HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Targeted advertising is a form of
advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...
, including
online advertising Online advertising, also known as online marketing, Internet advertising, digital advertising or web advertising, is a form of marketing and advertising which uses the Internet to promote products and services to audiences and platform users. ...
, that is directed towards an audience with certain traits, based on the product or person the advertiser is promoting. These traits can either be
demographic Demography () is the statistical study of populations, especially human beings. Demographic analysis examines and measures the dimensions and dynamics of populations; it can cover whole societies or groups defined by criteria such as ed ...
with a focus on race, economic status, sex, age, generation, level of education, income level, and employment, or
psychographic Psychographics is a qualitative methodology used to describe traits of humans on psychological attributes. Psychographics have been applied to the study of personality, values, opinions, attitudes, interests, and lifestyles. Two approaches to ...
focused on the
consumer A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or uses purchased goods, products, or services primarily for personal, social, family, household and similar needs, who is not directly related to entrepreneurial or business activities. ...
values, personality, attitude, opinion,
lifestyle Lifestyle often refers to: * Lifestyle (sociology), the way a person lives * ''Otium'', ancient Roman concept of a lifestyle * Style of life (german: Lebensstil, link=no), dealing with the dynamics of personality Lifestyle may also refer to: Bu ...
and interest. This focus can also entail behavioral variables, such as
browser history Web browsing history refers to the list of web pages a user has visited, as well as associated metadata such as page title and time of visit. It is usually stored locally by web browsers in order to provide the user with a history list to go back ...
, purchase history, and other recent online activities. The process of algorithm targeting eliminates waste. Traditional forms of advertising, including
billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large adverti ...
s, newspapers, magazines, and radio channels, are progressively becoming replaced by online advertisements. The
Information and communication technology Information and communications technology (ICT) is an extensional term for information technology (IT) that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of telecommunications ( telephone lines and wireless signals) and computer ...
(ICT) space has transformed recently, resulting in targeted advertising stretching across all ICT technologies, such as web,
IPTV Internet Protocol television (IPTV) is the delivery of television content over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. This is in contrast to delivery through traditional terrestrial, satellite, and cable television formats. Unlike downloaded med ...
, and mobile environments. In the next generation's advertising, the importance of targeted advertisements will radically increase, as it spreads across numerous ICT channels cohesively. Through the emergence of new online channels, the usefulness of targeted advertising is increasing because companies aim to minimize wasted advertising by means of information technology. Most targeted
new media New media describes communication technologies that enable or enhance interaction between users as well as interaction between users and content. In the middle of the 1990s, the phrase "new media" became widely used as part of a sales pitch for ...
advertising currently uses second-order proxies for targets, such as tracking online or mobile web activities of consumers, associating historical web page consumer demographics with new consumer web page access, using a search word as the basis of implied interest, or
contextual advertising Contextual advertising is a form of targeted advertising for advertisements appearing on websites or other media, such as content displayed in mobile browsers. In context targeting, advertising media are controlled on the basis of the content of ...
.


Types

Web services are continually generating new business ventures and revenue opportunities for internet corporations. Companies have rapidly developed technological capabilities that allow them to gather information about web users. By tracking and monitoring what websites users visit, internet service providers can directly show ads that are relative to the consumer's preferences. Most of today's websites are using these targeting technologies to
track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...
users' internet behavior and there is much debate over the
privacy issues The right to privacy is an element of various legal traditions that intends to restrain governmental and private actions that threaten the privacy of individuals. Over 150 national constitutions mention the right to privacy. On 10 December 194 ...
present.


Search engine marketing

Search engine marketing uses
search engine A search engine is a software system designed to carry out web searches. They search the World Wide Web in a systematic way for particular information specified in a textual web search query. The search results are generally presented in a ...
s to reach target audiences. For example,
Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
's Remarketing Campaigns are a type of targeted marketing where advertisers use the
IP address An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.. Updated by . An IP address serves two main functions: network interface ident ...
es of computers that have visited their websites to remarket their ad specifically to users who have previously been on their website whilst they browse websites that are a part of the
Google display network Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) is an online advertising platform developed by Google, where advertisers bid to display brief advertisements, service offerings, product listings, or videos to web users. It can place ads both in the resul ...
, or when searching for keywords related to a product or service on the Google search engine. Dynamic remarketing can improve the targeted advertising as the ads are able to include the products or services that the consumers have previously viewed on the advertisers' website within the ads.
Google Ads Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) is an online advertising platform developed by Google, where advertisers bid to display brief advertisements, service offerings, product listings, or videos to web users. It can place ads both in the result ...
includes different platforms. The Search Network displays the ads on '
Google Search Google Search (also known simply as Google) is a search engine provided by Google. Handling more than 3.5 billion searches per day, it has a 92% share of the global search engine market. It is also the List of most visited websites, most-visi ...
, other Google sites such as Maps and Shopping, and hundreds of non-Google search partner websites that show ads matched to search results'. 'The Display Network includes a collection of Google websites (like
Google Finance Google Finance is a website focusing on business news and financial information hosted by Google. History Google Finance was first launched by Google on March 21, 2006. The service featured business and enterprise headlines for many corporation ...
,
Gmail Gmail is a free email service provided by Google. As of 2019, it had 1.5 billion active users worldwide. A user typically accesses Gmail in a web browser or the official mobile app. Google also supports the use of email clients via the POP and ...
,
Blogger A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...
, and
YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
), partner sites, and mobile sites and apps that show adverts from Google Ads matched to the content on a given page.' These two kinds of advertising networks can be beneficial for each specific goal of the company, or type of company. For example, the search network can benefit a company with the goal of reaching consumers actively searching for a particular product or service. Other ways advertising campaigns are able to target the user is to use
browser history Web browsing history refers to the list of web pages a user has visited, as well as associated metadata such as page title and time of visit. It is usually stored locally by web browsers in order to provide the user with a history list to go back ...
and search history. For example, if the user types ''promotional pens'' into a search engine such as Google, ads for promotional pens will appear at the top of the page above the organic listings. These ads will be geo-targeted to the area of the user's IP address, showing the product or service in the local area or surrounding regions. The higher ad position is often rewarded to the ad having a higher quality score. The ad quality is affected by the 5 components of the quality score: * The ad's expected
click-through rate Click-through rate (CTR) is the ratio of users who click on a specific link to the number of total users who view a page, email, or advertisement. It is commonly used to measure the success of an online advertising campaign for a particular we ...
* The quality of the
landing page In online marketing, a landing page, sometimes known as a "lead capture page", "single property page", "static page", "squeeze page" or a "destination page", is a single web page that appears in response to clicking on a search engine optimized s ...
* The ad/search relevance * Geographic performance * The targeted devices When ranked based on these criteria, it will affect the advertiser by improving ad auction eligibility, the actual
cost per click Pay-per-click (PPC) is an internet advertising model used to drive traffic to websites, in which an advertiser pays a publisher (typically a search engine, website owner, or a network of websites) when the ad is clicked. Pay-per-click is usuall ...
(CPC), ad position, and ad position bid estimates; to summarise, the better the quality score, the better ad position, and lower costs. Google uses its display network to track what users are looking at and to gather information about them. When a user goes to a website that uses the Google display network, it will send a cookie to Google, showing information on the user, what he or she searched, where they are from, found by the IP address, and then builds a profile around them, allowing Google to easily target ads to the user more specifically. For example, if a user went onto promotional companies' websites often, that sell promotional pens, Google will gather data from the user such as age, gender, location, and other demographic information as well as information on the websites visited, the user will then be put into a category of promotional products, allowing Google to easily display ads on websites the user visits relating to promotional products. these types of adverts are also called behavioral advertisements as they track the website behavior of the user and display ads based on previous pages or searched terms. ("Examples Of Targeted Advertising")


