What is Behavioral Targeting?

The Behavioral Targeting Definition is…  Behavioral Targeting is an online targeting technique that uses information collected about an individual’s web-browsing history, such as the pages they have visited or the searches they have made, to select which advertisements to display.

By leveraging actual online user behavior, we allow advertisers to deliver specifically targeted ads to consumers through directly managed websites across Healthy Ads and via Reach Extension through our partners, providing reach to Billions of potential users.

As the advertisement which is served to the consumer is based upon absolute relevancy, it can be on a page that’s not directly related to the product being advertised, thus expanding the opportunity to communicate with potential consumers.

So what Behavioral Targeting Signals are available to be targeted?

Healthy Ads can basically track any behavior or action required by the advertiser, however generally speaking the most commonly requested behaviors include;

  • Visiting a particular website (typically the advertisers site)

  • Visiting a particular page on a website (typically the advertisers site)

  • Time Spent on a Website

  • Recency – Last Date of Website Visit

  • Shopping cart abandonment (not buying after adding to cart)

  • Visiting sites of similar interests (Travel, Pregnancy, Diet, Health, Exercise, Cooking, Technology)

  • Visiting different verticals (Food, Health, Home)

  • Visiting niche sites within a vertical (ie food, wine, beer, coffee, restaurant or BBQ sites)

  • Searching for a product or type of products

  • In-market or Previous Purchaser for a particular Item or Brand.

  • Other Miscellaneous Interactions which can be tracked.

Behavioral Targeting Examples

We are seeing more and more advertisers who are adding additional line items to campaigns with some sort Behavioural Targeting. Taking a top level view here are some real Behavioral Targeting Examples as used by our clients ;

  • Online Pharmacy website bringing back consumers who haven’t purchased, but targeting them for a specific product.

  • Manufacturer who was giving away product samples, but didn’t complete the form

  • Health Ecommerce site advertising to people who have added products to their cart but didn’t check out.

  • Automotive manufacture who knows that a user is in market for a type of car

An example of behavioral targeting would be if a consumer repeatedly visited a web page with reviews of thermometers for home use or searched for thermometers, then visited a thermometers manufacturers website. This clearly indicates an interest in buying a thermometers. By targeting advertising about this exact product or range of products significantly increases the consumer’s chance of purchasing.

When combined with some of our existing campaign targeting options, behavioral targeting allows you to reach your target consumer, cost effectively compared to other advertising mediums.

Behavioral Targeting vs Retargeting? What’s the difference.

So essentially Behavioral Targeting vs Retargeting are similar. They use the same technology to gather and store the data, but the biggest difference is that Behavioral Targeting leverages much more signals than Retargeting. Usually Retargeting is limited to did a user visit a company website. Whereas Behavioral Targeting is much more broad. For Behavioral Targeting we can also access 3rd party data pair this with first party data.

Let’s Get Started ! 

Let the Healthy Ads team walk you through all the options available to ensure that your Health, Fitness, Pharmaceutical or Medical campaign has the best possible combination of Premium Guaranteed Inventory, First Party Data and Programmatic elements.