Behavioral Targeting /Audience Redirection

This refers to advertising that is targeted to a specific individual based on that user's previous surfing behavior. This is quite different from the more common targeting method of displaying ads matched to the specific content of an individual page or to all users in general. With behavior targeting, this would mean that two people could see vastly different ads when viewing the identical webpage at the same time. The set of technologies and techniques used by publisher and advertisers which allows them to increase the effectiveness of their campaigns by capturing data generated by website and landing page visitors.

The sites on which a consumer visits, collects their data like visited pages, time spent, clicked links , searches and also other factors which links the visitors to the web browser for making a profile. 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 front of those visitors who exhibit a greater level of interest and intent for the products and services being offered. 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. It can be geo targeted and as well as contextual based. Thereby, its call known as "Audience Targeting".

Examples and Explanation:

For example, a travel company only wanted to target users who have interacted with the brand previously. Essentially they wanted to reach consumers that have cookies on their computers. Examples could be running a campaign aimed at people who have in the past 30 days;

• Filled out a web form or sent an enquiry, and/or
• Have browsed more than 10 pages of their own site, and/or
• Searched for your brand name in the search engine

It’s fair to say that these people are most likely planning for a trip. So it’s important to only run advertising targeted to these consumers. That’s where Behavioral Targeting comes in.

Another example to explain would be, the person who frequently surf gadget sites might see ads for mobile phones or notebook on a page about the local business economy, while the woman who visits travel sites regularly might see ads for vacation packages or travel agents. These ads, while not related to the article about the business economy, are still very targeted to that particular user at that particular time. And this super tight targeting of the individual is what makes behavioral targeting so successful to those advertisers using it.