Process

Advertising provides advertisers with a direct line of communication to existing and prospective consumers. By using a combination of words and/or pictures the general aim of the advertisement is to act as a "medium of information" (David Oglivy) making the means of delivery and to whom the information is delivered most important. Advertising should define how and when structural elements of advertisements influence receivers, knowing that all receivers are not the same and thus may not respond in a single, similar manner. Targeted advertising serves the purpose of placing particular advertisements before specific groups so as to reach consumers who would be interested in the information. Advertisers aim to reach consumers as efficiently as possible with the belief that it will result in a more effective campaign. By targeting, advertisers are able to identify when and where the ad should be positioned in order to achieve maximum profits. This requires an understanding of how customers' minds work (see also neuromarketing) so as to determine the best channel by which to communicate.

Types of targeting include, but are not limited to advertising based on demographics, psychographics, behavioral variables and contextual targeting.

Behavioral advertising is the most common form of targeting used online. Internet cookies are sent back and forth between an internet server and the browser, that allows a user to be identified or to track their progressions. Cookies provide detail on what pages a consumer visits, the amount of time spent viewing each page, the links clicked on; and searches and interactions made. From this information, the cookie issuer gathers an understanding of the user's browsing tendencies and interests generating a profile. Analyzing the profile, advertisers are able to create defined audience segments based upon users with similar returned similar information, hence profiles. Tailored advertising is then placed in front of the consumer based upon what organizations working on behalf of the advertisers assume are the interests of the consumer. These advertisements have been formatted so as to appear on pages and in front of users that it would most likely appeal to based on their profiles. For example, under behavioral targeting, if a user is known to have recently visited a number of automotive shopping and comparison sites based on the data recorded by cookies stored on the user's computer, the user can then be served automotive-related advertisements when visiting other sites. So behavioral advertising is reliant on data both wittingly and unwittingly provided by users and is made up of two different forms: one involving the delivery of advertising based on assessment of user's web movements; the second involving the examination of communication and information as it passes through the gateways of internet service providers.

Demographic targeting was the first and most basic form of targeting used online. involves segmenting an audience into more specific groups using parameters such as gender, age, ethnicity, annual income, parental status etc. All members of the group share a common trait. So, when an advertiser wishes to run a campaign aimed at a specific group of people then that campaign is intended only for the group that contains those traits at which the campaign is targeted. Having finalized the advertiser's demographic target, a website or a website section is chosen as a medium because a large proportion of the targeted audience utilizes that form of media.

Segmentation using psychographics Is based on an individual's personality, values, interests and lifestyles. A recent study concerning what forms of media people use- conducted by the Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California, the Hallmark Channel, and E-Poll Market Research- concludes that a better predictor of media usage is the user's lifestyle. Researchers concluded that while cohorts of these groups may have similar demographic profiles, they may have different attitudes and media usage habits. Psychographics can provide further insight by distinguishing an audience into specific groups by using their personal traits. Once acknowledging this is the case, advertisers can begin to target customers having recognized that factors other than age for example provides greater insight into the customer.

Contextual advertising is a strategy to place advertisements on media vehicles, such as specific websites or print magazines, whose themes are relevant to the promoted products.:2 Advertisers apply this strategy in order to narrow-target their audiences. Advertisements are selected and served by automated systems based on the identity of the user and the displayed content of the media. The advertisements will be displayed across the user's different platforms and are chosen based on searches for keywords; appearing as either a web page or pop up ads. It is a form of targeted advertising in which the content of an ad is in direct correlation to the content of the webpage the user is viewing.

The major psychographic segmentsedit

Personalityedit

Every brand, service or product has itself a personality, how it is viewed by the public and the community and marketers will create these personalities to match the personality traits of their target market. Marketers and advertisers create these personalities because when a consumer can relate to the characteristics of a brand, service or product they are more likely to feel connected towards the product and purchase it.citation needed

Lifestyleedit

Advertisers are aware that different people lead different lives, have different lifestyles and different wants and needs at different times in their consumer's lives, thus individual differences can be compensated for Advertisers who base their segmentation on psychographic characteristics promote their product as the solution to these wants and needs. Segmentation by lifestyle considers where the consumer is in their life cycle and which preferences are associated with that life stage.

Opinions, attitudes, interests and hobbiesedit

Psychographic segmentation also includes opinions on religion, gender and politics, sporting and recreational activities, views on the environment and arts and cultural issues. The views that the market segments hold and the activities they participate in will have an impact on the products and services they purchase and it will affect how they respond to the message.

Alternatives to behavioral advertising and psychographic targeting include geographic targeting and demographic targeting

When advertisers want to efficiently reach as many consumers as possible, they use a six-step process.

1. identify the objectives the advertisers do this by setting benchmarks, identifying products or proposals, identifying the core values and strategic objectives. This step also includes listing and monitoring competitors content and creating objectives for the next 12-18months.
2. The second step understanding buyers, is all about identifying what types of buyers the advertiser wants to target and identifying the buying process for the consumers.
3. Identifying gaps is key as this illustrates all of the gaps in the content and finds what is important for the buying process and the stages of the content.
4. content is created and the stage where the key messages are identified and the quality bench line is discussed.
5. Organising distribution is key for maximizing the potential of the content, these can be social media, blogs or google display networks.
6. The last step is vital for an advertiser as they need to measure the return on investment (ROI) there are multiple ways to measure performance, these can be tracking web traffic, sales lead quality, and/ or social media sharing.

Alternatives to behavioral advertising include audience targeting, contextual targeting, and psychographic targeting.