Social media targeting

Social media targeting is a form of targeted advertising, that uses general targeting attributes such as
geotargeting In geomarketing and internet marketing, geotargeting is the method of delivering different content to visitors based on their geolocation. This includes country, region/state, city, metro code/ zip code, organization, IP address, ISP, or other cri ...
, behavioral targeting, socio-psychographic targeting, and gathers the information that consumers have provided on each social media platform. According to the media users' view history, customers who are interested in the criteria will be automatically targeted by the advertisements of certain products or service. For example, Facebook collects massive amounts of user data from surveillance infrastructure on its platforms. Information such as a user's likes, view history, and geographic location is leveraged to micro-target consumers with personalized products. Social media also creates profiles of the consumer and only needs to look at one place, the user's profile, to find all interests and 'likes'. E.g. Facebook lets advertisers target using broad characteristics like gender, age, and location. Furthermore, they allow more narrow targeting based on demographics, behavior, and interests (see a comprehensive list of Facebook's different types of targeting options).


Television

Advertisements can be targeted to specific consumers watching
digital cable Digital cable is the distribution of cable television using digital data and video compression. The technology was first developed by General Instrument. By 2000, most cable companies offered digital features, eventually replacing their previ ...
or over-the-top video. Targeting can be done according to age, gender, location, or personal interests in films, etc. Cable box addresses can be cross-referenced with information from data brokers like
Acxiom Acxiom (pronounced "ax-ee-um") is a Conway, Arkansas-based database marketing company. The company collects, analyzes and sells customer and business information used for targeted advertising campaigns. The company was formed in 2018 when Acxiom ...
,
Equifax Equifax Inc. is an American multinational consumer credit reporting agency headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia and is one of the three largest consumer credit reporting agencies, along with Experian and TransUnion (together known as the "Big Th ...
, and
Experian Experian is an American–Irish multinational data analytics and consumer credit reporting company. Experian collects and aggregates information on over 1 billion people and businesses including 235 million individual U.S. consumers and more ...
, including information about marriage, education, criminal record, and credit history. Political campaigns may also match against public records such as party affiliation and which elections and party primaries the view has voted in.


Mobile devices

Since the early 2000s, advertising has been pervasive online and more recently in the mobile setting. Targeted advertising based on mobile devices allows more information about the consumer to be transmitted, not just their interests, but their information about their location and time. This allows advertisers to produce advertisements that could cater to their schedule and a more specific changing environment.


Content and contextual targeting

The most straightforward method of targeting is content/contextual targeting. This is when advertisers put ads in a specific place, based on the relative content present. Another name used is content-oriented advertising, as it is corresponding to the context being consumed. This targeting method can be used across different mediums, for example in an article online, purchasing homes would have an advert associated with this context, like an insurance ad. This is usually achieved through an ad matching system that analyses the contents on a page or finds keywords and presents a relevant advert, sometimes through pop-ups. Though sometimes the ad matching system can fail, as it can neglect to tell the difference between positive and negative correlations. This can result in placing contradictory adverts, which are not appropriate to the content.Fan, T. K., & Chang, C. H. (2010). ''Sentiment-oriented contextual advertising. Knowledge and Information Systems'', 23(3), pp. 321–344


Technical targeting

Technical targeting is associated with the user's own software or hardware status. The advertisement is altered depending on the user's available network bandwidth, for example, if a user is on their mobile phone that has limited connection, the ad delivery system will display a version of the ad that is smaller for a faster data transfer rate. Addressable advertising systems serve ads directly based on demographic, psychographic, or behavioral attributes associated with the consumer(s) exposed to the ad. These systems are always digital and must be addressable in that the endpoint which serves the ad (
set-top box A set-top box (STB), also colloquially known as a cable box and historically television decoder, is an information appliance device that generally contains a TV-tuner input and displays output to a television set and an external source of s ...
, website, or digital sign) must be capable of rendering an ad independently of any other endpoints based on consumer attributes specific to that endpoint at the time the ad is served. Addressable advertising systems, therefore, must use consumer traits associated with the endpoints as the basis for selecting and serving ads.


