Online Behavioral Targeting

32 ONLINE BEHAVIORAL TARGETING

32.1 Overview Behavioral targeting (BT), also called interest-based advertising, is the practice of seeking out consumers based on where they go and what they do as indicators of what their interests are most likely to be. BT is mostly being applied in online adtargeting, where a consumer’s behavior on a website is tracked to determine his or her interests, and ads are served relevant to those interests. The practice has become an integral part of most online marketing campaigns. Forrester Research (www.forrester.com) defines online behavioral targeting as the aligning of ads with users whose online behavior implies interest in a particular product or service. Advertisers apply behavioral targeting when they buy media on sites that attract users who have shown target behaviors, even if the site is not contextually relevant to their ad. For example, a user who has frequented Kelley Blue Book, General Motors’ FastLane blog, and cars.com may see an ad for a new Toyota Highlander the next time he or she logs onto a general site. The BT online approach was pioneered in the early 2000s by small specialist firms like Revenue Science (www.revenuescience.com), Advertising.com (www.advertising.com), Tacoda (www.tacoda.com), and Adknowledge (www.adknowledge.com). Two multibillion-dollar acquisitions in the online advertising market expanded the growth of BT. Internet giants entered the field in 2007 when Google acquired Internet-ad broker DoubleClick and Microsoft Corp. acquired aQuantative. As of mid-2012, approximately 150 tracking entities routinely collect information about users of websites and social network apps, correlating that to profiles of individuals’ browsing behavior across multiple Web pages, according to PrivacyChoice (www.privacychoice.com). These companies have struck deals with a diverse network of sites to share anonymous audience data to allow for targeted ads. Within the networks the behavioral-targeting companies...