What Is Behavioral Targeting and Its Benefits?

With the improvement of digital marketing, the ways of attracting more visitors to an online website have enhanced to the point that it has become more and more difficult to count how many strategies online website owners actually implement in their websites. However, even if you implement every strategy in order to bring more visitors to your website, it is not certain that every single strategy will do the work. The important thing that you should consider is when to implement the strategy and know how to use it. Don’t worry. We are here to help you understand behavioral targeting better, after all. 

In this article, we will talk about what behavioral targeting is, and then we will continue with the other topic about the benefits of this matter.  

What Is Behavioral Targeting? 

Behavioral targeting is one of the digital marketing strategies that aims to show targeted advertisements to visitors according to their preferences and online history. So, the word ‘’targeting’’ in this matter means the visitors who will be selected to deliver related ads. This strategy’s main purpose is to show relevant advertisements to users based on their frequent visits to any kind of website they like. Behavioral targeting constantly gathers data from users in order to match the users’ search term preferences. However, what kind of data does this algorithm gather from users? One thing is certain: this algorithm does not focus on a single aspect of data in comprehending user preferences. There are a number of things that Behavioral targeting focuses on and gathers data based on these examples. You may also be interested in the best eCommerce product page practices.

Let’s look at the algorithm, which gathers different information from different aspects. 

• Social Media: According to gathered data, behavioral targeting observes users’ actions on social media and uses that information to attract them by showing what they find interesting on social media. 

• Search History: Observing the related keywords that the users regularly search in search engines will help behavioral targeting algorithms to show the related interests to users. As a result, the users’ satisfaction will increase, and they will be able to access related content based on their interests. 

• Purchase: Looking through the user’s online purchase history will help the algorithm determine the user’s preference. Once the algorithm figures out, it will give that user more than one option based on the purchase history.  

• Links: Interacting with links is also helpful for algorithms to find the interests of a certain user. The algorithm basically gathers data from clicked links by the user in order to figure out the related preferences. 

After all these aspects are observed, the website owners can determine what the user actually wants and create the user profile according to the data they gathered from all different aspects. Also, check how to target audience with funnel.

The Benefits of Behavioral Targeting 

Of course, observing every step in order to find a better option for a certain user is not the end of behavioral targeting. Due to its complicated construction with a collection of different algorithms, the algorithm has been helpful as much as it has been a real problem for users. Even if the aim of the algorithm is being able to provide better options to users, the reason for the problem is because of the concerns about potential data leaks. We can not say for sure if the user’s personal information is actually being leaked for illegal purposes. Still, we can clearly say that it has been extremely helpful for advertisers and also for users. After all, the advertisers aim to show related content that the users want to see, so the two sides are happy with what they got from it, right? Don’t forget to learn about search intent here.

Behavioral targeting has more than one benefit to provide assistance to users. Let’s look at the benefits of behavioral targeting: 

Flexibility 

In time, the user’s interests will not be the same, and the user’s preferences will change. The change in that user’s opinions may be because of a friend who is giving that person advice about the opposite of the interest the user has. Or maybe the user was only searching for it because he or she needed that product, or maybe it is because the user was just bored of the same content and changed his or her interest. Ultimately, we will never know the reason for these drastic changes. Fortunately, for the precaution of these drastic changes we named previously, the ‘’flexibility’’ of behavioral targeting becomes involved. 

What does ‘’flexibility’’ mean in terms of the Behavioral Targeting algorithm? That means the algorithm is prone to change if it is necessary. These changes depend on the decisions of the users. The decisions may remain the same as the previous one or may change into a different one. However, the critical thing for behavioral targeting is getting accustomed to every kind of change. 

Let’s look at the reasons why flexibility is essential in terms of Behavioral Targeting: 

• Seasonal Trends: Every product belongs to different seasons, which means some of them are popular in that season, or it is essential for us to use these products. Advertisers must customize the ads and focus on popular products in a specific season. In addition, adjusting the ads for special events can also attract more visitors to the website. 

• Experimentation: Implementing A/B testing in behavioral targeting for test purposes is essential because advertisers can get used to constant changes. 

• Ad Budget Spend: Managing to share the usage of money for advertising purposes is a must. If you do not spend the budget exuberantly, it means a waste of money.  

User Experience 

As we discussed at the beginning of the article, it is crucial to know when to use a behavioral targeting strategy and how to use it. If you know when to use it, you can change the perspective of your users who are visiting your website. Most people consider ads as a complete nuisance because they randomly appear out of nowhere, especially if these ads are irrelevant to your liking. As a result, they came up with the idea that they should ignore these ads. Behavioral Targeting is extremely crucial when it comes to the user experience because this algorithm is about gathering data from users in order to adjust ads to their preferences. If you want your algorithm to work perfectly on your website, you should first change your user’s perspective. And if you show ads related to your user’s liking, your user will think of these ads as valid information. 

Changing the user’s perspective is not the only thing behavioral targeting offers you in terms of user experience. Behavioral targeting offers you a better user experience for more than one reason. 

Let’s look at the importance of user experience: 

• Higher Click Rates: As we discussed, if you show your users what they want to see through ads you put inside your website, click rates of your ads will increase significantly. 

• Trust: Putting related ads for your user’s interests will help you to build trust and loyalty between you and your user. As a result, your users will be more eager to engage with your work. 

• Providing Information: The Behavioral Targeting algorithm is able to provide your users with information about the product from your website. As a result, it will engage their interests. 

Conversion Rate 

Conversion rate is the process of bringing more users in order to fulfill a desired action. When you offer your users ads filled with their interests, they will obviously be more interested in your ads.  

We can assume that conversion rate is important in this matter. Let’s look at the reasons why conversion rate is important: 

• Efficiency: The users who are purchasing product is prone to take desired actions. As a result, this will decrease unnecessary ad usage. 

• Increased Revenue: In online marketing websites, increased conversion rates mean increased revenue. The users who want to make a purchase often are the real reason for increased revenue. 

• Finding Regular Customers: Behavioral targeting can help you find loyal customers who will purchase your products constantly due to the quality of your website. 

Behavioral Targeting: Customers to Regular Customers 

In today’s article, we explained what behavioral targeting means in order to clarify you. And then, we talked about the benefits of behavioral targeting in a detailed way. The algorithm used by most advertisers has been a great help not only to advertisers but also to consumers. Even if many people have doubts about privacy, it has still been helpful for users to take advantage of it.