Behavioral Advertising Spending: Online Advertising’s New Cash Cow

05/15/2008

Eighty percent of advertisers believe that behavioral advertising is a good way to spend ad dollars. Proof? According to a recent survey by SEMPO, a search engine marketing organization, more than four out of five advertisers polled said that they would be willing to spend more to add this to their PPC campaigns.

What is Behavioral Targeting?

Behavioral targeting serves up advertisements to consumers based on past search behavior. They are effective because they reach consumers right at the point of purchase. This potentially leads to more conversions. Consumer behavior is tracked in a number of ways, eg: topic-specific site subscriptions, registrations based on certain shopping categories, auto-update request, etc.

Behavioral targeting reaches in-market consumers, a highly preferred consumer base. In-market consumers are those who may have recently conducted a search for a specific product or service, but not made a purchase. By sending targeted ads to these consumers, online advertisers have a higher chance of converting them.

Demographic targeting is another area where advertisers were willing to spend some money. Fifty-seven percent (57%) were willing to spend more on this, targeting such areas as age and gender.

Behavioral advertising is still the new kid on the block. While 40% of the advertisers polled are not using this type of advertising yet, they had plans to in the next year.

Other SEMPO Study Findings

The SEM industry in North American exceeded projections for 2007, growing from 9.4 billion in 2006 to 12.2 billion in 2007.

By 2001, SEM spending in North America is projected to grow to $25.2 billion, $6.6 billion more than the 2007 level of $18.6 billion.

Where is this type of growth coming from? Pilfered budget dollars taken from web development and print spending, for example.

For more insight visit Pay Per Click Management