For many companies, traditional advertising can feel like an arbitrary, hit-or-miss operation. Carefully crafted messages sometimes fall short without an apparent reason. Potential customers don’t connect with the product in a way that encourages them to engage and purchase. These less desirable results often stem from marketers creating ads that fail to address the viewer’s particular interests and desires. They can also result from reaching the wrong audiences altogether.

In the age of data and advanced tracking technologies, random marketing should be the way of the past — especially on the web. Not only have prior methods lacked effectiveness, but they have led to the tremendous waste of valuable resources over the years. If you are an online advertiser, you can use the innovations of data management to target audiences that offer higher conversion rates.

While demographic groups and context information is useful, the data that has proven most effective for online publishers relates to consumer web behaviours. Behavioural targeting has increased the creation of relevant ads more than any other marketing strategy in recent years. After taking a closer look at how behavioural targeting works, this improvement should come as no surprise.

What does Behavioural Targeting mean?

Behavioural targeting is a marketing method that uses web user information to strengthen advertising campaigns. The technique involves gathering data from a variety of sources about the potential customer’s online browsing and shopping behaviours.

This information helps create ads that are relevant to that specific user’s habits and interests, which the publisher can then display in that visitor’s web browser.

The primary purpose of this technique is to deliver advertising messages to the behavioural target markets that have shown the most interest in them. The process involves compiling web searches, purchase histories, frequently visited websites and other information to create a full user profile, revealing what your audience wants, avoids and purchases. Using these data points, companies can formulate ads that align with the individual consumer’s trackable preferences and needs, without conveying messages the viewer would find unappealing or irrelevant.

What are the benefits of Behavioural Marketing?

Behavioural targeting may be data-centred, but its benefits are much more tangible than any abstract number systems. Focusing campaigns on behavioural target markets not only benefits the advertiser, but the consumers themselves reap numerous rewards, as well.

Here are a few of the advantages behavioural advertising offers for the advertiser:

• Increase in User Engagement: Behavioural tracking grants publishers access to consumers who display habits of engaging with specific marketing material. With one-click ads, consumers can be redirected to online storefronts and gain intel on the company in a matter of seconds. However, without advertisements that create a sense of interest and trust, viewers are less willing to engage initially. Once the user accesses the company’s website, the brand can offer content from other areas of the site, increasing clicks and activity for targeted ads down the line.

• Higher Number of Ad Click-Throughs: A personalised ad that captures the viewer’s likes and needs is a much more useful tool in helping consumers move down the purchasing pipeline than a generic banner ad without relevant appeal. Upon initial exposure to a highly-desired product, an interested viewer is much more likely to seek more information and continue to check out than they are with brands that fail to align with their previous browsing and purchasing behaviors.

• Improved Conversion Rates: Advertisements that reach a behavioural target market have higher appeal to those who view them, increasing the chances that users will proceed to request more information or complete a purchase. With the techniques of behavioural targeting, companies can see an increase in sales and repeat customers, enjoying higher profits overall.

In turn, the viewer also benefits from behavioural targeting in three ways:

• A More Exciting Ad Experience: Online users don’t always enjoy the idea of giving up personal information to advertisers. However, they often find it more frustrating when the ads they encounter are irrelevant and un-engaging. That’s why a recent study found that 71 percent of consumers prefer more personalised website ads, even if they need to expose their click and purchase habits in exchange. When the ads are more personalised, viewers find their browsing experience more enjoyable overall, leading to higher user satisfaction.

• Higher Efficiency in the Online Shopping Process: When ads for products that interest them are prominent in their web browser, consumers can click through to access online storefronts quickly, often being automatically redirected to the page about the particular product highlighted in the ad. From there, adding the item to their shopping cart and proceeding to checkout only involves a few easy steps, which online shoppers often appreciate.

• Reminders and Alerts for New Products: By continually seeing ads for products they find attractive, viewers can keep up with new releases and stay informed about brands they enjoy. Additionally, if a user was distracted from completing an online purchase, a personalised ad about the company may remind and motivate them to go back and finalise the transaction.