Time targeting

According to the
Journal of Marketing The ''Journal of Marketing'' is a bimonthly scholarly journal that publishes peer-reviewed research in marketing. It is published by the American Marketing Association. Established in 1936, It is the fourth-oldest major journal covering marketing ...
, more than 1.8 billion clients spent a minimum of 118 minutes daily- via web-based networking media in 2016. Nearly 77% of these clients interact with the content through likes, commenting, and clicking on links related to content. With this astounding buyer trend, it is important for advertisers to choose the right time to schedule content, in order to maximize advertising efficiency. To determine what time of day is most effective for scheduling content, it is essential to know when the brain is most effective at retaining memory. Research in
chronopsychology Chronobiology is a field of biology that examines Time, timing processes, including periodic (cyclic) phenomena in living organisms, such as their adaptation to sun, solar- and moon, lunar-related rhythms. These cycles are known as biological rh ...
has credited that time-of-day impacts diurnal variety in a person's
working memory Working memory is a cognitive system with a limited capacity that can hold information temporarily. It is important for reasoning and the guidance of decision-making and behavior. Working memory is often used synonymously with short-term memory, ...
accessibility and has discovered the enactment of inhibitory procedures to build working memory effectiveness during times of low working memory accessibility. Working memory is known to be vital for language perception,
learning Learning is the process of acquiring new understanding, knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, attitudes, and preferences. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals, and some machines; there is also evidence for some kind of lea ...
, and
reasoning Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, langu ...
providing us with the capacities of putting away, recovering, and preparing quick data. For many people, working memory accessibility is good when they get up toward the beginning of the day, most reduced in mid-evening, and moderate at night.


Sociodemographic targeting

Sociodemographic targeting focuses on the characteristics of consumers. This includes their age, generation, gender, salary, and nationality. The idea is to target users specifically and to use this collected data, for example, targeting a male in the age bracket of 18–24. Facebook and other social media platforms uses this form of targeting by showing advertisements relevant to the user's individual demographic on their account, this can show up in forms of banner ads, mobile ads, or commercial videos.


Geographical and location-based targeting

This type of advertising involves targeting different users based on their geographic location. IP addresses can signal the location of a user and can usually transfer the location through ZIP codes. Locations are then stored for users in static profiles, thus advertisers can easily target these individuals based on their geographic location. A
location-based service A location-based service (LBS) is a general term denoting software services which use geographic data and information to provide services or information to users. LBS can be used in a variety of contexts, such as health, indoor object search, en ...
(LBS) is a mobile information service that allows spatial and temporal data transmission and can be used to an advertiser's advantage. This data can be harnessed from applications on the device (mobile apps like
uber Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery ( Uber Eats and Postmates), pa ...
) that allow access to the location information. This type of targeted advertising focuses on localizing content, for example, a user could be prompted with options of activities in the area, for example, places to eat, nearby shops, etc. Although producing advertising off consumer's location-based services can improve the effectiveness of delivering ads, it can raise issues with the user's privacy.


Behavioral targeting

Behavioral targeting is centered around the activity/actions of users, and is more easily achieved on web pages. Information from browsing websites can be collected from data mining, which finds patterns in users' search history. Advertisers using this method believe it produces ads that will be more relevant to users, thus leading consumers to be more likely influenced by them. If a consumer was frequently searching for plane ticket prices, the targeting system would recognize this and start showing related adverts across unrelated websites, such as airfare deals on Facebook. Its advantage is that it can target individual's interests, rather than target groups of people whose interests may vary. When a
consumer A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or uses purchased goods, products, or services primarily for personal, social, family, household and similar needs, who is not directly related to entrepreneurial or business activities. ...
visits a web site, the pages they visit, the amount of time they view each page, the links they click on, the searches they make, and the things that they interact with, allow sites to collect that data, and other factors, to create a '
profile Profile or profiles may refer to: Art, entertainment and media Music * ''Profile'' (Jan Akkerman album), 1973 * ''Profile'' (Githead album), 2005 * ''Profile'' (Pat Donohue album), 2005 * ''Profile'' (Duke Pearson album), 1959 * '' ''Profi ...
' that links to that visitor's web browser. As a result, site publishers can use this data to create defined audience segments based upon visitors that have similar profiles. When visitors return to a specific site or a network of sites using the same web browser, those profiles can be used to allow marketers and advertisers to position their online ads and messaging in front of those visitors who exhibit a greater level of interest and intent for the products and services being offered. Behavioral targeting has emerged as one of the main technologies used to increase the efficiency and profits of
digital marketing Digital marketing is the component of marketing that uses the Internet and online based digital technologies such as desktop computers, mobile phones and other digital media and platforms to promote products and services. Its development duri ...
and advertisements, as media providers are able to provide individual users with highly relevant advertisements. On the theory that properly targeted ads and messaging will fetch more consumer interest, publishers can charge a premium for behaviorally targeted ads and marketers can achieve Behavioral marketing can be used on its own or in conjunction with other forms of targeting. Many practitioners also refer to this process as "audience targeting". Major advantages of Behavioral marketing are that it will help in reaching surfers with affinity, reach surfers that were not exposed to a media campaign, contact surfers close to conversion and in reconnecting with prospects or customers.


Onsite

Behavioral targeting may also be applied to any online property on the premise that it either improves the visitor experience or benefits the online property, typically through increased conversion rates or increased spending levels. The early adopters of this technology/philosophy were editorial sites such as HotWired, online advertising with leading online ad servers, retail or another
e-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain manag ...
website as a technique for increasing the relevance of product offers and promotions on a visitor by visitor basis. More recently, companies outside this traditional e-commerce marketplace have started to experiment with these emerging technologies. The typical approach to this starts by using
web analytics Web analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis, and reporting of web data to understand and optimize web usage. Web analytics is not just a process for measuring web traffic but can be used as a tool for business and market research and ...
or
behavioral analytics Behavioral analytics is a recent advancement in business analytics that reveals new insights into the behavior of consumers on eCommerce platforms, online games, web and mobile applications, and IoT. The rapid increase in the volume of raw event ...
to break-down the range of all visitors into a number of discrete channels. Each channel is then analyzed and a virtual profile is created to deal with each channel. These profiles can be based around
Personas A persona (plural personae or personas), depending on the context, is the public image of one's personality, the social role that one adopts, or simply a fictional character. The word derives from Latin, where it originally referred to a theat ...
that give the website operators a starting point in terms of deciding what content, navigation and layout to show to each of the different personas. When it comes to the practical problem of successfully delivering the profiles correctly this is usually achieved by either using a specialist content behavioral platform or by bespoke software development. Most platforms identify visitors by assigning a unique ID cookie to each and every visitor to the site thereby allowing them to be tracked throughout their web journey, the platform then makes a rules-based decision about what content to serve. Self-learning onsite behavioral targeting systems will monitor visitor response to site content and learn what is most likely to generate a desired conversion event. Some good content for each behavioral trait or pattern is often established using numerous simultaneous multivariate tests. Onsite behavioral targeting requires a relatively high level of traffic before statistical confidence levels can be reached regarding the probability of a particular offer generating a conversion from a user with a set behavioral profile. Some providers have been able to do so by leveraging their large user base, such as
Yahoo! Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Mana ...
. Some providers use a rules-based approach, allowing administrators to set the content and offers shown to those with particular traits. According to research behavioral targeting provides little benefit at a huge privacy cost — when targeting for gender, the targeted guess is 42% accurate, which is less than a random guess. When targeting for gender and age the accuracy is 24%.


