It is no secret that digital marketing is a dynamic, high-context field. Understanding current digital marketing tactics can be difficult if professionals are out of practice or just getting started. With that in mind, here is a breakdown of targeted advertising at three levels of expertise. Level one: Targeted advertising allows marketers to send ads to specific groups of people, instead of showi
ng ads to the general public. Ads can be sent directly to users who are more likely to respond favorably. Level two: Targeted advertising is used to send ads to customized audience lists. The audiences can be curated based on traits, interests, online activity, geography, etc. Audience lists can also be used to serve different styles of ads to different types of users, or steal demand from competitors. Level three: Targeted advertising campaigns rely on an advertising platform’s ability to collect and categorize consumer data; often through the use of behavior tracking tools like cookies. Data can include demographic information found online and in social profiles, or online activity like purchases and browsing history. This data is used to develop audience lists with a high likelihood of conversion, effectively reducing wasted ad spend. In a nutshell, targeted advertising is a tool for businesses to reach a more promising audience, based on online consumer behaviors. This is why women may receive ads for products like books and post-graduate degrees, whereas men might receive ads for video games and sports merchandise. Similarly, advertisements for children’s products are more likely to be served to married adults aged 25-35 than to an unmarried adult age 55-65. This example, like all targeted ads, relies on the assumption that marketers have correctly identified their target market. Most targeted ads are build using an advertising platform or network, such as the Google Display Network or Facebook Ads Manager. Developing the ad requires creative collateral (video, images, interactive media), written copy (ad headlines, descriptions, and CTA), as well as a target audience.
