• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, October 21, 2008

An optimization platform that delivers targeted ads becomes available today from Interwoven. The Optimost Adaptive Targeting service allows businesses to offer the best combination of advertisements and content based on click patterns and characteristics of those visiting their sites.

Optimost Adaptive Targeting integrates into content management systems, not necessarily from Interwoven. Supported as a software as a service (SaaS) through the premium package, companies are given a line of code. Once inserted into Web pages, the code calls on Interwoven's servers to send HTML instructions on the best way to render the page for individual visitors.

The data captured from Web pages remains the client's proprietary information, said Mark Wachen, managing director of Optimost at Interwoven. "We're not capturing data Internet-wide," he said. "The platform doesn't collect personal identifiable information. That's something we're sensitive about. We want to make sure our customers are compliant with rules they set up, too."

America's Test Kitchen, which increased premium registration on the site by 11.2% and free trial registration by 21.8%, began testing the service in July. The company was one of six that participated in the pilot that began about four months ago.

Think of adaptive targeting as an overall approach to connecting with Web site visitors, Wachen said. Adaptive targeting accounts for behavioral data, but also encompasses a range of targeting techniques, he said. Combine the range of data attributes with multivariable testing of potentially millions of variations to deliver targeted content to a specific audience.

While Interwoven has focused on rules-based and geographical targeting in the past, the platform now collects more behavioral and demographic information that maps third-party data to non-identifiable personal visitor data from IP addresses, down to the ZIP code. It also automates processes, continually capturing data and modeling information based on demographics, connection speeds, page views and frequency, time spent on pages, time of day and day of week, and more.

From that information, marketers can profile residents in the area to ensure that messages resonate with visitors. The data can calculate average household incomes, may show site visitors are sensitive to price changes, or have better-than-average credit scores and drive a Mercedes. It can also suggest that the site requires larger type and buttons because most people in the specific ZIP codes seeing these pages are older residents.

Personalization has become more important to consumers, whether monogram cuffs or collar on a man's dress shirt or information sent electronically across the Web. "Personalization and engagement increases the ability to turn a target into a good customer," said Robert Passikoff, president at Brand Keys, New York. "Ten years ago the percent of contribution that engendered was about 6%, and now it's closer to 18%."