the burning in the past for advertisers was where you may have run where you didn't think you could possibly run with the network.

I think today that still exists, and I think networks like ours and others are trying to address the quality of the inventory. Because BT is so new, there could be opportunity for abuses if agencies and advertisers don't get more educated faster about how behaviors are collected. What behaviors are you actually buying? Whether it is BT, context targeting or channel targeting, how you source that data and ultimately make it available to agencies and advertisers is what we're really focused on.

Behavioral Insider: Explain the transparency you have in mind.

Apprendi: I do believe all behaviors are not alike. One of the most important things about BT is this question of how you sourced it. There's a lot of different avenues for acquiring BT data. BT is only as good as your context targeting. BT is context over time. You are reaching them out of context, but it is still the basis of context. You can collect it yourself, through your own ability to determine the context in which a particular user is on a page.

And how that technology works is a huge criteria. A lot of context-sensing capabilities and hence BT capabilities that ad networks and publishers employ are all keyword-based. Hilton Hotels vs. Paris Hilton. There is a high probability Hilton Hotels is about travel while Paris Hilton can be about innumerable things, and 99% of context-sensing engines will assume it is travel.

[The Entrieva engine we use] doesn't only look at keywords, but phrases and concepts, and also the frequency of those concepts. Based on that, are you just using the highest ranking category? Pages can be about multiple things. Will you only make the determination based on the highest ranking one? When we determine a behavior it is at minimum one time within the last 30 days. That is our standard. A lot of times it can be one time in the last 90 or 60 days. You don't know. So you would probably assume a user visiting a particular type of content three times in the last seven days is a higher quality prospect than one who visited once in 90. I don t think those questions necessarily are addressed. Most people don't ask the question, and I think they should.

Behavioral Insider: But that raises a questions for agencies who are themselves just getting up to speed on BT. How much are they willing to pop the hood and see these details?

Apprendi: We are very early. First and foremost, online media planning and buying is a time-consuming process and probably there are nine other topics or issues they need to address in advance of this one. In general they are happy to hear about it because it is news to them. Honestly, it is just getting them more educated on what does run of network mean or channel mean or us vs. another network. A lot of that is news to the agencies. It is good for them to understand certain behaviors are different from others. One travel profile may not be the same as another. And it is incredibly empowering so they can talk intelligently to their client. They can make it more a part of their RFPs: quickly let me know your methodologies and how you source your behavior. Just add it to the regular RFP process.

Behavioral Insider: How will consolidations like Yahoo buying Blue Lithum and AOL snapping up Tacoda affect how BT is evaluated and sold?

Apprendi: We are all trying to increase our profile. I think the Tacoda play was strictly about reach, without question. AOL had inventory; Tacoda had behaviors and they tried to reach more of these users and increase the size of the buy. However, it is no different from the overall ad network business.

Again, for brand advertisers, which I believe will fuel BT, quality is a far higher priority than they it was against direct response. So as a result I think for BT networks in general the [quality] standard is going to be much more interesting and [emerge] faster than it did for direct marketers buying ad networks in the past. It isn't a technical discussion necessarily. Is it a brand I trust that sources the behavior or not, and then how did you collect it? I don't think it is that complicated to cover those two points. I do think you will start seeing more branded behaviors.

If I sell you the Collective Media business executive behavior as a source, I communicate who is in the network, what providers I source from and methodology. If it was the Wall Street Journal business executive behavior, that immediately adds credibility and immediate trust. What is going to be interesting is that these leading brands in their verticals will start seeing a way to complement what they have done with their brand and seeing how behavior can play a role in their overall strategy. You will start seeing more marriages like Hachette and Jumpstart because it just makes sense. But it doesn't just have to be within a specific vertical. It can be with any trusted media brand. I think you will start seeing some of the leading vertical media brands start thinking about their own branded audience.

Behaviorally Targeted Online Ads Get Better Reception than Contextual

Online consumers are consistently more receptive to behaviorally targeted ads than to contextual advertising - with behavioral targeting (BT) outperforming contextual by as much as 22 percent in some categories - according to a recent study on consumer receptivity to online advertising, writes MarketingCharts.

Moreover, the behavioral-targeting-receptive audience is a higher-value segment than contextual-targeting-receptive consumers, according to the study, which found that 93 percent of the BT-receptive audience have shopped online.

The study was commissioned by Revenue Science and AOL and conducted by JupiterResearch.

"We're glad to see that the voice of the online consumer echoes our position that behavioral targeting is more effective - for advertisers, publishers, and for consumers - than contextual advertising," said Marla R. Schimke, VP of marketing at Revenue Science.

Among the key findings of the study:

• Overall, two-thirds of online users have taken actions as a result of viewing online ads.

• Across all advertising, 14 percent more online consumers are more receptive to behaviorally targeted ads than to contextual ads - 63 percent vs. 49 percent of the total audience.

