• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer, March 3, 2011

AdoTube recently announced the initial results of testing of its response targeting platforms, which rely on users' answering survey questions to determine ads served to them. Response-Based Targeting has lifted click-through and engagement rates from 22% to 35%, view-through rates by 17% and 24%, and brand effectiveness, such as awareness and purchase intent, by more than 30% -- pretty interesting, as long as AdoTube Chief Strategy and Operations Officer Steven Jones didn't overhype the results.

Here's how the product works: User responses to questions get combined with data from partners like BlueKai and integrated through companies such as BrightCove and FreeWheel. Sophisticated algorithms process the questions in real time and combine the results with demographic, psychographic and behavioral targeting information. The process creates what the company calls "look-a-like profiles of viewers" who might be interested in the advertiser's message.

AdoTube then targets ads based both directly on viewers who responded to the questions, and viewers with similar behavioral and demographic profiles, in an effort to raise the effectiveness of ad targeting.

All is done with the user's privacy in mind, according to Jones. Consumers, in control of the experience, can choose whether or not to participate in the surveys. "They can always close out of the questioner," he says. AdoTube took into consideration privacy guidelines from digital advertising institutions, including the Internet Advertising Bureau and the Direct Marketing Association, and no personally identifiable information gets used.

While only about 25% of AdoTube's clients have tried out response-based targeting, other companies such as Iron Horse Interactive have begun to release similar platforms and metrics from top companies and clients like enterprise software maker SAP AG.

Iron Horse Interactive released Adverguide in December. The technology works similarly to AdoTube's, asking the viewer questions before determining the exact ad to serve up.

The enterprise software company's EcoHub got some good responses from the product. About 77% of visitors received a product recommendation, 44% watched a video, and 3% requested a call-back.