The modern world is not complete without progressive advertising. It is everywhere: in shops and cafes, in TV projects and on the radio, at work and at home, etc. And with the advent of the Internet, the possibilities of advertising have become almost limitless. Promotion of any product or service on the Web has become more efficient, cheaper and faster. But how to single out from the whole mass of users the audience that will be really interested in this product? It's all about targeting. What is it and how does it work? What types of this advertising mechanism exist?
Targeting - what is it?
Internet space is a very promising platform for any kind of business. Even if he is not engaged in online sales. But in order for advertising to be more effective, it must be targeted. To do this, various techniques and techniques are used, which gives customers the opportunity to attract exactly those customers who are ready to buy.product. This is what targeting does.
Literally, this English word means purpose. Therefore, targeting is the setting of functional guidelines. If we talk about business and advertising, then this is a special mechanism that allows you to select target visitors to various sites that meet the specified criteria.
Targeting advertising minimizes the time and cost of the advertiser without reducing the target audience. At the same time, there are a huge number of methods and types of this mechanism that allow you to use one or another market segment. The advertiser independently chooses a specific form of targeting or a combination of several elements. This makes it possible to reduce and diversify costs.
Targeting mechanism
Like every effective method, the choice of the target audience has its own characteristics and mode of action. Conventionally, the targeting process can be divided into several stages:
- Information collection period. Here, basically, the search queries of Internet users are investigated. Their habits and tastes are tracked, which pages they use more often, which online stores they visit and what they are interested in, what they generally do on the Web, etc.
- Analysis of the received data. The longest and most laborious stage. Here, all available information is compared and appropriate conclusions are made about preferences, communication methods, calculations, tastes and purchases. Based on the results of this check, specific groups of users are identified who will be interested and interested in specific advertising, i.e.i.e. the targeting itself is implemented. What is this if not a selection of buyers?
- Creating individual publicity. After determining the audience segment, based on the data obtained, an advertising message is developed that suits this particular segment. This takes into account all the features and preferences of users.
- Placement of an advertising message. Information is posted exclusively on those resources where users of a particular group most often visit. These are various websites, blogs, magazine pages, sections of shops and TV shows.
Main types of targeting
There are several ways to determine the future target audience in the Internet space, as in everyday life. Therefore, these types of targeting are distinguished:
- Direct selection of specific sites, pages and blogs that match the product being sold.
- Thematic targeting or interest targeting. Information messages are posted on sites with relevant content.
- Time targeting. Here a certain period is selected, which corresponds to the best moment of communication with potential customers.
- Socio-demographic targeting. Here, the main selection criteria are gender, income, age, position, etc.
- Behavioral, geobehavioral targeting, or telepathic targeting. Cookies track the interests and preferences, movements and activities of specific people.
- Psychological targeting. In buildingadvertising uses the personal characteristics of users.
- Geographic targeting - what is it? This is a mechanism where ads are shown to users who live in a specific area, city or country selected by the advertiser.
Time targeting
When choosing a target audience for a future advertising campaign, you should also carefully select the time for the release of the commercial. After all, if your product is aimed at the middle age group, then it would simply be pointless to show information about it in the first half of the weekday. At this point, people are usually at work. In addition, you need to take into account the schedule of the store itself.
Temporal targeting is the allocation of a suitable time of day for the implementation of an advertising campaign. There are many relevant studies on this topic. For example, ordering groceries online usually occurs during lunchtime. If we talk about various entertainment events, such as cinema, clubs or restaurants, then the peak of viewing falls on the time from 14 to 20 hours.
More serious purchases, such as various household appliances, fall on an odd period: 11, 13, 15, 17, etc. In addition, travel packages and hot tours are usually viewed from 14 to 18 hours, auto parts - 10 -12 o'clock, and sporting goods are purchased at 16, 21 and 22 o'clock.
Knowing these statistical patterns, you can organize your own business more efficiently.
Telepathictargeting
This is one of the newest and most promising methods for determining the target audience. Based on behavioral targeting, which allows you to increase the accuracy of ads.
The essence of this method is to study the preferences of Internet users. For example, if a person often visits online clothing stores, then the program draws an appropriate conclusion about his needs at the moment. A certain behavioral matrix is widely used here. It was deduced from a thorough analysis of the journeys of specific users on the Web.
Behavioral or telepathic targeting is now used by many well-known companies. For example, Xerox even created its own kind of targeted search, which collects information without the knowledge of users. This method is also widely used by Yahoo, Bonprix, and even Microsoft.
Earnings "VKontakte"
Social media advertising has long been a fairly profitable and efficient business. This is due to the huge number of visitors who are online for several hours a day. In addition, all modern networks are sufficiently adapted to search for the target audience, organize trade and feedback, as well as settlement systems.
For example, VKontakte targeting boasts up to 20 criteria for ad targeting. Therefore, potential advertisers have a great opportunity to choose exactly the user who will most likely buy the presented products.
Segmentation"VKontakte" looks like this:
- Birthdays.
- Geography.
- Education.
- Demography.
- Interests.
- Devices.
- Applications.
- Travel.
VKontakte advertising settings
The system of command and control in this network is quite simple and clear. Advertisements are interactive. In addition, the owner of the video can disable this or that publicity at any time.
The effectiveness of the advertising company can be monitored online. For a more detailed report, an audience analysis is used to optimize the work done.
In addition, here you can use external services to track the activity of certain communities and groups. These are programs such as JagaJam, MasterMind, Personal Monitor or SocialWatch. It is also possible to watch the news feed using Youscan and Brandspotter. All of them provide information about who, when and in what quantity saw a certain advertisement.
The main advantages of targeted online advertising
Any company or firm is primarily an economic entity. That is why before the implementation of any project or mechanism, all the pros and cons of this solution are calculated. Speaking of targeting, we can highlight the following benefits for the advertiser:
- This method allows you to select only the audience that will reallyinterested in purchasing a particular service or product. Therefore, there is no need to spray and waste extra time and effort.
- The ability to diversify costs by choosing targeting types. Here you can order a more budget option or pay for several versions at once.
- The ability to control targeting. What's this? This is the process of not only choosing a specific type of targeting, but also viewing statistics for each ad.