• BT outperforms contextual advertising in terms of consumer attention by at least 10 percent across 14 major product categories, from Financial Services to Consumer Electronics to Pharmaceuticals to Fashion and Style. For example:
  • 17 percent more online purchasers of computing products are more receptive to behaviorally targeted ads.
  • 18 percent more online auto purchasers are more receptive to behaviorally targeted ads.
  • 20 percent more online telecom purchasers are more receptive to behaviorally targeted ads than to contextual ads.
• Attention-getting behavioral targeting is preferable because more than 75 percent of online shoppers shop only once per month or less - and the majority research a product only once or twice before buying.

"Due to the level of consumers' online activity, marketers have to maximize a limited opportunity to move consumers through the purchase funnel," Schimke said.

The study also found that BT-receptive consumers are a higher-value audience:

• Behaviorally receptive consumers are more likely to have a higher income, spend more money online, and shop online more frequently than others.
• Behaviorally targeted ads fare better among both high- and low-online spenders:
  • Among people who spend more than $500 online annually, 10 percent more were defined as behaviorally receptive.
  • Among people who spend less than $500 online annually, 17 percent more were defined as behaviorally receptive.

24/7 Plugs Behavioral Targeting into Global Web Alliance

ClickZ reports that 24/7 Real Media has begun targeting dynamic display ads based on keyword queries and landing page visits from search engines.

The method, dubbed "search retargeting," is the process of aggregating search data in order to serve display ads - across 24/7's Global Web Alliance network, for example, which includes 950 sites or more.

The process differs from "ad retargeting," which utilizes the data comprised of visits to an advertiser's site, as opposed to particular landing pages.

The solution is strongly recommended for retailers seeking to "make their banner advertising a little more effective," said Brian Lesser, director of product marketing.

"We see a higher click-through and conversion rate on display and banner advertising when targeted based on search."

behavioral targeting to take your search marketing program to the next level.

BlueLithium's CMO explains how to use behavioral targeting to take your search marketing program to the next level.

Search marketing is beginning to top out. We hear from agency and marketing partners that they've bought all the keywords they can buy and they're bidding as much as they can afford to bid; what else is there?

And no wonder: Keyword search ads make up only 12 percent of available online ad impressions, according to the Online Publishers Association. Contrast this with graphical ad inventory, which is exploding thanks to the growth of MySpace, blogs, video and other user-generated content.

The challenge for search marketers is to find a way to take their programs to the next level in an environment of constrained inventory and rising prices. Fortunately, a way already exists: search retargeting.

Search retargeting combines the benefits of search marketing and behavioral targeting, and is conducted by an SEM firm and an ad network working together. Visitors are driven to a landing page from a keyword search. Those who leave the site without converting receive a standard tracking cookie from the ad network. Wherever they go across that network's thousands of websites, they're served messages designed to drive them back to purchase. The same simple concept can be used to upsell those who do convert.

Data from BlueLithium Labs shows that search retargeting can improve conversions by more than 20 percent, dwarfing the cost of the incremental media buy. The ad network may even be willing to chip in the creative for free, to help the SEM avoid having to go back to the client or to the agency-of-record for banner creative.

In addition to the improving conversions, search retargeting also pumps up the marketer's share of voice (SOV). SOV is a concept near and dear to auto manufacturers and other marketers of considered purchase items. The idea is to have your brand in front of prospects for the greatest amount of time while they're in market for what you sell. For an auto purchase, that's usually eight to 10 weeks. A honeymoon vacation might be 10 to 12 weeks in the planning; a quick weekend trip might only be researched from Wednesday afternoon through end of day Thursday.

Search marketing is incredibly effective at attracting people who are actively researching, price shopping or purchasing any of these items. But you can make it work even harder by retargeting everyone you bring in through search. Additional data from BlueLithium Labs shows an average 34 percent increase in brand awareness and an 18 percent increase in intent to purchase among those who clicked on search listings and were retargeted with graphical ads as opposed to those who clicked on the same listings but saw no follow-up ads after they left the site.

The gating factor in the success of a search retargeting campaign is search marketing volume. If you're running a large scale campaign that drives thousands or tens of thousands of clickthroughs, then search retargeting is for you. If your search campaign is limited to a few dozen clickthroughs a day, then the work of getting a campaign set up will probably outweigh the benefits.

Also, you need to make sure that the CPM or CPC you're paying for the retargeting campaign are in line with your CPC keyword budget. If it's costing you $3 in retargeting charges to get back a prospect that only cost you $0.40 for the initial clickthrough, then the retargeting traffic has got to convert at nearly eight times the rate of your standard search marketing traffic to pay off.

Search retargeting is a simple, effective strategy that can help many search marketers take their programs to another level in terms of volume and bottom-line effectiveness. As with all things, make sure you test before you commit. From the examples we've seen, it should be well worth it.