Network

Advertising network An online advertising network or ad network is a company that connects advertisers to websites that want to host advertisements. The key function of an ad network is an aggregation of ad supply from publishers and matching it with advertiser's d ...
s use behavioral targeting in a different way than individual sites. Since they serve many advertisements across many different sites, they are able to build up a picture of the likely demographic makeup of internet users.Wall Street Journal, "On the Web's Cutting Edge, Anonymity in Name Only", August 4, 2010
/ref> Data from a visit to one website can be sent to many different companies, including
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washi ...
and
Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
subsidiaries,
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dust ...
,
Yahoo Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo! Inc. (2017–present), Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds ma ...
, many traffic-logging sites, and smaller ad firms. This data can sometimes be sent to more than 100 websites, and shared with business partners, advertisers, and other third parties for business purposes. The data is collected using cookies,
web beacon A web beaconAlso called web bug, tracking bug, tag, web tag, page tag, tracking pixel, pixel tag, 1×1 GIF, or clear GIF. is a technique used on web pages and email to unobtrusively (usually invisibly) allow checking that a user has accessed ...
s and similar technologies, and/or a third-party ad serving software, to automatically collect information about site users and site activity. Some servers even record the page that referred you to them, websites you visit after them, which ads you see and which ads you click on. Online advertising uses cookies, a tool used specifically to identify users, as a means of delivering targeted advertising by monitoring the actions of a user on the website. For this purpose, the cookies used are called tracking
cookies A cookie is a baked or cooked snack or dessert that is typically small, flat and sweet. It usually contains flour, sugar, egg, and some type of oil, fat, or butter. It may include other ingredients such as raisins, oats, chocolate chi ...
. An ad network company such as Google uses cookies to deliver advertisements adjusted to the interests of the user, control the number of times that the user sees an ad and "measure" whether they are advertising the specific product to the customer's preferences. This data is collected without attaching the people's names, address, email address or telephone number, but it may include device identifying information such as the IP address,
MAC address A media access control address (MAC address) is a unique identifier assigned to a network interface controller (NIC) for use as a network address in communications within a network segment. This use is common in most IEEE 802 networking te ...
, cookie or other device-specific unique alphanumerical ID of your computer, but some stores may create guest IDs to go along with the data. Cookies are used to control displayed ads and to track browsing activity and usage patterns on sites. This data is used by companies to infer people's age, gender, and possible purchase interests so that they could make customized ads that you would be more likely to click on. An example would be a user seen on football sites, business sites, and male fashion sites. A reasonable guess would be to assume the user is male. Demographic analyses of individual sites provided either internally (user surveys) or externally (Comscore \ Netratings) allow the networks to sell audiences rather than sites. Although advertising networks were used to sell this product, this was based on picking the sites where the audiences were. Behavioral targeting allows them to be slightly more specific about this.


Research

In the work titled ''An Economic Analysis of Online Advertising Using Behavioral Targeting,'' Chen and Stallaert (2014) study the economic implications when an online publisher engages in behavioral targeting. They consider that the publisher auctions off an advertising slot and are paid on a cost-per-click basis. Chen and Stallaert (2014) identify the factors that affect the publisher's
revenue In accounting, revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of goods and services related to the primary operations of the business. Commercial revenue may also be referred to as sales or as turnover. Some companies receive rev ...
, the advertisers' payoffs, and
social welfare Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...
. They show that revenue for the online publisher in some circumstances can double when behavioral targeting is used. Increased revenue for the publisher is not guaranteed: in some cases, the prices of advertising and hence the publisher's revenue can be lower, depending on the degree of
competition Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, ind ...
and the advertisers' valuations. They identify two effects associated with behavioral targeting: a ''competitive effect'' and a ''propensity effect.'' The relative strength of the two effects determines whether the publisher's revenue is positively or negatively affected. Chen and Stallaert (2014) also demonstrate that, although social welfare is increased and small advertisers are better off under behavioral targeting, the dominant advertiser might be worse off and reluctant to switch from traditional advertising. In 2006, BlueLithium (now Yahoo! Advertising) in a large online study, examined the effects of behavior targeted advertisements based on contextual content. The study used 400 million "impressions", or advertisements conveyed across behavioral and contextual borders. Specifically, nine behavioral categories (such as "shoppers" or "travelers")with over 10 million "impressions" were observed for patterns across the content. All measures for the study were taken in terms of
click-through rate Click-through rate (CTR) is the ratio of users who click on a specific link to the number of total users who view a page, email, or advertisement. It is commonly used to measure the success of an online advertising campaign for a particular we ...
s (CTR) and " action-through rates" (ATR), or conversions. So, for every impression that someone gets, the number of times they "click-through" to it will contribute to CTR data, and every time they go through with or convert on the advertisement the user adds "action-through" data. Results from the study show that advertisers looking for traffic on their advertisements should focus on behavioral targeting in context. Likewise, if they are looking for conversions on the advertisements, behavioral targeting out of context is the most effective process.Newcomb, K. (2006, October 16). ''Study: Behavioral ads convert better out of context.'' Retrieved fro
Clickz.com
The data was helpful in determining an "across-the-board rule of thumb"; however, results fluctuated widely by content categories. Overall results from the researchers indicate that the effectiveness of behavioral targeting is dependent on the goals of the advertiser and the primary target market the advertiser is trying to reach.


