Targeted advertising reaches specific consumers and is cost-effective. Demographic-based advertising targets shared traits, while content-based advertising targets specific interests. Changes in social behavior make demographic targeting less effective, while contextual advertising on the internet is increasingly viable. It scans web pages for keywords and places related ads, but can still be imperfect.
Targeted advertising is a type of advertising designed to reach certain consumers. Targeted ads have been used successfully for decades and are often touted as the most effective way for businesses to reach potential customers. The principle behind this type of advertising is that it is more cost-effective to specifically advertise to the people who are most likely to buy a product or service.
There are two main categories of targeted advertising: demographics-based advertising and content-based advertising. Demographics-based advertising is designed to reach a certain category of consumers based on shared traits, such as age or gender. Content-based targeted advertising is generally more strictly aimed at consumers with specific interests.
Demographic-targeted advertising relies heavily on the assumption that certain groups of individuals are overall more likely to purchase certain types of products. For example, even though there are female hunters, hunting is considered to be primarily male oriented hob. It makes more financial sense to target ads to males as they make up the majority of the hunting audience.
Changes in social behavior as a whole have made demographic targeting less effective. Geographic demographic predictability is starting to crumble as communication and information become universally available on the Internet. The traditional model of a stay-at-home wife and husband with a 9-to-5 job is commonly seen as antiquated. Improving health care and longer life expectancies have even made age-based demographic data more unreliable. In short, it is becoming more difficult to find a “typical” member of any gender, age or geographic group.
Targeted content-based advertising has been commonly used for decades in specialized publications, such as trade magazines and financial publications, but has historically been considered impractical for widespread advertising campaigns. The prevalent use of the Internet, however, has led to the increased viability of this form of targeted advertising on a large scale. This has mainly occurred through the advent of contextual advertising.
In early 2011, contextual advertising became the most common type of advertising on the Internet. The mechanics behind contextual ad placement can be complex, but the premise is simple. Basically, a computer program scans text on a web page for certain keywords. Advertisements related to those keywords are then placed on the page. Since the individual reading the web page has already shown interest in a topic closely related to the advertised product or service, this type of targeted advertising can be extremely effective.
As effective as contextual advertising is, it can still be imperfect. One problem is the inability of computer scanning programs to account for human sensitivity in ad placement. An unfortunate example of this problem occurred on a major news network site shortly after the untimely death of a celebrity. For many readers, the article was accompanied by a big publicity for life insurance.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