MORE:::Yahoo Debuts Behavior-Based Advertising with SmartAds

What you see is your invention Yahoo has officially unveiled its behavior-targeting SmartAds, reports Search Engine Land. SmartAds combine a variety of factors to deliver a super-relevant ad to the user. Behavioral tracking analyzes the user's location and other information on one side the interface. On the other is the dynamic assembly of material provided by the advertiser. They may upload various backgrounds, text and other individual components. Those components are then assembled on the fly to create endless variations on the same ad that can be targeted to individuals rather than groups. Yahoo is hoping this customization and targeting combination will lift its status as a mere display ad server. The ads were tested on Yahoo Travel and reportedly performed two to three times better than other display ads. Behavioral advertising has become a topic of heated discussion, even as firms like Google, Microsoft and AOL. While some look at it as a gross breach of privacy, others - particularly advertisers - perceive it as a way on improving their services to provide customers with more tailored options. This can be considered a means to improve the online user experience. Behavioral targeting is also expected to be one of the defining characteristics of web 3.0, or the Semantic Web.

Will 'SmartAds' Give Yahoo An Edge In Online Display Advertising?

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Aug. 15, 2007 at 9:18am Eastern by Greg Sterling

The Wall Street Journal explores Yahoo's recently debuted "SmartAds" (prior coverage here), which mix behavioral targeting with other forms of targeting and dynamic elements to deliver a reportedly better response to display advertisers. The new ad platform was tested in Yahoo Travel and reportedly performed well (2x to 3x CTRs of normal display ads) and will be rolled out to other areas of the Yahoo site over time.

From the WSJ article:

Using SmartAds, advertisers provide Yahoo with sets of backgrounds, images and text that can be mixed and matched on the fly to create an all but unlimited number of different ads. The approach combines technologies Yahoo developed itself with others it acquired. Bringing together this creative zip with the ability to target users based on interest and location, brings to display advertising the flexibility and direct-response qualities that have fueled the boom in search advertising. Yahoo hopes SmartAds will help it gain ground in the rapidly expanding market for behaviorally targeted ads, which is expected to jump to $1 billion in the U.S. in 2008 from $575 million this year, according to eMarketer.

Yahoo recently consolidated search and display advertising under David Karnstedt, who runs North American ad sales at Yahoo. The company also recently released research showing a lift when search and display ads are used together as part of an online ad campaign.

The "creative assembly platform" described in the article excerpt above is perhaps the most interesting aspect of SmartAds. But behavioral targeting, which is the current rage in online advertising (AOL recently bought Tacoda), is gaining new scrutiny even as its stock is rising. In November, the U.S. US Federal Trade Commission is holding a forum in Washington, DC to address consumer and privacy groups' concerns "raised by the practice of tracking consumers’ activities online to target advertising."

Targeted Ads Coming to MySpace

Targeted Ads Coming to MySpace

Fox Interactive has begun testing targeted ad delivery on MySpace, reports Business2.0.
Testing ad targeting technology has been underway for about two weeks. Based on tweaks made to the algorithm, the system could roll out sometime in the next couple of weeks.
Ads are delivered based on defined user preferences, along with behavior data that adjusts what someone says they like and what they seem to respond to most.
This form of ad targeting could raise the CPM rate currently charged by MySpace, which is low compared to other sites. This is because user behavior has been hard to pin down in a way that is of value to advertisers.
In an interview at ad:tech Miami last June, MySpace CMO Shawn Gold revealed that the company is looking into conducting and releasing formal psychographics of the user base in the near future.

Google puts different slant on behavioral targeting

Google puts different slant on behavioral targeting
Google believes that search patterns, identified at the time of a user’s search, are more relevant to search advertising than a deeper user profile built up over time.
by Helen Leggatt
Susan Wojcicki, Google’s vice president of product management for advertising, spoke with reporters earlier this week and, amongst other things, outlined Google’s current views and developments in the realm of behavioral targeting.
One particular development in search advertising has seen Google move away from traditional behavioral targeting methods. Instead of relying on data collected about a consumer over a period of time, Google is confining user tracking to a single search session.
"If you wanted to buy a car two weeks ago and you bought it, you don't necessarily want to see ads for cars today," commented Wojcicki.
As an experiment I typed in “mountain biking”. As usual it gave me generic search results with a raft of ads relating to mountain biking in New Zealand (my country of residence) alongside. I paused for a few seconds before clearing the search box and typing in “Austria”. I was then presented with five ads, of which only one was not specifically for mountain biking tours and trails in Austria (although it was an ad for an Austrian hotel).
According to Wojcicki, "Nothing is stored, nothing is remembered. It all happens within that session."
After the above experiment I closed the search window, re-entered Google and typed in Austria. Not a single mountain bike ad was displayed.
Tags: behavioral targeting, Google AdWords, search advertising