Privacy and security concerns

Many online users and advocacy groups are concerned about
privacy Privacy (, ) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively. The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of ...
issues around this type of targeting since targeted advertising requires aggregation of large amounts of personal data, including highly sensitive one (such as sexual orientation or sexual preferences, health issues, location) which is then traded between hundreds of parties in the process of
real-time bidding Real-time bidding (RTB) is a means by which advertising inventory is bought and sold on a per- impression basis, via instantaneous programmatic auction, similar to financial markets. With real-time bidding, advertising buyers bid on an impression a ...
. Obscure to a great many people, individual data are exchanged without the consent of the proprietors. Essentially, it is an obtrusive rupture of protection to profit from the unregulated exchange of individual data. However simultaneously, individual data, particularly the ones that are identified with intrigue and propensity, are a basic segment for conveying web-based promoting, which is the help of numerous sites. This is a controversy that the behavioral targeting industry is trying to contain through education, advocacy and product constraints in order to keep all information non-personally identifiable or to obtain permission from end-users.
AOL AOL (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo! Inc. ...
created animated cartoons in 2008 to explain to its users that their past actions may determine the content of ads they see in the future.
Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
academics at the
University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (french: Université d'Ottawa), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ottaw ...
Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic The Samuelson-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) is a legal clinic at the University of Ottawa focused on maintaining fair and balanced policy making in Canada related to technology. Founded in the fall of 2003 by M ...
have recently demanded the federal privacy commissioner to investigate online profiling of Internet users for targeted advertising. The European Commission (via commissioner
Meglena Kuneva Meglena Shtilianova Kuneva ( bg, Меглена Щилиянова Кунева; born 22 June 1957) is a Bulgarian and EU politician. Biography Born in Sofia, Kuneva is descended from a Catholic family from the town of Rakovski. She graduat ...
) has also raised a number of concerns related to online data collection (of personal data), profiling and behavioral targeting, and is looking for "enforcing existing regulation". In October 2009 it was reported that a recent survey carried out by
University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...
and the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology found that a large majority of US internet users rejected the use of behavioral advertising. Several research efforts by academics and others have demonstrated that data that is supposedly anonymized can be used to identify real individuals. In December 2010, online tracking firm
Quantcast Quantcast is an American technology company, founded in 2006, that specializes in AI-driven real-time advertising, audience insights and measurement. It has offices in the United States, Canada, Australia, Singapore, United Kingdom, Ireland, Fran ...
agreed to pay $2.4M to settle a class-action lawsuit for their use of 'zombie' cookies to track consumers. These zombie cookies, which were on partner sites such as MTV, Hulu, and ESPN, would re-generate to continue tracking the user even if they were deleted. Other uses of such technology include
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dust ...
, and their use of the Facebook Beacon to track users across the internet, to later use for more targeted advertising. Tracking mechanisms without consumer consent are generally frowned upon; however, tracking of consumer behavior online or on mobile devices are key to digital advertising, which is the financial backbone to most of the internet. In March 2011, it was reported that the online ad industry would begin working with the Council of Better Business Bureaus to start policing itself as part of its program to monitor and regulate how marketers track consumers online, also known as behavioral advertising.


Retargeting

Retargeting is where advertisers use behavioral targeting to produce ads that follow users after users have looked at or purchased a particular item. An example of this is store catalogs, where stores subscribe customers to their email system after a purchase hoping that they draw attention to more items for continuous purchases. The main example of retargeting that has earned a reputation from most people is ads that follow users across the web, showing them the same items that they have looked at in the hope that they will purchase them. Retargeting is a very effective process; by analysing consumers activities with the brand they can address their consumers' behavior appropriately.


Process

Advertising provides advertisers with a direct line of communication to existing and prospective consumers. By using a combination of words and/or pictures the general aim of the advertisement is to act as a "medium of information" ( David Ogilvy) making the means of delivery and to whom the information is delivered most important. Advertising should define how and when structural elements of advertisements influence receivers, knowing that all receivers are not the same and thus may not respond in a single, similar manner. Targeted advertising serves the purpose of placing particular advertisements before specific groups so as to reach consumers who would be interested in the information. Advertisers aim to reach consumers as efficiently as possible with the belief that it will result in a more effective campaign. By targeting, advertisers are able to identify when and where the ad should be positioned in order to achieve maximum profits. This requires an understanding of how customers' minds work (see also neuromarketing) so as to determine the best channel by which to communicate. Types of targeting include, but are not limited to advertising based on
demographics Demography () is the statistical study of populations, especially human beings. Demographic analysis examines and measures the dimensions and dynamics of populations; it can cover whole societies or groups defined by criteria such as ed ...
,
psychographics Psychographics is a qualitative methodology used to describe traits of humans on psychological attributes. Psychographics have been applied to the study of personality, values, opinions, attitudes, interests, and lifestyles. Two approaches to ...
, behavioral variables and contextual targeting. Behavioral advertising is the most common form of targeting used online. Internet cookies are sent back and forth between an internet server and the browser, that allows a user to be identified or to track their progressions. Cookies provide detail on what pages a consumer visits, the amount of time spent viewing each page, the links clicked on; and searches and interactions made. From this information, the cookie issuer gathers an understanding of the user's browsing tendencies and interests generating a
profile Profile or profiles may refer to: Art, entertainment and media Music * ''Profile'' (Jan Akkerman album), 1973 * ''Profile'' (Githead album), 2005 * ''Profile'' (Pat Donohue album), 2005 * ''Profile'' (Duke Pearson album), 1959 * '' ''Profi ...
. Analyzing the profile, advertisers are able to create defined audience segments based upon users with similar returned similar information, hence profiles. Tailored advertising is then placed in front of the consumer based upon what organizations working on behalf of the advertisers assume are the interests of the consumer. These advertisements have been formatted so as to appear on pages and in front of users that it would most likely appeal to based on their profiles. For example, under behavioral targeting, if a user is known to have recently visited a number of automotive shopping and comparison sites based on the data recorded by cookies stored on the user's computer, the user can then be served automotive-related advertisements when visiting other sites. Behavioral advertising is reliant on data both wittingly and unwittingly provided by users and is made up of two different forms: one involving the delivery of advertising based on assessment of user's web movements; the second involving the examination of communication and information as it passes through the gateways of
internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise priva ...
s.
Demographic targeting Demographic targeting is a form of behavioral advertising in which advertisers target online advertisements at consumers based on demographic information. They are able to achieve this by using existing information from sources such as browser ...
was the first and most basic form of targeting used online. involves segmenting an audience into more specific groups using parameters such as gender, age, ethnicity, annual income, parental status etc. All members of the group share a common trait. So, when an advertiser wishes to run a campaign aimed at a specific group of people then that campaign is intended only for the group that contains those traits at which the campaign is targeted. Having finalized the advertiser's demographic target, a website or a website section is chosen as a medium because a large proportion of the targeted audience utilizes that form of media. Segmentation using psychographics Is based on an individual's personality, values, interests and lifestyles. A recent study concerning what forms of media people use- conducted by the Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California, the Hallmark Channel, and E-Poll Market Research- concludes that a better predictor of media usage is the user's lifestyle. Researchers concluded that while cohorts of these groups may have similar demographic profiles, they may have different attitudes and media usage habits. Psychographics can provide further insight by distinguishing an audience into specific groups by using their personal traits. Once acknowledging this is the case, advertisers can begin to target customers having recognized that factors other than age for example provides greater insight into the customer. Contextual advertising is a strategy to place advertisements on media vehicles, such as specific websites or print magazines, whose themes are relevant to the promoted products. Advertisers apply this strategy in order to narrow-target their audiences.Jeong, Y., & King, C. (2005). ''Impacts of website context relevance on banner advertisement effectiveness''. Paper presented at the meeting of the International Communication Association, Annual Meeting, New York. Advertisements are selected and served by automated systems based on the identity of the user and the displayed content of the media. The advertisements will be displayed across the user's different platforms and are chosen based on searches for keywords; appearing as either a web page or pop up ads. It is a form of targeted advertising in which the content of an ad is in direct correlation to the content of the webpage the user is viewing.


