Finding The "Answer" In Display Ad Targeting

Author:

David Dowhan

Source:

Marketers who are dissatisfied with the generic demographics and data clusters that are widely used for targeting online ads to consumers should heed the advice of advertising veteran Bob Seelert, who advises marketers to begin with "the Answer." His approach is as relevant in today’s world of digital advertising as it has been in traditional advertising.

Seelert counsels marketers to decide exactly where they want to go, and then work backwards to determine the most direct route for getting there. When it comes to targeting ads to consumers on the Internet, the “Answer” is marketers’ own data. Think about it. Every marketer knows exactly who their best customers are. They know who represents the most lifetime value, whether it’s products or services being marketed.

So what’s the shortest path to finding new customers who look very much the same as existing ones? Behavioral targeting of online ads helps you find hand-raisers, but it’s not well- suited for honing in on your highest lifetime value prospects. Relying on demographic targeting or generic clusters is better than nothing, but these approaches are weak proxies for your best customer with many wasted impressions along the way. There is a wealth of offline consumer data against which to profile existing high-value customers and create “lookalike” targets for display ads.

Take a life insurance company as an example. It knows exactly who its most profitable customers are. Not only does it want to find more of them -- it doesn't want to waste time and money targeting consumers who don’t resemble its best customers.

The answer is not to ...