Targeting - what is it? Targeting types and settings

The modern world does not do without progressive advertising. It is everywhere: in shops and cafes, in teproekt and on radio, at work and at home, etc. And with the advent of the Internet, the possibilities of advertising have become almost limitless. Promotion of any product or service on the Web has become more efficient, cheaper and faster. But how to select from the entire mass of users that audience, which this product will be really interesting? All this is done by targeting. What is it and how does it work? What are the different types of this advertising mechanism?

Targeting - what is it?

Internet space is a very promising platform for any kind of business. Even if he does not do online sales. But in order for advertising to be more effective, it must be purposeful. For this, various methods and techniques are used, which gives customers the opportunity to attract exactly those customers who are ready to buy the goods. This is what targeting does.

Literally this English word denotes the goal. Therefore, targeting is the installation of functional benchmarks. If we talk about business and advertising, it is a special mechanism that allows you to select target visitors to various sites that meet the specified criteria.

Targeting-advertising minimizes the time and costs of the advertiser, without reducing the target audience. At the same time, there are a huge number of methods and types of this mechanism that allow us to use this or that segment of the market. The advertiser chooses a specific targeting form or a combination of several elements. This makes it possible to reduce and diversify costs.

Targeting mechanism

As with every effective method, the choice of the target audience has its own characteristics and mode of action. Conditionally, the targeting process can be divided into several stages:

• Information collection period. Here, basically, search queries of Internet users are investigated. Their habits and tastes are tracked, which pages are used more often, which online stores are visited and what they are interested in, what are they generally doing on the Web, and so on.
• Analysis of the received data. The longest and most painstaking stage. Here all available information is compared and appropriate conclusions are drawn about preferences, ways of communication, calculations, tastes and purchases. Based on the results of this test, specific groups of users are identified, which will be important and interesting for specific advertising, i.e., targeting itself is realized. What is it, how not selection of customers?
• Creation of individual publicity. After determining the audience segment, based on the data received, an advertising message is developed that is appropriate for this segment. This takes into account all the features and preferences of users.
• Placement of an advertising message. Information is placed exclusively on those resources, which are most often visited by users of a particular group. These are various sites, blogs, pages of magazines, sections of shops and television programs.

The main types of targeting

You can determine the future target audience in the Internet space, as in ordinary life, in several ways. Therefore, the following types of targeting are distinguished:

• Direct selection of specific sites, pages and blogs that correspond to the product being sold.
• Subject targeting or interest-based targeting. Information messages are posted on sites that have relevant content.
• Temporary targeting. Here you select a certain period, which corresponds to the best moment of communication with potential customers.
• Socially-demographic targeting. Here the main selection criteria are sex, income, age, position, etc.
• Behavioral, geo-targeting, or telepathic targeting. By means of cookies-files interests and preferences, moving and employment of concrete people are traced.
• Psychological targeting. In the creation of advertising, personal characteristics of users are used.
• Geographical targeting - what's that? This is the mechanism when advertising is shown to users who live in a certain area chosen by the advertiser, city or country.

Temporary targeting

When choosing the target audience for the future advertising campaign, you should also carefully select the time of the ad. After all, if your product is focused on the average age group, it will simply be pointless to show information about it in the first half of the weekday. At this point people are usually at work. In addition, you need to consider the work schedule of the store itself.

Temporary targeting is the allocation of a suitable time of day for the implementation of an advertising campaign. There are many relevant studies on this subject. For example, ordering food through the Internet usually comes at lunchtime. If we talk about various entertainment activities, such as movies, clubs or restaurants, the peak of the views falls for the time from 14 to 20 hours.

More serious purchases, for example, various household appliances, fall on an odd period: 11, 13, 15, 17, etc. In addition, tourist tours and hot tours are usually viewed from 14 to 18 hours, car parts - 10-12 hours, and Sports goods are purchased at 16, 21 and 22 hours.

Knowing these statistical patterns, you can more effectively organize your own business.

Telepathic Targeting

This is one of the newest and most promising directions for determining the target audience. Behind the basis of behavioral targeting, which allows you to increase the accuracy of advertising.

The essence of this method in studying the preferences of Internet users. For example, if a person often visits online clothing stores, the program makes a corresponding conclusion about his needs at the moment. A certain behavioral matrix is widely used here. It was derived in the course of a thorough analysis of the travel of specific users on the Web.

A lot of well-known companies use the method of behavioral, or telepathic, targeting now. For example, Xerox even created its own kind of targeted search, which collects information without the knowledge of users. It is also widely used by Yahoo, Bonprix, and even Microsoft.

Earnings "VKontakte"

Advertising in social networks has long been a very profitable and effective business. This is due to the huge number of visitors who are daily online for several hours. In addition, all modern networks are sufficiently adapted to search for the target audience, organize trade and feedback, as well as a settlement system.

For example, targeting "VKontakte" can boast of having up to 20 criteria for targeting advertising. Therefore, potential advertisers have an excellent opportunity to choose the right user, who will certainly buy the products presented.

Segmentation "VKontakte" is as follows:

• Birthdays.
• Geography.
• Education.
• Demography.
• Interests.
• Devices.
• Applications.
• Travels.

Ad Settings "ВКонтакте"

The control and monitoring system in this network is quite simple and understandable. Advertisements are interactive. In addition, the owner of the video at any time can independently turn off this or that publicity.

The effectiveness of the advertising company can be monitored online. For a more detailed report, an audit analysis is used to optimize the work done.

In addition, you can use external services to track the activity of certain communities and groups. These are programs such as JagaJam, MasterMind, Personal Monitor or SocialWatch. Also there is the opportunity to watch the news tape with the help of Youscan and Brandspotter. All of them provide information on who, when and in what quantity they saw a certain advertisement.

The main advantages of the targeted direction of Internet advertising

Any company or firm is primarily an economic entity. That is why before the introduction of any project or mechanism, all the pros and cons of this solution are calculated. Speaking about targeting, you can distinguish its following advantages for the advertiser:

• This method allows you to select only the audience that will be really interested in buying a particular service or product. Therefore, you do not need to spray and waste extra time and energy.
• The ability to diversify costs by selecting the types of targeting. Here you can order a more budget option or pay several versions at once.
• The ability to control targeting. What is it? This is a process of not only selecting a specific type of targeting, but also viewing statistics for each advertisement.