The major psychographic segments


Personality

Every brand, service or product has itself a
personality Personality is the characteristic sets of behaviors, cognitions, and emotional patterns that are formed from biological and environmental factors, and which change over time. While there is no generally agreed-upon definition of personality, ...
, how it is viewed by the public and the community and marketers will create these personalities to match the personality traits of their target market. Marketers and advertisers create these personalities because when a consumer can relate to the characteristics of a brand, service or product they are more likely to feel connected towards the product and purchase it.


Lifestyle

Advertisers are aware that different people lead different lives, have different lifestyles and different wants and needs at different times in their consumer's lives, thus individual differences can be compensated for Advertisers who base their segmentation on psychographic characteristics promote their product as the solution to these wants and needs. Segmentation by lifestyle considers where the consumer is in their life cycle and which preferences are associated with that life stage.


Opinions, attitudes, interests and hobbies

Psychographic segmentation also includes
opinion An opinion is a judgment, viewpoint, or statement that is not conclusive, rather than facts, which are true statements. Definition A given opinion may deal with subjective matters in which there is no conclusive finding, or it may deal with ...
s on religion, gender and politics, sporting and recreational activities, views on the environment and arts and cultural issues. The views that the
market segment In marketing, market segmentation is the process of dividing a broad consumer or business market, normally consisting of existing and potential customers, into sub-groups of consumers (known as ''segments'') based on some type of shared charact ...
s hold and the activities they participate in will have an impact on the products and services they purchase and it will affect how they respond to the message. Alternatives to behavioral advertising and psychographic targeting include geographic targeting and demographic targeting When advertisers want to efficiently reach as many consumers as possible, they use a six-step process. #identify the objectives the advertisers do this by setting benchmarks, identifying products or proposals, identifying the core values and strategic objectives. This step also includes listing and monitoring competitors content and creating objectives for the next 12-18months. #The second step understanding buyers, is all about identifying what types of buyers the advertiser wants to target and identifying the buying process for the consumers. #Identifying gaps is key as this illustrates all of the gaps in the content and finds what is important for the buying process and the stages of the content. #content is created and the stage where the key messages are identified and the quality bench line is discussed. #Organizing distribution is key for maximizing the potential of the content, these can be social media, blogs or google display networks. #The last step is vital for an advertiser as they need to measure the
return on investment Return on investment (ROI) or return on costs (ROC) is a ratio between net income (over a period) and investment (costs resulting from an investment of some resources at a point in time). A high ROI means the investment's gains compare favourably ...
(ROI) there are multiple ways to measure performance, these can be tracking
web traffic Web traffic is the data sent and received by visitors to a website. Since the mid-1990s, web traffic has been the largest portion of Internet traffic. Sites monitor the incoming and outgoing traffic to see which parts or pages of their site are ...
, sales lead quality, and/ or social media sharing. Alternatives to behavioral advertising include audience targeting, contextual targeting, and
psychographic Psychographics is a qualitative methodology used to describe traits of humans on psychological attributes. Psychographics have been applied to the study of personality, values, opinions, attitudes, interests, and lifestyles. Two approaches to ...
targeting.


Effectiveness

Targeting aims to improve the effectiveness of advertising and reduce the wastage created by sending advertising to consumers who are unlikely to purchase that product. Targeted advertising or improved targeting may lead to lower advertising costs and expenditures. The effects of advertising on society and those targeted are all implicitly underpinned by consideration of whether advertising compromises autonomous choice. Those arguing for the ethical acceptability of advertising claim either that, because of the commercially competitive context of advertising, the consumer has a choice over what to accept and what to reject. Humans have the cognitive competence and are equipped with the necessary faculties to decide whether to be affected by adverts. Those arguing against note, for example, that advertising can make us buy things we do not want or that, as advertising is enmeshed in a capitalist system, it only presents choices based on consumerist-centered reality thus limiting the exposure to non-materialist lifestyles. Although the effects of target advertising are mainly focused on those targeted it also has an effect on those not targeted. Its unintended audiences often view an advertisement targeted at other groups and start forming judgments and decisions regarding the advertisement and even the brand and company behind the advertisement, these judgments may affect future consumer behavior. The Network Advertising Initiative conducted a study in 2009 measuring the pricing and effectiveness of targeted advertising. It revealed that targeted advertising: *Secured an average of 2.7 times as much revenue per ad as non-targeted " run of network" advertising. *Twice as effective at converting users who click on the ads into buyers However, other studies show that targeted advertising, at least by gender, is not effective. One of the major difficulties in measuring the economic efficiency of targeting, however, is being able to observe what would have happened in the absence of targeting since the users targeted by advertisers are more likely to convert than the general population. Farahat and Bailey exploit a large-scale natural experiment on Yahoo! allowing them to measure the true economic impact of targeted advertising on brand searches and clicks. They find, assuming the cost per 1000 ad impressions (CPM) is $1, that: *The marginal cost of a brand-related search resulting from ads is $15.65 per search, but is only $1.69 per search from a targeted campaign. *The marginal cost of a click is 72 cents, but only 16 cents from a targeted campaign. *The variation in CTR lifts from targeted advertising campaigns is mostly determined by pre-existing brand interest. Research shows that Content marketing in 2015 generates 3 times as many leads as traditional outbound marketing, but costs 62% lessPlus, Google. "Content Marketing Infographic , Demand Metric". ''Demandmetric.com''. N.p., 2016. Web. 1 Apr. 2016. showing how being able to advertise to targeted consumers is becoming the ideal way to advertise to the public. As other stats show how 86% of people skip television adverts and 44% of people ignore direct mail, which also displays how advertising to the wrong group of people can be a waste of resources.


