Targeting is an Internet marketing tool that provides the opportunity to set certain conditions for displaying an advertisement. It is best represented on social networks, which can collect personal data about users. A similar service is offered by individual sites.

Targeting helps to increase the effectiveness of advertising, since it is shown exclusively to potentially interested users. Target conditions can be anything and consist of many individual factors. The complexity is limited by the need in each specific case (when the costs of creating the algorithm do not exceed the income from advertising shown using it).

Types of targeted advertising

Currently, there are 8 types of targeting, classified based on the established conditions:

  • Context. Advertising is shown to users who are currently searching for the promoted product or similar products. This is contextual advertising . It represents the most effective and popular type of targeting;
  • Geography. The scope of advertising display is limited to a certain location - region, city, quarter. This option is suitable for resources that provide goods or services in a specific area. Local advertising is a type of geotargeting. It is demonstrated within a certain radius on devices where geolocation is activated;
  • Time. Display advertisements at certain hours. This is effective in some cases. For example, if the target audience actively seeks information only at certain times;

  • Socio-demographic factor. Used on social networks. The target audience is determined by gender, age, profession and musical preferences;
  • Behavior. Complex algorithms are used. They analyze previous data about search queries, sites visited and actions. All information is stored in browsers and transmitted to advertising companies. It is believed that there is a high probability of conversion when advertising is shown to those who have previously searched for relevant information;
  • Geobehavior. In this type of targeting, visited buildings and objects are analyzed. Such information allows us to draw conclusions about the user’s preferences and interests, offering him relevant advertising;
  • Stereotype. Well represented by audit packages from Yandex and Google. The essence is to analyze the behavior of the person who performed the target action. The data is used for machine learning. Based on them, users with similar behavior are identified and ads are shown to them.

Targeting can be customized for most modern types of advertising. The main search engines (Yandex and Google) offer a wide range of functionality.

Features of targeted advertising

This Internet marketing tool requires extensive knowledge in the field of psychology. This is due to the need to create a profile of a potential client.

What benefits can you get with proper targeting:

  • Personal approach. There is a possibility of achieving better conversion results as the advertisement is shown to more interested users;
  • The effect of obsession is reduced. Advertising matches the user’s interests and therefore causes less irritation;
  • You can flexibly vary your advertising budget. Targeting is an additional tool that does not have to be used;
  • It's easy to get a large number of new clients.

Targeted advertising is recommended to be used when high-quality internal optimization of the site has been done, and it can be found without ads on third-party sites. At the end of a promotion campaign, the influx of customers can decrease sharply. This type of advertising is suitable if an inexpensive product is offered (suitable for making quick decisions).

Using targeting can deprive a company of customers who know how it works and don't like being tracked.