• by Tameka Kee , February 11, 2008

With a constant stream of new ad networks claiming to offer behavioral targeting, media buyers may not be sure exactly what kind of service they're paying for--since there is no clear definition of what behavioral targeting is, nor are there any best practices.

Revenue Science steps up to the plate to help change that today, announcing a new initiative dubbed the Behavioral Targeting Standards Consortium (BTSC) and calling for participants from around the industry including agency executives, ad network operators, publishers, tech developers, and of course, "thinkers" from other leaders in the industry, like AOL's Tacoda.

"We would want anyone who has anything valuable to say about the practice--there are no limits around that," said Jeff Hirsch, chief revenue officer of Revenue Science. "We're interested in seeing what kind of participation we get."

Inaugurated at the OMMA Behavioral Targeting conference today in New York, the first order of business for the BTSC will be to establish a working definition of behavioral targeting--a standard that companies aiming to offer behavioral targeting could measure themselves against, which could give agencies a better understanding of what they're buying.

"With enough players in the consortium, we can objectively obtain a definition of behavioral targeting, as well as definitions of what behavioral segments are, and the appropriate ways to collect data and use it for targeting," Hirsch told Online Media Daily.

But unlike the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI), the BTSC would be tackling these issues with a focus on the business angle, not the consumer end. "We're a member of the NAI and understand that the privacy and consumer issues around behavioral targeting are hugely important," Hirsch said. "But what the consortium will try to do is dispel some of the confusion in the marketplace and create some understanding--and what's relevant from the business point of view is not necessarily what matters for the consumer."

And while the IAB has developed standards and best practices for areas like lead generation, rich media and broadband video, Hirsch said that the BTSC will be better served to develop objective behavioral targeting standards relatively quickly, much like the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) does for search marketers. "We greatly respect the IAB, but they have a ton on their plate already, and so we wanted to get the conversation going quickly," Hirsch said. "There's lots of interest in behavioral targeting and it's one of the fastest-growing areas in online advertising, so developing standards is hugely important."

In 2004, Tacoda proposed a set of 22 standard behavioral targeting segments, called Tacoda Targets, that could be adopted by publishers to simplify the media-buying process--ensuring that advertisers who bought "Auto Buyers" as a segment on one site would get an audience that exhibited the same quality of behaviors on another site.

And while competitors were concerned that the standards would favor Tacoda's operating model, in a statement CEO Dave Morgan had said that the company wasn't trying to "put a stake in the ground," but rather to develop a sounding board. Other companies have also attempted to put forth their own standards since then, but Hirsch said there's still too much ambiguity in the market.

"We've been frustrated by some of the statements by people saying they offer behavioral targeting--when it's really site retargeting or something else," Hirsch said. "When something gets hot everyone jumps on the bandwagon, and we want to help keep the market as well informed as possible."

Interested parties can sign up at the BTSC Web site www.btstandards.org to join, and the consortium's first meeting will be held at OMMA Global Hollywood in March.