Benefits and disadvantages


Benefits

Proponents of targeted advertising argue that there are advantages for both consumers and advertisers:


Consumers

Targeted advertising benefits consumers because advertisers are able to effectively attract consumers by using their purchasing and browsing habits this enables ads to be more apparent and useful for customers. Having ads that are related to the interests of the consumers allow the message to be received in a direct manner through effective touchpoints. An example of how targeted advertising is beneficial to consumers if that if someone sees an ad targeted to them for something similar to an item they have previously viewed online and were interested in, they are more likely to buy it. Consumers can benefit from targeted advertising in the following ways: * More effective delivery of desired product or service directly to the consumer:Keating, G. (n.d).
Benefits of targeted advertisements
a Spotify fail.''
having assumed the traits or interests of the consumer from their targeting, advertisements that will appeal and engage the customer are used. * More direct delivery of a message that relates to the consumer's interest: advertisements are delivered to the customer in a manner that is comfortable, whether it be jargon or a certain medium, the delivery of the message is part of the consumer's 'lifestyle'


Intelligence agencies

Intelligence agencies worldwide can more easily, and without exposing their personnel to the risks of
HUMINT Human intelligence (abbreviated HUMINT and pronounced as ''hyoo-mint'') is intelligence gathered by means of interpersonal contact, as opposed to the more technical intelligence gathering disciplines such as signals intelligence (SIGINT), imager ...
, track targets at sensitive locations such as military bases or training camps by simply purchasing location data from commercial providers who collect it from mobile devices with
geotargeting In geomarketing and internet marketing, geotargeting is the method of delivering different content to visitors based on their geolocation. This includes country, region/state, city, metro code/ zip code, organization, IP address, ISP, or other cri ...
enabled used by the operatives present at these places.


Advertiser

Advertisers benefit with target advertising are reduced resource costs and creation of more effective ads by attracting consumers with a strong appeal to these products. Targeted advertising allows advertisers in reduced cost of advertisement by minimizing "wasted" advertisements to non-interested consumers. Targeted advertising captivate the attention of consumers they were aimed at resulting in higher return on investment for the company. Because behavioral advertising enables advertisers to more easily determine user preference and purchasing habit, the ads will be more pertinent and useful for consumers. By creating a more efficient and effective manner of advertising to the consumer, an advertiser benefits greatly and in the following ways: * More efficient campaign development: by having information about the consumer an advertiser is able to make more concise decisions on how to best communicate with them. * Better use of advertising dollar: A greater understanding of the targeted audience will allow an advertiser to achieve better results with an advertising campaign * Increased return on investment: Targeted advertisements will yield higher results for lower costs. Using information from consumers can benefit the advertiser by developing a more efficient campaign, targeted advertising is proven to work both effectively and efficiently. They don't want to waste time and money advertising to the "wrong people". Through technological advances, the internet has allowed advertisers to target consumers beyond the capabilities of traditional media, and target significantly larger amount. The main advantage of using targeted advertising is how it can help minimize wasted advertising by using detailed information about individuals who are intended for a product. If consumers are produced these ads that are targeted for them, it is more likely they will be interested and click on them. 'Know thy consumer', is a simple principle used by advertisers, when businesses know information about consumers, it can be easier to target them and get them to purchase their product. Some consumers do not mind if their information is used, and are more accepting to ads with easily accessible links. This is because they may appreciate adverts tailored to their preferences, rather than just generic ads. They are more likely to be directed to products they want, and possibly purchase them, in return generating more income for the business advertising.


Disadvantages


Consumers

Targeted advertising raises privacy concerns. Targeted advertising is performed by analyzing consumers' activities through online services such as HTTP cookies and data mining, both of which can be seen as detrimental to consumers' privacy. Marketers research consumers' online activity for targeted advertising campaigns like programmatic and
SEO Seo or SEO may refer to: * Search engine optimization, the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines Organisations * SEO Economic Research, a scientific institute * Spanish Ornithological Society (''Soci ...
. Consumers' privacy concerns revolve around today's unprecedented tracking capabilities and whether to trust their trackers. Consumers may feel uncomfortable with sites knowing so much about their activity online. Targeted advertising aims to increase promotions' relevance to potential buyers, delivering ad campaign executions to specified consumers at critical stages in the buying decision process. This potentially limits a consumer's awareness of alternatives and reinforces
selective exposure Selective may refer to: * Selective school, a school that admits students on the basis of some sort of selection criteria ** Selective school (New South Wales) Selective strength: the human body transitions between being weak and strong. This ran ...
. Consumers may start avoiding certain sites and brands if they keep getting served the same advertisements as the consumer may feel like they are being watched too much or may start getting annoyed with certain brands. Due to the increased use of tracking cookies all over the web many sites now have cookie notices that pop up when a visitor lands on a site. The notice informs the visitor about the use of cookies, how they affect the visitor, and the visitor's options in regards to what information the cookies can obtain.


Advertiser

Targeting advertising is not a process performed overnight, it takes time and effort to analyze the behavior of consumers. This results in more expenses than the traditional advertising processes. As targeted advertising is seen more effective this is not always a disadvantage but there are cases where advertisers have not received the profit expected. Targeted advertising has a limited reach to consumers, advertisers are not always aware that consumers change their minds and purchases which will no longer mean ads are apparent to them. Another disadvantage is that while using cookies to track activity advertisers are unable to depict whether 1 or more consumers are using the same computer. This is apparent in family homes where multiple people from a broad age range are using the same device.


