Recently I came across a blog post by Dawn Merchand called “Google’s Interest-Based Advertising – Relevant or Invasive?” (canadianmarketingblog.com), which is an interesting post about how Google uses interest-based marketing to personalize online ads. The key is using person’s browsing history and cookies, collecting information about them and selecting the most relevant advertising.
www.clickz.com
The question asked was is it “Invasion or awesome?” , and I have to go with awesome. Although as pointed out in the post there are issues with the lack of privacy as person’s every step is recorded, from marketing perspective this is the most effective way for companies to reach their target market.Potential customers see these ads as something that ads value to them and not as spam because they are related to their interest. For instance on my Facebook page the ads featured are related to my school and photography. Both of those things are something I am passionate about and therefore hold interest in, so I actually look at them instead of just ignoring that side of the page. From the company perspective, interest-based marketing saves resources, increases brand awareness, and ultimately offers a higher ROI by helping companies understand their target market better and invest their resources more efficiently.
www.visionwiz.net
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Also, an interesting fact is that interest-based marketing can help a company re-target users who have left company’s website without purchase by using personalized ads to re-capture them. For instance if the customer abandoned the shopping cart, they can offer coupons or special deals to provide an incentive for purchase. Personalization is a way to go in today’s market.
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