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Google Expands Behavioral Targeting

In other Google news, the company is finally offering behavioral targeting capabilities to all of its advertisers. As Search Engine Land notes, Google first announced a beta test of this capability over two years ago -- way back in 2009 -- and it has slowly been introducing it to larger groups over time. Now, all Google advertisers have "the ability to target ads to users by interest -- based on their previous browsing activity, or behavior."

Advertisers can choose from over 1,000 interest categories. Google says advertisers testing the capability were successful, citing one advertiser increasing brand lift by 40%, and a shoe retailer driving 400% more conversions at a lower cost-per-sale. Pricing is on a cost-per-click model with an auction, Search Engine Land points out.

"The system looks at the types of pages that a user visits, considering how recently and frequently the person visits those sites, and associates that browser cookie with the appropriate interest categories," it writes. "Users can view and edit the categories they've been associated at Google's Ad Preferences page, and opt out entirely, if they so desire."

Read the whole story at Search Engine Land »

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