Controversies

Targeted advertising has raised controversies, most particularly towards the privacy rights and policies. With behavioral targeting focusing in on specific user actions such as site history, browsing history, and buying behavior, this has raised user concern that all activity is being tracked.
Privacy International Privacy International (PI) is a UK-based registered charity that defends and promotes the right to privacy across the world. First formed in 1990, registered as a non-profit company in 2002 and as a charity in 2012, PI is based in London. Its ...
is a UK based registered charity that defends and promotes the right to privacy across the world. This organization is fighting in order to make Governments legislate in a way that protects the rights of the general public. According to them, from any ethical standpoint such interception of web traffic must be conditional on the basis of explicit and informed consent. And action must be taken where organizations can be shown to have acted unlawfully. A survey conducted in the United States by the
Pew Internet & American Life Project The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan American think tank (referring to itself as a "fact tank") based in Washington, D.C. It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the ...
between January 20 and February 19, 2012, revealed that most of Americans are not in favor of targeted advertising, seeing it as an invasion of privacy. Indeed, 68% of those surveyed said they are "not okay" with targeted advertising because they do not like having their online behavior tracked and analyzed. Another issue with targeted advertising is the lack of 'new' advertisements of goods or services. Seeing as all ads are tailored to be based on user preferences, no different products will be introduced to the consumer. Hence, in this case the consumer will be at a loss as they are not exposed to anything new. Advertisers concentrate their resources on the consumer, which can be very effective when done right. When advertising doesn't work, consumer can find this creepy and start wondering how the advertiser learnt the information about them. Consumers can have concerns over ads targeted at them, which are basically too personal for comfort, feeling a need for control over their own data. In targeted advertising privacy is a complicated issue due to the type of protected user information and the number of parties involved. The three main parties involved in online advertising are the advertiser, the publisher, and the network. People tend to want to keep their previously browsed websites private, although users 'clickstreams' are being transferred to advertisers who work with ad networks. The user's preferences and interests are visible through their clickstream and their behavioral profile is generated.Toubiana, V., Narayanan, A., Boneh, D., Nissenbaum, H., Barocas, S. (2010). Agnostic
Privacy-preserving targeted advertising
In Proceedings Network and Distributed System Symposium.
Many find this form of advertising to be concerning and see these tactics as manipulative and a sense of discrimination. As a result of this, a number of methods have been introduced in order to avoid advertising. Internet users employing
ad blocker Ad blocking or ad filtering is a software capability for blocking or altering online advertising in a web browser, an application or a network. This may be done using browser extensions or other methods. Technologies and native countermeasures ...
s are rapidly growing in numbers. The average global ad-blocking rate in early 2018 was estimated at 27 percent. Greece is at the top of the list with more than 40% of internet users admit to using ad-blocking software. Among technical population ad-blocking reaches 58%.


See also

*
Behavioral retargeting Behavioral retargeting (also known as behavioral remarketing, or simply, retargeting) is a form of online targeted advertising by which online advertising is targeted to consumers based on their previous internet behaviour. Retargeting tags onlin ...
* Behavioral targeting case law: ** In re DoubleClick ** FTC regulation of behavioral advertising *
Cross-device tracking Cross-device tracking refers to technology which enables the tracking of users across multiple devices such as smartphones, television sets, smart TVs, and personal computers. More specifically, cross-device tracking is a technique in which techno ...
*
Deradicalization Deradicalization refers to a process of encouraging a person with extreme political, social or religious views to adopt more moderate positions on the issues. Measures and projects Google's think tank Jigsaw has been developing a new program − ...
*
Digital self-determination Digital self-determination is a multidisciplinary concept derived from the legal concept of self-determination and applied to the digital sphere, to address the unique challenges to individual and collective agency and autonomy arising with incr ...
*
Digital traces Digital footprint or digital shadow refers to one's unique set of traceable digital activities, actions, contributions and communications manifested on the Internet or digital devices. Digital footprints can be classified as either passive or a ...
* Forensic profiling * Internet manipulation *
Personalization Personalization (broadly known as customization) consists of tailoring a service or a product to accommodate specific individuals, sometimes tied to groups or segments of individuals. A wide variety of organizations use personalization to improv ...
*
Personalized marketing Personalized marketing, also known as one-to-one marketing or individual marketing, is a marketing strategy by which companies leverage data analysis and digital technology to deliver individualized messages and product offerings to current or pr ...
* Reality mining *
Surveillance capitalism Surveillance capitalism is a concept in political economics which denotes the widespread collection and commodification of personal data by corporations. This phenomenon is distinct from government surveillance, though the two can reinforce each o ...


References


Further reading

* Ahmad, K., & Begen, A. C. (2009). IPTV and video networks in the 2015 timeframe: ''The evolution to medianets.'' Communications Magazine, pp. 68–74. Retrieved from http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=5350371 * "Benefits Of Targeted Advertisements - Increase ROI With Targeted Ads". ''eReach Consulting''. N.p., 2013. Web. 1 Apr. 2016. * Constantinides, E. (2006). ''Journal of marketing management, vol 22 issue ¾ pp.407-438.'' Enschede, The Netherlands: * ''Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) Self-Regulatory Program , www.aboutads.info''. (2016). ''Aboutads.info''. Retrieved 29 March 2016, from http://www.aboutads.info/ * Juels, A. (2011). ''Targeted advertising… and privacy too.'' Springer Berlin Heidelberg * Konow, R., Tan, W., Loyola, L., Pereira, J., Baloian, N. (2010). ''Recommender system for contextual advertising in IPTV scenarios'', pp. 617–622. Retrieved from http://allm.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/rd2010_02_CSCWD2010.pdf * Kotler, P., Burton, S., Brown, L. & Armstrong, G. (2012). ''Marketing (9th ed.)'' Australia: Pearson Australia * McCarthy, E.J. (1964). ''Basic marketing, a managerial approach.'' Homewood Richard D. Irwin, Inc * * ''Star turn''. (2000). ''The Economist''. Retrieved 29 March 2016, from http://www.economist.com/node/330628 * Stern, B. J., & Subramaniam, G. K. (2006). ''Method and system for user to user targeted advertising.'' U.S. Patent Application No. 11/455,561. * Suli, J (2017
How To Use Facebook To Get Targeted Traffic
* "Use Remarketing To Reach Past Website Visitors And App Users - Adwords Help".''Support.google.com''. N.p., 2016. Web. 1 Apr. 2016. * Waechter, S. (2010). ''Contextual advertising in online communication: an investigation of relationships between multiple content types on a webpage.'' Auckland University of Technology * {{refend Advertising Advertising techniques Online advertising methods Marketing by target group Market segmentation Promotion and marketing communications Online advertising