Behavioral Targeting vs Contextual Targeting
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Pathlabs Marketing |
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August 17, 2023 |
In digital marketing, targeting refers to how advertisers direct their ads to specific channels, audiences, and users.
Targeting is crucial because there is a multitude of online locations where advertisers can place ads. To make the most of their investment, advertisers need to refine this reach and narrow down on showing ads to users who are most likely to convert.
Advertisers can use different targeting strategies to find and target these users. Two popular strategies are behavioral and contextual targeting. In this blog, we explore both approaches, their differences, and how to use them together.
The Main Difference Between Behavioral Targeting vs Contextual Targeting?
The primary distinction between behavioral and contextual targeting is the data each method uses to place ads.
In behavioral targeting, advertisers look at individual user behavioral data to determine who to display ads to and, in many cases, which version of the ad to deploy.
In contrast, contextual targeting doesn't rely on individual user data for selecting ad placement. Instead, it prioritizes analyzing the contextual factors of different online environments, like language, images, and overall content, fielding ads in the locations that best align in topic and theme with the ad content.
Understanding Behavioral Targeting
Behavioral targeting involves delivering ads to users based on their behavioral data and past online actions.
The rationale of behavioral targeting is that by analyzing users’ past online behavior, advertisers can serve them personalized ads based on their specific journey stage and behavioral preferences. These behavior-relevant ads increase the likelihood of users taking action.
Marketers predominantly leverage advertising technology to run behaviorally targeted ads. They collect different user data and build out audience profiles, segments, and behaviors they want to target.
Then, the technology autonomously works to bid on and place ads in front of relevant users who fit these profiles and parameters based on their behavioral data, such as search history, viewed web pages, previous purchases, app installation, and engagement with diverse content types.
Examples of behavioral targeting include targeting users who spend a specified duration on a webpage or who have previously downloaded a file or installed an app.
The effectiveness of these behavioral targeting functionalities relies on data tracking tools like third-party cookies. These tools track and aggregate user behavioral data across different pages, equipping advertising technology to target each user precisely.
Understanding Contextual Targeting
Contextual targeting involves placing ads within online locations (contexts) relevant to the ad's content.
The rationale behind contextual targeting is that when the ad content aligns with the ad placement location, users who encounter the ad are more likely to belong to the marketer's intended target audience and therefore engage.
The approach to implementing contextual targeting varies. Marketers can collaborate directly with publishers to secure ad placements in contextually relevant online locations. Alternatively, they can opt to use ad technology.
In the case of ad technology, this takes the marketer's ad content and autonomously places it in online locations that match the ad's subject matter. It evaluates various online spots based on factors like language, keywords, titles, images, and URLs to ensure relevancy.
“Contextual marketing is about getting ads in front of people who have already identified interest in a topic, utilizing inventory that is a natural fit for the ad content. For example, if we were promoting a luxury hotel brand, a website counting down the best beaches would be a natural fit.”
Comparing Contextual Targeting vs Behavioral Targeting
Targeting Approach
As mentioned, behavioral targeting looks at specific user behavioral data, assesses their propensity to act or convert, then serves the ad. Contextual targeting approaches ad placement differently: it considers the topic and category of the ad content, then fields it in online locations with pertinent language, images, and overall context.
Audience Relevance
Both behavioral and contextual targeting aim to deliver relevance to audiences. Behaviorally targeted ads strive for hyper-relevance, tailoring advertisements to individual user behaviors, such as pages viewed, search terms entered, or buttons clicked. These ads also aim for personalization, presenting products similar to those the user searched for or featuring specific offers based on their visited pages.
In contrast, contextual ads emphasize relevance by aligning ad content with the context of their placement location. While the ad may not be hyper-relevant to every user, it remains overall pertinent to its surroundings, increasing the likelihood of reaching the intended audience.
Precision and Accuracy
Both behavioral and contextual targeting can reach pertinent users and spaces. Yet, neither approach is perfect due to their inherent reliance on assumptions and probabilities. In contextual targeting, the advertisers assume that congruence between ad content and placement will yield accurate results. It won’t always.
On the other hand, even with the data-driven approach of behaviorally targeted ads, interpretations can still prove inaccurate.
Misinterpretation can occur when multiple users share a device or when a user searches for a topic or views a page without intending to take any action, leading to ads being directed at the wrong people.
