The Anomaly of Behavioral Advertising: Big Hit or Miss? [6/13/2008]

Behavioral advertising offers a plethora of advantages to advertisers, publishers and the public at large. Its use could be astronomical. However eMarketer, the online research aggregator, estimates US spending on it will only be $775 million this year.

Although behavioral advertising is garnering more attention from the aforementioned groups, as well as the mainstream media, it remains a mere drop in the bucket in terms of advertising dollars, at only 3% for 2008.

So then, why hasn’t it been the big hit that everyone expected?
David Hellerman, an eMarketer senior analyst responds, lends his insight, saying, "The growth of behaviorally targeted online advertising has been delayed by incomplete development of technology, brand marketers that prefer to have their ads appear with relevant content and concerns over violating consumer privacy.”

He goes on to cite though that this is starting to change. Backing that up, eMarketer forecasts that revenues for behavioral targeted ad spending will be $4.4 billion by the end of 2012.

What will account for the surge in revenues? Experts point out that when compared to other online ad formats, its importance stands out. Insiders further explain that almost 10% percent of ad dollars on content sites will come from behaviorally targeted ads this year. They expect that to rise to nearly four in ten by the end of 2012.

It remains fuzzy how much behavioral targeting capabilities will increase display ad spending, or vice versa.

For more insight visit Online Consulting Services

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