Advertisement placement is an art in the sense that they have to reach the largest number of members of the target audience as possible for the least amount of money spent possible. A traditional example is, if one wishes to advertise their new male cologne, advertisers probably would not line up to publish their ads on Cosmo, but probably would be eager to place their ads in car magazines. It is always important for marketers to take into consideration the demographic component of the places they advertise at. If there is a billboard that for some reason is seen mostly by female youth, that billboard should only be used for products that targets this target market, right?
The next logical step to this targeted advertisement strategy is web pages, including social networks like Facebook. It is already a quite big success, as the deep pockets of Google (through AdSense) and Facebook (through targeted advertisements), and yet it is still a growing industry. How they work is quite simple. Google’s ad network detects your browsing history through your use of google products, and through your stored cookies. Then it compares your usage habits with the adverts that companies pay to be in their database. Then, it displays the ad that is most similar to your web usage habits. That way, if you are a user that uses google to search for new laptops, Google knows that it should show you ads for HP, Apple and Lenovo. There wouldn’t be much chance of it showing you completely irrelevant ads, like ads for refrigerators. Facebook’s work in a similar fashion, except that Facebook knows your intimate details even more, since you decided to share them with Facebook.
The upside of such targeted advertisement is that you receive focused advertisement that has greater chance to interest you. The downside is that your demographic information is (possibly) stored in a database somewhere.
Ethics aside, it is unquestionable that this field of targeted advertisement will become the main form of advertisement in the next coming year. It will be gone those days where perfectly healthy people are bombarded by prescription drug ads. Welcome the new internet overlords.
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