Despite these imperfections, the automated nature of these strategies can save time and resources while still reaching audiences that align with the intended campaign objectives.
Data Privacy and Consent
Behavioral targeting faces more constraints related to data privacy and consent, stemming from the evolving digital landscape where third-party cookies are scaling back. Additionally, consumer privacy regulations continue to advocate for heightened user control over their tracked data and its usage by advertisers. These regulations have led to reduced reliance on cookies and third-party data, consequently impacting the effectiveness of behavioral targeting.
Contextual advertising, in contrast, is not subject to these regulatory challenges. Marketers employing contextual targeting sidestep the need to collect or analyze user behavioral data. Consequently, contextual targeting has become a recommended alternative to third-party data-driven behavioral targeting.
Ad Placement Flexibility
Behavioral advertisements are more flexible because they can appear on various websites regardless of whether they pertain to the host page’s theme or content. Contextual ads don’t have as much flexibility, as available placement locations are limited to the specific ad content the marketer wants to field. If the marketer is trying to advertise something very niche, it may be difficult to find pertinent contexts online.
Ad Performance Metrics
Behavioral targeting can provide more robust insights into user engagement because it has actual user behavioral data the technology analyzes to fine-tune its targeting algorithms and draw a line between the user behavior, the ad served, and their ultimate action or conversion.
For contextual advertising, marketers have less to work with. While they can distribute ads across various locations and evaluate KPI performance to identify high-engagement contexts, there's less visibility into whether users who engage and convert have previous behavioral or brand connections before interacting with the ad.
User Experience
Behavior targeting can be useful to the user experience because they see advertisements relevant to their interests and past behaviors. Especially if they are in the midst of the buyer journey, seeing a behaviorally targeted – or retargeted– ad can help push them to ultimately act or convert.
For contextual targeting, these ads serve as less of a nuisance to users: they make sense in their location, look less out of place, and feel more organic to the user.
Brand Safety
The unfortunate aspect of behavioral targeting is that many users dislike that marketers track their behavioral data for targeting purposes, despite the relevance of the ads they see.
Especially when behavioral ads retarget them, this can seem like a breach of privacy. This causes a negative association of the brand for the user – the opposite goal of running behavioral ads.
Contextual advertisements can curb this problem since they are context-relevant and don’t rely on user data. They can even help enhance the brand if the ad appears alongside content that complements the brand's values and message. However, a contextual advertisement is still an ad, and users may glaze over it as if it were behaviorally targeted.
Combining Behavioral and Contextual Targeting
Combining behavioral and contextual targeting strategies holds substantial value as both help work towards reaching the right users.
Marketers can strategically deploy contextual targeting advertisements to reach users relevant to the ad content, where they naturally engage. While they can also leverage behavioral targeting to hone in on users who have completed certain behaviors in the past, giving them a higher chance of acting or converting. Striking the right balance or using a hybrid approach can yield the best results.
“Marketers should also remember that, as we move to a cookieless future, this will impact how much behavioral targeting they can conduct. In this case, they may consider incorporating different targeting strategies, like contextual, which will give a way to get ads in front of the right sets of eyes without access to a user’s past behavior.”
Is One Method Better Than the Other?
It is incorrect to say that behavioral targeting is better than contextual targeting and vice versa: it always depends on what the marketer wants to do with their campaign and what type of data they are willing to collect and utilize.
“Contextual targeting won’t breach any data privacy concerns, while behavioral targeting can serve ads to folks with a known record of interest in a particular field or topic. If you are running a campaign for a high-sensitivity industry, contextual targeting is a great option.
If you have room in your budget to run both behavioral and contextual ad groups, it can be useful to the success of your campaign to do so, comparing performance side by side to shift the budget accordingly. ”
Please also note that there is no golden rule of thumb regarding when to apply contextual targeting and behavioral in campaigns. Every campaign requires a different strategy, which will require testing and optimization to account for all fluctuating variables like geography, budget, goal, seasonality, etc.
In Conclusion…
At the heart of digital marketing is the strategy of aiming ads at particular audiences. This strategy relies on two main approaches: behavioral targeting and contextual targeting. These methods provide a range of options for achieving precision and relevance. By combining both approaches, marketers can expand their reach and effectively navigate the ever-changing landscape of data. This enables them to create powerful campaigns that can make a significant impact in the dynamic world of online advertising.
