IAB blog

I’m getting used to behavioural advertising. It makes me amused when I’ve read an article about a Maserati to then be served an ad for one on another website (note to advertisers – interest does not equal income). But at the weekend something new happened. I was browsing the M&S website, looked at a couple of items and then put them in my shopping basket, then realised that payday was not for ages so shut down the website and carried on surfing the net when twenty minutes later on the news of the world site (I’m fascinated by Katie & Peter, please forgive me my bad taste) I was served an ad for M&S that showcased exactly the two pieces of clothing I had been looking at on their site. Clever, and kind of cool when you think about it. For a demo of how this works visit http://www.struq.com/demo/.

This kind of advertising is yet another example of how technology is allowing advertisers to reach interested consumers online. Behavioural advertising is driving value in our industry and is helping advertisers to understand how to get more bang for their budget out of what can sometimes be a confusing market in terms of planning for audience reach online. It is helping advertisers buy target audiences for brand awareness campaigns, and not just being used for direct response as was traditionally the case. It is not surprising that advertisers are taking advantage of the technology on offer to buy audiences that through behavioural advertising technology they know are already interested in their products and have visited your website. It is not difficult to see the attraction in buying an audience that though you don’t know who they are, you know that they like reading about cars, or holidays, and therefore that might make them more interested in what you are selling than if you knew absolutely nothing about what they liked. Behavioural advertising has always been popular among direct response advertisers, but more sophisticated tools and alliances online with retailers and ad serving companies will help to drive the use of targeted ad buys for branded advertisers, not just those looking for clicks and acquisitions.

This innovation is happening alongside the development of UKOM, the online industry’s answer to calls for a common planning tool, which will give even more information to advertisers and media planners on online audiences and how best to reach them. All of this adds up to a fantastic year for online, with strong foundations being laid for digital media when we come out of the recession.