Agencies, advertisers and publishers ‘wising-up to audience targeting techniques’

According to the findings from marketing agency Audience Science,  advertisers, agencies and publishers are all seeing an increase in online display this year of  +27.4%, +20% and +60%, respectively.

Agencies lead the three sectors in their knowledge of and favourability towards audience targeting and are most likely to employ the fullest array of audience targeting capabilities – with 80% using behavioural, 76% using geographic and 75% using demographic selections. In particular, behavioural and demographic targeting were rated as “effective” or “very effective” by this group.

Advertisers show less familiarity with audience targeting methods are more traditional in their approach with the majority preferring to use demographic targeting (62%) followed by behavioural and geographic (52% and 53% respectively).

Seventy two per cent of online publishers now use audience targeting and a third of these reported that it enables them to sell inventory at a higher cost and delivers better campaign performance for their advertisers.  Forty six per cent of publishers also said that audience targeting is being equally used for both branding and direct response advertising.

In addition, the survey also showed that there is still considerable room for growth in audience targeting with newer techniques including retargeting and dynamic targeting typically used by less than half of all respondents.

Firsthand statements from respondents indicate that, while there is a strong acceptance of the value of targeting across sectors, there exists a clear need for better measurement and more transparency in the implementation of targeting practices. More specifically, the respondents expressed strong concerns for both transparency into the execution of the campaigns and the process of measuring branding campaigns’ success based on CTRs and conversion.  

Jeff Hirsch, CEO of AudienceScience, a targeting technology company driving digital marketing success, presented the results of its Audience Targeting State of the Industry survey developed in conjunction with DM2Pro, a membership site for digital media and marketing professionals.

“As the industry continues to evolve and grow in 2010, audience targeting is clearly being established as the foundation for effective marketing,” said Jeff Hirsch, CEO of AudienceScience. “Moving forward, we see a unique opportunity to further the implementation and measurement practices across sectors through consistent targeting capabilities. I look forward to seeing how the rest of the industry reacts to the results.” 

The survey drew responses from 500 US media executives, marketers and publishers who shared their experience of audience targeting (including behavioural, geographic, demographic, retargeting, dynamic and contextual) to boost campaign value and performance.

A full copy of the survey is available at www.audiencescience.com/contact-ATstudy.asp

Source: www.AudienceScience.co.uk

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