Commentary

Behavioral Targeting Taps Social Signals

by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer, November 10, 2010

Those who follow MediaPost's search news know I've become fascinated by the collision of search engine marketing and social signals. In fact, it left me wondering how the integration of the two will influence behavioral targeting.

Social signals give advertisers insight into consumer intent in the moment. Some might call that "real time." Advertisers can use that real-time signal to keep a finger on the pulse of what people do, when they do it, and why it's important to target consumers in that moment. It not only gives advertisers insight into a particular consumer, but her friends and connections, too.

Knowing that in-the-moment intent becomes more important than learning consumers' hobbies or the car they drive, according to Jeff Weitzman, CMO of Buysight (formerly Permuto), which focuses on remarketing, acquisition and real-time branding. The company collects real-time data about consumer shopping behavior, which it scores on intent to purchase products.

Weitzman says the new frontier for behavior points to real-time targeting. For highly transactional-driven advertisers, such as retailers and the brands that depend on retail to drive their own sales, general-interest audience categories aren't efficient enough. Outdoor enthusiasts may want to buy a waterproof parka and hiking boots, but when? If they bought those items yesterday, targeting them with ads today is too late. If they aren't looking for those items, the advertiser wastes time and money.

If consumers plan to go camping in two weeks and shopping for those things now, the advertiser needs to reach them now. Weitzman says it's about collecting real-time behavioral data, interpreting it appropriately, and buying the right inventory to deliver the right ad about the right product to the right person at precisely the right time.

Weitzman agrees with me that social will have a "tremendous" impact on behavioral targeting because so much revolves around real-time information. Although it works well alongside search marketing, display advertising will become the catapult for social-based behavioral targeting.

behavioral targeting, display, search

2 comments about "Behavioral Targeting Taps Social Signals".

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Doug Wolfgram from IntelliProtect, November 10, 2010 at 2:34 p.m.
There is a much simpler approach that we deployed back in the late 1990s. It is called interactivity at point of business. Just being social is not enough to determine a user's intent. But by putting interactive content in front of a consumer and monitoring what they are doing while they are interactively engaged and emotionally involved with your content, you can determine more about the consumers actual intent. Telling a friend about my new boots still comes after the fact. Telling a friend that I intend to buy boots someday doesn't pinpoint when. But watching what I do while interacting with a multimedia piece on boot design, comfort and features tells a vendor a lot about that user's intent to buy.
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Bruce May from Bizperity, November 10, 2010 at 4:54 p.m.

Why don't we just go ahead and ignore all the privacy issues this raises? Seriously, as a consumer, I may not mind sharing that much information with you if I opt in to that information exchange. Otherwise I really don't want you knowing that much about me. That would be like having salespeople stalking me throughout the day. It's one thing for me to tell a search engine that I am shopping for camping gear. It's altogether different when I tell my friends on Facebook that I am going camping and then suddenly see camping ads popping up all over the place. If behavioral targeting really becomes that effective then there will be push back. I guarantee it.