Advertising and Targeting

Targeted advertising is a type of advertising where advertisements are placed so as to reach consumers based on traits such as demographics, purchase history, or observed behavior. There are two principal forms of targeted interactive design are behavioral targeting and contextual advertising.

Behavioral targeting or behavioral targeting can be used by online publishers or internet marketers to increase the effectiveness of campaigns. This works by collecting data on an internet user's behaviors. Such as browsing habits, search queries, and web site history. This information is used to serve more targeted advertisements to the user. The goal is to increase relevancy based on the collected data and foster a better conversion rate.

Contextual Advertising Advertising on a web site that is targeted to the specific individual who is visiting the Web site. A contextual ad system scans the text of a Web site for keywords and returns ads to the web-page based on what the user is viewing, either through ads placed on the page or pop-up ads. For example, if the user is viewing a site about sports, and the site uses contextual advertising, the user might see ads for sports-related companies, such as memorabilia dealers or ticket sellers. Contextual advertising also is used by engines to display ads on their search results based on what word the users has searched for.

Failures of Targeted Advertising.

Sometimes advertising fails. Here is one Man’s thought about what he advertising

“Saying that we want more relevant advertising based on our likes, dislikes, culture, background, blah-“blah-blah is kinda like saying, "here are the keys to my brain, come on in and make yourselves at home and my wallet is on the coffee table."

Understanding target advertising does it make us more aware of what is being pushed on us?