Targeting the right people at the right time. Quite the challenge!
One of the greatest challenges in advertising is to disseminate the right messages to the right people, at the right time. The degree of difficulty of the challenge is unique to each campaign. To help us in this quest, various different digital and social platforms are an undeniable asset.
First, most partners and advertising platforms that we use allow for the integration of sociodemographic elements in our targeting, such as age, sex, location of residence, interests and so forth. Yet, according to the objectives, it could be pertinent to add another level, such as elements linked to the context or to consumer behaviour, which increases precision when the message is delivered.
Contextual targeting
If the campaign allows it, it could be interesting to add contextual targeting to our planning. Often, this often means we have to prepare creative adapted to a precise environment or context. There are many ways to do this. Here a few examples:
- In relation to temperature: a message inciting people to go to a movie when it rains.
- In relation to the time of day: a message about coffee only in the morning (between 5 am and 9 am)
- Related to the news: a message encouraging the purchase of tickets to a sporting event on the page announcing the victory the night before.
This allows us to make our our campaigns creative, maximizing the rate of recall and remain as pertinent as possible.
With this kind of approach, it is crucial to preserve brand safety, in a way that protects its reputation and credibility. To do this, it’s necessary to constantly keep watch on placements to avoid any glitches that might harm the brand. For example, if we have relied on the fact that it is raining as the basis for an ad, but this rain has gone on to cause flooding, it might not be to the benefit of the brand to talk about this.
Behavourial targeting
Behavioural targeting allows us to target people who are in the market for a certain product or service. Unfortunately, this kind of targeting has tended to disappear with the end of cookies, even though it still remains pertinent. It is often used in conversion where it encourages users to move into action mode. For example, if users undertake searches for insurance, a brand in this industry could retarget with a promotion on insurance with the objective of directing them to the brand’s website. By navigating on the Web and leaving behind a trail of cookies, consumers share important information on their interests and their needs that we, as advertisers, can use to promote ads that address their needs at that particular time.
Broadly speaking, there is no magic recipe. But it is important to keep up to date with latest technological changes and with regulations that the industry and its partners must respect. One thing is sure: targeting qualified people remains a sizable challenge for advertisers.
