Behavioral targeting

Behavioral targeting comprises a range of technologies and techniques used by online website publishers and advertisers aimed at increasing the effectiveness of advertising using user web-browsing behavior information. In particular, "behavioral targeting uses information collected from an individual's web-browsing behavior (e.g., the pages that they have visited or searched) to select advertisements to display".

When a consumer 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' 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 advertisers to position their online ads in on the screen and 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 advertisements, as media providers are able to provide individual users with highly relevant advertisements. On the theory that properly targeted ads will fetch more consumer interest, the publisher (or seller) can charge a premium for these ads over random advertising or ads based on the context of a site.

Behavioral marketing can be used on its own or in conjunction with other forms of targeting based on factors like geography, demographics or contextual web page content. It's worth noting that 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.

Behavioral targeting may also be applied to any online property on the premise that it either improves the visitor experience or it 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 other e-commerce 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.

...
Wikipedia